Exhibit 1208 ยท Journal article
Bureaucratic Structure and Personality
Adherence to the rules, originally conceived as a means, becomes transformed into an end-in-itself; there occurs the familiar process of displacement of goals whereby "an instrumental value becomes a terminal value."
Argues that the discipline that makes a bureaucracy reliable also moves attachment from the organization's aims to its rules. Introduces the displacement of goals and, from Veblen, trained incapacity, the state in which abilities function as blind spots.
- Source
- Robert K. Merton, Social Forces 18(4): 560-568 (reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure, Free Press, 1957, pp. 195-206)
- Date
- 1940
- Quoted from
- Reprint text, paragraph beginning "At the moment, it suffices to observe" (1957 reprint, pp. 195-206)
- Grade
- Peer-reviewed
- Document
- https://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/4111/Merton/Social%20Theory%20and%20Social%20Structure%20Bureaucratic%20Structure%20a.htm
- Accessed
- 2026-11-10
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Read in the University of Minnesota Duluth reproduction of the 1957 reprint, not in the 1940 journal pagination. Check the wording and pages against Social Forces 18(4) before citing the 1940 text. Trained incapacity definition at the earlier paragraph: "Trained incapacity refers to that state of affairs in which one's abilities function as inadequacies or blind spots."