The period of orthodoxy - the time between the first and second World War during which public administration developed ideologies which held the belief that administration is a ‘science’, and government’s responsibilities could be separated into decision-making and efficient implementation - faced scholarly challenges on many fronts. The challenges moved the study and practise of public administration into the realm of organisational design and towards the behavioural sciences.
The greatest challenge came from Herbert Simon. In “Administrative Behavior,” [Simon, H. A. (1946.) The proverbs of administration. Public Administration Review, 6(1), 53-67.] Simon lobs criticism at the thinking that was prevalent during the orthodox; he deduces that
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P. (1926). The giving of orders. Scientific foundations of business administration.] provides a strong foundation for considering the application of behavioural science to public administration. Follet 's study focused on the worker and his reaction to directives issued by managers. She focuses on worker histories and how their backgrounds and beliefs shape their perceptions and subsequent reaction to management 's orders. Management was examined as well in that she wanted to learn their workplace language and provide workers with the ability to provide feedback. I view this as critical to the success of an organisation; beliefs translate into attitudes, and those attitudes into behaviours that, in the workplace, translate into the manner in which workers and managers communicate with one another to carry out the organisation 's mission. In my experience, effective communication in the workplace could contribute more to operational effectiveness than most process reeingeering …show more content…
McGregor - but I saw little to distinguish McGregor’s work in 1960 [McGregor, D. (1960). The human side of enterprise. New York, 21, 166.] from Maslow 's earlier work in terms of what motivates humans. McGregor 's structure of human needs incorporated basic physiological needs such as food and shelter and then safety needs, followed by social interaction, self-confidence, independence, and status and praise/recognition - mirroring Maslow in all respects. McGregor believes that management is inherently afraid of workers reaching fulfillment in the areas of social and self-esteem needs because fulfillment of those needs threatens organizations. McGregor asserts, conversely, that attaining these basic needs is not a threat but, rather, beneficial to the organisation. If anything, knowing the type of worker with whom the managers are dealing is what helps the organisation, mcgregor believes. If a worker is of the "Theory X" variety, ie, one who is ambitionless and attempts to avoid work and therefore must be controlled and threatened with punishment in order to give a minimal amount of effort; or the "Theory Y" type that is responsible, self-directed and committed to achieving his objectives then the approach used to manage those workers can be tailored to benefit both worker and organisation. Here lies a point of distinction, but it is between the views of McGregor and Taylor. whereas Taylor 's beliefs
McGregor has written two theories about human nature. Theory X basically assumes that people will do the least amount of work required of them. That they will need to be monitored and workers will need a set of rules for every employee to follow . There is also no incentive for them to go above their current job duty. Theory Y basically believes that if you give the employee the opportunity to do well the employee will take that opportunity and use it to the best of their abilities. They are able to set their own work goals and really strive to put their all into their career. They will be go getters that are responsible for their self and willing to do whatever the company needs from them. They will own up to any issue and trust that their co-workers will do the same (Larsson, Vinberg & Wiklund, 2007).
Vasu, M. L., Stewart, D.W., & Garson, G.D. (1998). Organizational behavior and public management. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University.
Bureaucracy has been the main form of organisation for over a century and can be characterised by the following: functional specialisation, employees carrying out one function of activity as their primary role; hierarchy of authority, those in superior positions having authority based solely on the virtue of the position itself; a system of rules, the tasks of the organisation following a formal set of procedures and practices; and impersonality, individuals being treated on the basis of the rules rather than emotions and personality (Knights & Willmott, 2012). The mainstream perspective states that a bureaucratic organisation’s central aim is to maximise efficiency, objectivity and fairness and can be thought of as a ‘machine’ with the people making up the components (Knights & Willmott, 2012). This view attributes three problems to this rule-centred organisation: poor motivation, poor customer service and a resistance to innovation and change (Knights & Willmott, 2012). Employees in bureaucratic organisations tend not to be committed to their
Holloman, C. (1974), “What McGregor Really Said”, Business Horizons, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 17 Issue 6, p. 87 – 92. Karlöf, B. & Lövingsson, H. (2005), The A to Z of Management Concepts and Models, Thorogood, London. Kermally, S. (2005), Gurus in People Management, Thorogood, Sydney.
