Assignment task: Sociologists describe the main characteristics of bureaucracies as including a hierarchy of authority, a division of labor, standardized rules, and impersonality of positions. Describe how today's large companies adhere to or deviate from this sociological understanding of bureaucracies. Do today's major companies continue to adhere to the main characteristics of bureaucracies? If they deviate, explain how.
Instructions:
1. Consider whether today's large companies, such as Amazon, Facebook, Walmart, and McDonald's, are bureaucracies. Explain why or why not.
2. Describe which of the main characteristics of bureaucracies you see in them and which ones are absent. You can use examples from one or more of the large companies.
3. Explain the differences between the bureaucratization of online companies (i.e., Amazon or Facebook) and that of brick-and-mortar companies (i.e., Walmart or McDonald's).