Panera Bread Bureaucracy Essay

In this essay, the inner-workings and characteristics of a bureaucracy will be explained, using the example of Panera Bread, a plethora of examples will be used to adequately explain each characteristic. Bureaucracies are becoming more and more popular all around the world. This is because of many different reasons. First of all, bureaucracies are created to accomplish a certain goal in the most efficient manner possible (Larkin, 2015). They exhibit many specific traits; a division of labor, hierarchal levels of authority, written rules, written communications and records, impersonality, and replace ability. One company that is exhibits all of these traits is Panera Bread. Panera is a prime example of what Max Weber described as a bureaucracy.

Using a big company such as Panera is a good example because it exhibits the pyramidal flow of authority and structure that is crucial to any bureaucracy. Within Panera there is the CEO at the very top all the way down to sales associates. Within each café there are even miniature versions of this pyramid of authority. For example, in every café there is the general manager who is at the top of the pyramid, he has all the power over that store. Next there are the

managers, these managers each manage different things such as the food manager, the schedule manager, and even the hiring manger. Next comes the shift supervisor, although they are not managers they still are in charge of each of the individual employees and often times complete some of the same duties that the managers do. Finally, there are trainers and sales associates, although neither one has power over the other, the trainers are in charge of the new hires during their training and are expected to make every employee competent at their job. Through this hierarchal pyramid, the more power that the individual holds, the smaller the number of supervisors are needed to monitor and guide the worker. Every person has their own job, and every job has its own special purpose. The cashiers take the orders, while the production workers make the food, and the dining room staff cleans the dining room. All of these parts are equally important and without one of them the business would fall apart and create very unhappy customers. This concept is called division of labor, because of this, businesses have been able to become much more efficient and accurate. However, with efficiency and accuracy comes money and that seems to be the end goal for all businesses. From personal experience when one member of the team doesn’t show up or is late, it creates an immense amount of stress and harder working conditions for the rest of the workers. For example, if the person who is scheduled to work in the dining room calls in and says they are going to be late, then they have to move somebody from the production line to the dining room. Now, the production line is short staffed and the food is taking longer to be made and the customers are getting upset creating a bad situation for everything. All in all, every worker is crucial to how smooth the business will run (Bureaucracy, n.d).
Next, every bureaucracy has written rules, these rules not only establish what they can and cannot do, but they provide guidelines to the employees. Having written rules is crucial in cases where an employee does something wrong, the manager or person of higher power can go back and look up the rule. At Panera, there is a handbook that each employee is expected to read, sign, and abide by during their employment. The written rules are also important in order to provide clarification for the tiniest policies and details that help the company to function smoothly and without conflict. Bureaucracies have a great dependency on written rules because of its emphasis on rules and policies over everything. This creates a more formal atmosphere than just telling people what they can and cannot do.
Not only are rules clearly written out, but so are all forms of communication and records. In a bureaucracy, everything is written down, from the requests for days off, to a case for workers’ compensation. There is a saying that goes with this that says if it’s not written down it didn’t happen. By keeping track of all communications and records, the company can go back and look at the papers in case there is any confusion or conflict. At Panera, just about everything is either written down or kept in the computer. At the end of the day the amount of pastries and bread are counted and written down so that they have an accurate forecast for how much they need to adjust for the next week. Another big thing that is written down are days off, when an employee wants a day off they must go into the computer and ask for the day off, then a manager has to approve it. Finally, once it is approved there is a record saying yes, this employee has this day off and it has been approved.
Finally, a bureaucracy utilizes impersonality and replaceability. To further understand this, it is crucial to identify what each of them means. Impersonality is when something lacks human characteristics and traits (Impersonality, 2017). Impersonality is extremely common in bureaucracies; this can be attributed to many factors. However, the main reason is because of how important the rules and policies are, and how they are often times placed in front of people in terms of importance. No matter what any employee may say, the rules and policies are always right, this gives them the feeling that they have no say and that they really don’t matter within their workplace. At Panera, a great example of this is the schedule, often times the schedule manager creates the schedule based solely on the prior week’s projection, however this often times leads to a shortage of staff pretty much anytime the restraint gets busy. No matter how much the employees voice their opinions it never seems to change, creating the atmosphere that the numbers and charts that the manager has to maintain is more important than the stress of the workers.
Finally, there is replaceability, replaceability is how easy one can be replaced if necessary (Replaceability, 2017).

In today’s society, there are almost always people looking for work, because of, if someone gets fired the company usually doesn’t have a hard time finding a replacement. In a bureaucracy competency is crucial, if one is not competent in their job, then they are costing the company money, and efficiency. To prevent this, Panera does quarterly reviews, during this the managers review each employee and give them points on many different aspects. To promote good work, the employees get a small raise, the amount of which depends on how well their review is. However, if a worker doesn’t meet the standards, they are let go and replaced by another

worker.
In conclusion, Panera seems as if it is highly efficient and very functional. However, its bureaucratic ways seem to decimate its integrity for the employees. The emphasis on rules and policies riddle away at the humanization of the employees until they feel as if they are nothing more as bodies working to make a living. Yes, Panera has efficient and professional, but it’s only real focus is to reach its goals and to make money. The pressure received from the “higher up” workers forces the employees to work better and faster under the fear of being terminated or simply not getting a raise. Panera is not a bad place to work, but rather a flawed organization which is one of just many similar bureaucracies.