Bureaucracy and Alienation: A Dimensional Approach

The generalization that there exists a direct relationship between bureaucratization and alienation is modified by examining the relationships between five bureaucratic characteristics and six forms of alienation among samples of hourly paid workers, salaried managers, and independent businessmen. The data do not support the broad generalization that such a direct relationship exists, but some patterns of relationships are suggestive for future research: (1) bureaucracy may be directly related to alienation among blue-collar workers, but not among salaried managers or independent businessmen; (2) the authority dimension of bureaucracy is more closely related to measures of alienation than other bureaucratic characteristics among hourly paid workers; and (3) that form of alienation most closely related to bureaucratization among hourly paid workers is self-estrangement.