ABSTRACT
Public organ isa tions are often described as bureau cra cies. A brief discus sion explores the implic a tions of the use of the word ‘bureau cracy’ in light of the fact that it is often given a pejor at ive sense. This leads onto an exam in a tion of the most influ en tial theor et ical analysis of public bureau cracy, provided by the German soci olo gist Max Weber, and an explor a tion of the way his ideas have been used by others. A brief account is provided of some other key work on the soci ology of organ isa tions that is import ant for under stand ing public sector organ isa tions. In the end this leads to the intro duc tion of vari et ies of organ isa tion theory that suggests that the clas sical theory exag ger ates the signi fic ance of the unitary, closely regu lated, formal organ isa tion when the actual bound ar ies between aspects of human life, and there fore between organ isa tions, can be quite fluid.
