Essay About Webers Timely Vision And Necessary Organizational Frame

Business Case Weber
INTRODUCTION
ax Weber, the 19* century philosopher and father of sociology, proposed a revolutionary idea of
what organizations could become and how, through this stmcture, they could service humanity.
Webers timely vision was the catalyst which allowed organizations to be the caretakers of society
in a time when countless numbers of people needed to raise their standard of living.
His vision of how people could come together in efficient stmctures created what is commonly understood
as bureaucracy. Bureaucracy provided a necessary organizational frame for people to collaborate with each other in
their pursuit of common goals (Wren, 2005, p.26). Alfred North Whitehead said “all of philosophy is a footnote to
Plato” (Russell, 2005, p.67). It could also be said “all of organizational theory is a footnote to Weber” – until
recently. Weber was able to suggest a paradigm for organizations, which has had import to this day; however, today
is a new day.
The modem era is commonly understood as the information age. Bennet and Bennet (2001) argue that
organizations have always used knowledge, but the new intense focus on knowledge in organizations has risen out
of the organizations need to manage their own growing complexity and yet remain competitive (2001).
Organizations have long been creating, storing, integrating, tailoring and making available the right knowledge (10)
because it