"Organization theory deals with the formal structure, internal working, and external environment of complex human behavior within organizations. As a field spanning several disciplines, it prescribes how work and workers out to be organized and attempts to explain the actual consequences of organizational behavior (including individual behavior) on work done and on the organization itself."(Gordon and Milkavoich, 147) It has been evolving for centuries on how should work be done in the public administration and how the organization should be. "Research findings have emerged about what motivates workers and how different incentives affect various tasks, employees, and situations; and the environments in which they operate." (Gordon and Milakovich, 147) Even with all those research statistics and different modes of thought toward organization there are still situations in which the rational approach to public decisions does not help. For instance, what if the environment is instable and has no guidelines or precedents to follow? In the case of Israel, improvisation has changed the organization of public administrations, uprooted the conventional models for policymaking, and strayed off from the Weberian model of administration. This kind of improvisation is the product of "cultural and personal predilections and environmental circumstances,"(Sharkansky and Zalmanovitch, 1)
As it has been mentioned above, Maslow’s theory was published in 1943. It has its own historical background of manufacturing age, which is quite different from present society. In Maslow’s theory, pay is a fundamental factor in order to satisfy individuals’ physiological and safety needs. Consequently, managers may have the perception that emphasis on salary and bonuses can motivate their employees. Also, managers threaten job security to force employees perform well as safety needs are basic in Maslow’s theory (Chen, 2014). However, it has been proved that these measures are oversimplified. According to Chen (2014), after analyzing 12,000 diary entries, Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and psychologist Steven Kramer pointed out that the most significant motivator for employees at work is “the power of small wins”, which means that employees are highly motivated when they perceive as though they are making headway daily toward an important goal. It can be seen that Amabile and Kramer’s finding contradicted Maslow’s theory. In addition, with the revolutions and innovations of high-technology, the organizations have gradually developed from manufacturing age into information age today. Stum (2001) claims that a sustaining change circle in the organizational life’ nature and the expectations of the labour force result in the
Herbert Simon. 1976 [1945]. “The Psychology of Administrative Decisions.” Chapter 5 (pp. 79-109) from Administrative Behavior. New York: Free Press.
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.
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.
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.
Ohemeng, Frank, L.K. and Leone, Robert P. “Should Public Sector be RUN like a Business.” Approaching Public Administration. Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, (2011), P. 1-362.
Although it maximized efficiency and productivity but its main limitation was ignoring human aspects of employment. This is manifested in the following:
Since the end of the 19th century, when factory manufacturing became widespread and the size of organisations increased, people have been looking for ways to motivate employees and improve productivity. A need for management ideas arise which lead to classical contributors such as Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol generating management theories such as Taylor’ Scientific Management and Fayol’s Administrative Management. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the Hawthorne studies were conducted where Elton Mayo was the predominate figure and contributed to the Behavioural viewpoint. This brought about a Human Relations Movement which included Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y approach. Similarities and differences can be found between the theories due to the relevant time period they were implemented, the motives or goal of the theory and how they view organisations. However the use of contingency theory can help negate the dissimilarities which occur as it allows the relevant elements from each theory to be applied to specific situations.
Motivation is an important function in organizations to motivate their employees for their ability to perform well, improving their skills, increasing productivity, job satisfaction and employee extension. Employees also are not a machines that we could just program their task in their brain and they will do it automatically, they require motivation to actually do their job properly. And so, after discussing the process models of the Maslow’s “Hierarchy of needs”, Douglas McGregor theory X and Y, and also the Herzberg’s “two factor motivation hygiene theory.” understanding the ways of motivating people, the human nature, and the substance of nature. I believe that the true motivation can only come from within and also managers can actually motivate all of their employees.
Sociologist Max Weber undertook the first study of bureaucracy in the early 1900s (Tomkins, 2005). Weber’s theory of bureaucracy holds that administrative rationality is achieved by dividing work into specialized administrative functions, assigning each function to a specific office, placing clear limits on each office’s scope of authority, organizing officials on a career basis, and requiring them to carry out directives with strict discipline and in accordance with clearly defined rules (Tomkins, 2005). According to Weber, today’s government is predicated on the theory of legal-rational authority and its corresponding administrative apparatus – bureaucratic (Tomkins, 2005). Bureaucratic Administration is defined by a set of strictly defined rules that delineate the hierarchy of authority, the rights and duties of every official, and the means by which administrative duties are carried out (Tomkins, 2005). The ideal type bureaucracy, Weber envisioned, would include the following elements: fixed official duties, hierarchy of authority, system of rules, technical expertise, career service, written documentation and a spirit of informal impersonality (Tomkins, 2005). Henri Fayol was the first of the theorists to identify management as a continuing process of evolution and Gulick expanded on Fayol’s...