Film Analysis: The Final Offer

In the documentary “The Final Offer” shows a factory in Canada purchased by the GM plant. Weber’s social dynamic is more of institutional insight and sees bureaucracy as an inner working of a company. The documentary over a GM company specifies a working class in Canada that has different levels of power within the organization. Therefore Weber’s view of bureaucracy doesn’t work within this system for many different reasons as will be discussed in this essay.

Weber characterizes bureaucracy in six ways; their must be a clear chain of command, must have determined areas of jurisdiction, power of institution, must be willing to work full capacity, officials are trained and there are general rules that are followed (“Bureacracy” 1925; 212).

Gouldner sees bureaucracy as a factor of producing conflict as it can come from unilateral imposition of rules, non-legitimacy of rules; enforcement violates the social statues of groups being punished (Gouldner, 1955; 20). The accuracy is foreshadows in Gouldner with the documentary, as the punishment with a representative by Rodger Smith fight over payments to stay per hour and was punished by the continuous backfire of both sides (Gouldner, 1955; 18). The documentary has challenges as it doesn’t show discussion the outside parties also in play, it discuses interaction within two parties but not the workers.

Another example of this was the floor as workers were getting aggressive and on some occasions they would go to the bathroom at the same time to stop production (Gouldner 1955; 213). “Patterns of Bureaucracy” sheds light on punishment bureaucracy in two subtypes of the punishment bureaucracy with disciplinary pattern and grievance pattern (Gouldner 1955; 202). Punishment bureaucracy shows the sources of conflict in many ways, an example is “When a worker was absent without an excuse”(Gouldner 1955; 219) and is overseen by someone who is excused from the rule, as he is a supervisor which makes power very