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Max Weber's Contribution To Academic Discipline

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Sociology can be defined as the systematic study of social behaviour and human groups. It mainly focuses on the influence of social relationships on people’s attitudes and behaviour and on how societies are established and how the change overtime [1]. A popular debate in the foundation of the discipline has been whether it should be treated as natural science or as a social science. The issue led to the division of sociologists. Three major theoretical perspectives can be identified at the foundation of sociology. This essay will critically outline the key concepts of Max Weber’s contribution to the foundations of academic discipline of sociology as it is known today.
Max Weber and Capitalism
Max Weber tackled capitalism from a bureaucratic …show more content…

According to Weber [1] bureaucracies are goal orientated organisations designed according to rational principles in order to efficiently attain their goals. Offices are ranked in hierarchical order, with information following up the chain of command. In order to study this organisations both historically and in contemporary society, Weber developed the characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy. Operations of the organisation are characterised by impersonal rules that explicitly state duties, responsibilities, standardised procedures and conduct of office holders. Offices are highly specialised in their functions and appointment to this offices are made according to specialised qualifications rather than ascribed criteria or friendships. All this ideal characteristics have one goal, which is to promote the efficient attainment of the organisations goals. This elaborates the importance of Weber’s studies of bureaucracy in organisational …show more content…

Apart from all discussed above, it is possible to say that, Marx offered a certain direction for Weber to go into further development of his theories. Therefore a conclusion can be made by saying that for Weber, any deterministic explanation of social change is rejected as he considered that the causal explanations are based on an interpretative understanding of the subjective meanings that individuals give to their reactions. Since the interpretative understandings of individuals are changing historically, there is no valid explanation of any realities in the world. Therefore, in this case, the future cannot be

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