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features and functions of public administration
Concepts of public administration
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An Introduction to Public Administration
1. Define Public Administration and discuss its scope.
Public Administration has various definitions, and the most important definitions are:
Traditional Viewpoints (functions and actions)
o ' Public Administration is a detailed and systematic application of law. ', (Prof. Woodrow Wilson)
o ' Public Administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment of public policy as declared by authority. ', (L. D. White)
Broad View
o ' By Public Administration is meant the activities of the executive branches of the national, state, & local governments. ', (Simon)
o ' Public Administration in broadest sense denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental affairs, and in narrowest senses denotes the operations of the administrative branch only. ', (Willough)
o ' Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government and thus, concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the government is done. ', (Gullick)
o ' Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of the state. ', (Waldo)
o ' Administration is concerned with ‘what’ and ‘How’ of the government. The what is the subjectmatter, the technical knowledge of a field which enables the administrator to perform his tasks. The ‘How’ is the technique of management according to which co-operative programmes are carried to success. ', (Marshall E. Dimock)
There are various perspectives about the scope of Public Administration, I will mention the most important three perspectives here briefly:
1. Narrow perspective or posdcord perspective. (concerned only with those aspects related wit...
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...ocial welfare, food, agriculture, health, sanitation, transport, communication etc. are run by the department of Public Administration. Hence, Public Administration is a great stabilizing force in society. It is a preserver of the society and its culture.
2) POSBCORB represents an abbreviation of the seven types of functions which shows the scope of Public Administration. The seven types of functions are:
1. ‘P’ stands for planning
2. ‘O’ stands for organization
3. ‘S’ stands for staffing.
4. ‘D’ stands for Directing.
5. ‘Co.’ stands for Co-ordination.
6. ‘R’ stands for Reporting
7. ‘B’ stands for Budgeting
3) POSDCORB Perspective about the Scope of Public Administration is limited and narrow. It stressed on the tools of Public Administration. It does not show the substance of administration. It is a technique oriented perspective, not a subject oriented.
The main aim of public service is to deliver services that are of need to its people. How fast a public manager can address its people’s problem and concerns indicates its effectiveness. Responsiveness of the manager develops trust between him, the government, and the people. According to (Rainey, p106) bureaucratic responsiveness implies two things; responsiveness to the people’s wishes or responsiveness to the interest of the government.
According to Wilson and Stillman, public administration can be differentiated from private administration in many ways. Mainly because they are driven by different motives. Private administration is focused on making profits, while public administration is managed by government and seeks not to gain a profit. Woodrow and Stillman describes public administration as being political in nature while private administration is more on a personal level. Additionally, people in the public sector according to Stillman is accountable to the general public for their actions. While on the other hand, people in private administration owes no accountability to the
Among the various historical Public Administration personalities, Wilson (1887) has presented the many facets of what and who a Public Administrator was and should be. He initially identified the Public Administrator as the absolute ruler like a king in a monarchy, a tyrant, despot, monopolist/s or oligarchs. When the absolute rulers were overtaken by “popular control”, the administrator would refer to the state, the sovereign people or popular sovereignty or popular rule. Governor was another term used to denote administrator, acting as a servant (civil servant) of the governed – great office of public trust. At this point, public opinion evolved just like a monarch but is comprised of many people / minds with different opinions. Wilson said, “wherever public opinion exists it must rule”.
Discretion does have its advantages. Philip Howard puts forward as an argument that discretion is an essential and inevitable element of public administration. According to Howard discretion is needed to make certain that benevolence is in the manner of governing. He suggest that in an effort to attain conformity with the rules or fairness, more than is normal limited the discretion of public officials in some principle of action adopted by government areas.
The study of public administration only continued to grow over the course of the next two decades. As the study of public administration expanded, so did the development of s...
(Administration is a field of business- looking at the importance of keeping the matter either politics and/or business.)
In the future I would like to see myself, as a continuously promoted public official who could possibly become a pro-active politician in today’s demanding political arena. To achieve this, I would like to gain more knowledge which can help me reach intellectual maturity to the latest practices adopted in the field of Public Administration. My desire for self-development in this area and curiosity to learn past and contemporary developments in different societies will help me to solve the problems easily.
Since the Regan era more and more people have taken the idealistic political stance that governments should act more like a business with President as both CEO and Commander in Chief and voters as costumers and shareholders. There are three main reasons that adopting this ideology and borrowing the principles and practices of business undermines the essence and core values of Public Administration. The first reason is the most obvious to the casual observer, businesses are based on profits and governments are based on people. Success in the business world means profit, therefore asking government to run more like a business is asking the government to start maki...
As, Goodnow has iterated the functions of politics communicate and addresses the state’s will however, he articulates that there is no boundaries or limitations to one or more authorities when managing politics, thus eluding to no appointed organization who handles political matters and the interest of the people. Perhaps, a contributing factor to complexities in the political and government systems and the functional roles of politics and administration. Woodrow Wilson essay “The Study of Administration,” he stresses that government systems and methods are in need of great improvement. (Woodrow. 1887) However, Wilson believes politics should be separated from administration, for administration should be a “field of business.” (Woodrow. 1887) Possibly speaking, if administration was separated would politics become more organized and an authority given to
Public sector reforms adopted in a number of countries such as USA, UK and New Zealand in the last fifteen years and characterised by efficiency units, performance management, contracting out, market type mechanisms, and agency status have come to be known as the New Public Management or NPM. Appearance of the NPM as shifting the paradigm from the old traditional model of administration has been promoted by a remarkable degree of consensus among the political leadership of various countries and is presented today as the major tool for public sector management reforms.
‘The doctrine of dichotomy implied that the politicians and their direct appointees have the right to make policy decisions for the polity but it is the duty of the bureaucrats to carry those policies in good faith’ (Pfiffner, 2004, p. 2).
This essay discusses the radical transformation of the principles and foundations of public administration from traditional to New Public Management. Firstly the essay will attempt to define the key terms of traditional public administration and the doctrine of New Public Management. Rabin J. (2003) explains that New Public Management embodies “a process in public administration that uses information and experiences obtained in business management and other disciplines to improve efficiency, usefulness and general operation of public services in contemporary bureaucracies.“Traditional Public Administration progresses from governmental contributions, with services perceived by the bureaucracy.
Public Administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies for the attainment of set goals and objectives that will be to the benefit of the general public. Since Public Administration involves taking decisions that affect the use of public resources there is often the question of how to utilize public resources for maximum public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and to its success. This paper seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration.
Public policy can be defined as “What ever governments choose to do or not do” (Dye, 2008, p 2). In the context of this essay, public policies are a set of actors by the government in order to reach out to the masses. The ministries and departments are mandated to deliver specific mandates in the form of public goods and services.
Since its emergence as a field of study, there have been some important contributions to public administration. Its goal has always been to improve productivity which then improves workplace performance. All of the contributions have been aimed at completing the work with the highest level of efficiency and at the lowest cost.