Value-Rational Authority and Professional Organizations: Weber's Missing Type

Roberta Lynn Satow Weber discussed four types of social action and legitimacy, but only three types of authority. This paper develops the concept of value-rational authority and constructs an ideal type organization based on it. Protestant churches are compared to autonomous professional organizations in order to show that the segmented structure of both reflect a compromise between organizational adaptation and commitment to ideology. Professional organizations are viewed as value-rational organizations rather than deviant forms of bureaucracy.'