Figure Skating Coaches as Specialized Experts

According to Weber, bureaucracy is the most efficient and “technical[ly] superior” organization(214). Weber contrasts bureaucracy with the inefficiency of patrimonialism, where the ruler recruits officials based on personal connections and acts of loyalty(198). In comparison, bureaucracy appoints officials on an impersonal basis of credentials and expertise(215-216). These specialized, “rationally trained” and “detached” experts “contribute to the technical usefulness of bureaucracy,” ultimately increasing the organization’s efficiency(216, 242).

At the Oakland Ice Center, coaches are hired based on expertise in both figure skating and teaching. Coaches are highly accomplished skaters themselves who have passed US Figure Skating tests and placed in accredited competitions. However, coaching not only requires training in figure skating but also teaching. In addition, the Oakland Ice Center only hires coaches that are certified by the Professional Skaters Association to teach at a certain level in a specified discipline of figure skating (i.e. Free Skating, Pairs, Dance, Choreography, etc). These ratings are earned through written and oral examinations and attendance at educational events(Professional Skaters Association). Therefore coaches are not only certified, and vigorously trained, but also specialized within a specific field of figure skating. This specialized expertise allows coaches to teach skaters in an efficient manner, whereby pair skaters are taught by pair experts, and ice dancers are taught by dance experts. Thus, instruction by a specialized coach allows skaters to improve in their specialized field.

In comparison to Weber’s positive view of specialized expertise to lead to efficiency within the rink, Marx would say that the forced division of labor at the rink exploits coaches through the control of their labor power(Tucker 477,159). Instead of forced division of labor, Marx promotes voluntary division of labor within the realm of freedom, where coaches can freely choose which fields of skating to undertake, thereby developing their multifaceted talents. Therefore, Marx would encourage coaches to teach pair skating in the morning, ice dancing in the afternoon, free skating in the evening without ever becoming a pair skating, ice dancing, or free skating coach(Tucker 160). So Marx would encourage the Oakland Ice Center to abolish specialization, and adopt voluntary division of labor where coaches have general knowledge and able to teach all forms of figure skating.

Although a specialized coach increases the efficiency within a private skating lesson, the same coach is unable to control and discipline a large group of beginner skaters (i.e. Tiny Tots, Mommy and Me, Special Skaters) without the assistance of volunteers. In contrast to Weber’s theory, even though these volunteers are more advanced than the students in the class, they are not certified, trained, or experts within a specific field. However, these volunteers are able to relate to and understand the difficulties in learning the basics of skating. Thus the expanded perspective of a volunteer helps beginner skaters in ways that a specialized coach, with a narrow perspective, is unable to do. This narrow perspective of a specialized expert exemplifies a dysfunction of bureaucracy, which Weber fails to take into consideration.

References

Professional Skaters Asssociation. 2007. “Accreditation and Certification.” (http://www.skatepsa.com/Accreditation-&-Certification-PSA.htm).


Tucker, Robert C, ed. 1978. The Marx-Engels Reader. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Weber, M. Bureaucracy. (1958). H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills ed. From Sociology 101B Reader, ed. By Burawoy, M. Berkeley, CA: Copy Central.