Stinchcombe, Arthur L., "Bureaucrats and Craft Administration of Production: A Comparative Study", Adminsitrative Science Quarterly, 4 (2 1959): 168-187.

The researchers hypothesis is that the craft administration in construction is actually more rational than the bureaucratic administration. Since construction work continually varies with location, volume, and design variety, it makes more sense to minimize administrative control and rely on professional operating standards to dictate and control behavior.

The author also feels that Max Weber's bureaucracy model should be amended to include bureaucracy as one subtype of rational administration, and professionalism as another subtype.

Bureaucratic Administration and Craft Administration

In mass production the product and process are created by people not working on the line. In craft processes all the functions are completed by people "on the job" in accordance with "empirical lore" defined by the craft. There are many more clerks in manufacturing than in construction, since there is usually centralized planning in manufacturing.

There are usually more people in manufacturing who derive their credibility from "special education" than in the construction industry. In plants quality control is usually a specialized function, in construction it remains at the "working level".

"Craft administration the differs from bureaucratic administraion by substituting professional training of manual workers for detailed centralized planning of work." Clerks are reduced and administrative-worker communication is simplified.

Variablity and Bureaucratization

The administrative part of construction is relatively stable and relies on a continual flow of work. "Bureaucratization of administration depends therefore on the long-term stability of the administration".

In consruction the variability makes bureaucracy as uneconomical. Seasonal and product variations make a difference.

"Decisions, which in mass production were made outside the work mileeu and communications bureaucratically, in construction work were actually part of the craftsman's culture and socialization, were made at the level of the work crew."

The more recent trend in mass production of tract houses has shown that ecomiies of scale are reached by selecting designs that are technically easier to do and to minimize transportation and setup costs. There hasn't been much sucess in inproving the production process through vertical integration. Workers have become more specialized, however.

Rational Administration and Bureaucracy

The construction industry offeres an example where Weber's rules of bureaucracy do not completely hold. It seems there is another method to achieve rational administration via trade unions anc contracts.

"It is not the rules governing jurisdiction and authority which we take to be characteristic of bureaucracy, bu the regularity and continuity of work and status within an administrative system." Three of Weber's criteria for bureaucracy, continuity, hierarchy, and files are relatively absent in the construction industry.