A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines

Mary Grace M. Austria

University of the Philippines Open University

CERTIFICATION AGAINST INTELLECTUAL FRAUD AND DISHONESTY

I hereby declare, upon my honor, that what I have written in this FMA/Final Exam are the
products of my own personal intellect and I have made the proper attribution of sources and
references. In the event that it is established by competent authorities that what I have written
in this FMA/Final Exam had been obtained by me through fraudulent use of ideas or information
belonging to other persons, I will accept the corresponding penalty or sanction corresponding to
such dishonest conduct.

MARY GRACE M. AUSTRIA September 28, 2019

A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines 1

A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines

Mary Grace M. Austria, September 2019

There are so many essays presenting the evolution of the public administration.
One journalist in Academia.edu stated in an article that “public administration is as old
as human existence” (Mwanza, p. 1). Is the evolution of the public administration
origins from the human existence?

The Collins Dictionary defines public as relating to people in general or all the
people in a particular country or community. While Merriam-Webster also defines the
public as a group of people having common interests or characteristics. It may be
ridiculous to say that public administration is not as old of human existence since when
the first human existed or when there is only one person in a community, there was no
public yet until there has group of people that we can call “public”. As the population of
these groups grow, the more resources need to be managed; innovations need to be
considered; and decisions to be made get more difficult. These factors initially urged
different scholars to established discipline in public administration. The development of
the public administration as a discipline was divided in five stages (Mwanza, p. 2):

I. Politics Administration Dichotomy (1887 to 1926)

II. Principles of Administration (1927 to 1937)

III. Era of Challenge (1938 to 1947)

IV. Crisis of Identity (1948 to 1970)

V. Public Policy Perspective (1971 onwards)

I. Public Administration as Separate Study from Political Science

The study of public administration has developed over the years along with the
growing complexities in the processes, connections and resources needed to be
optimized for the welfare of public. The theories of public administration rooted from the
essay written by Woodrow Wilson in June 1887 entitled The Study of Administration.
This study was driven by the inefficiencies, stubbornness, corruption and injustices
during the rapid economic growth in Glided Age (1870s to 1900) when there were
widespread social activism and political reform across the United States in what they
called as Progressive Era (1890s to 1920s) (Wikipedia). Wilson has substantiated the
study of public administration “to discover what government can properly and
successfully do and how these proper things can be done with the maximum efficiency
and least possible cost” (Wilson, 1887). The essay has claimed that one should know
A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines 2

the history of the science of public administration, the subject matter of the study and
best methods and political conceptions before studying the public administration.

Wilson discussed how government in Unites States had increased and more
complex functions. He further stated that those who hold authority shall have not just a
little wisdom, knowledge and experience to address the advancing concerns in the
government and depict how to deploy solutions that must be implemented. He has
explained that the science of administration was adopted by United States from Europe
which should be “Americanized” or naturalized in order to be effectively applicable in the
American government. These has been Wilson’s consideration why there should be a
careful and specific study of the science of administration, separate from the study of
political science, to make the business of governments less “unbusinesslike” (Wilson,
1887, p. 201).

The Wilsonian theory of politics-administration dichotomy attracted other authors

and scholars to extend the study of public administration to further develop theories that
will set discipline in public administration.

Frank Johnson Goodnow has presented in his book, Politics and Administration
A Study in Government, the inconsistencies in the execution of the government system
that was adopted by United States and he believes that, in all government systems,
there are two primary functions: the expression of the will of the state (Politics) and the
execution of that will (Administration) (Goodnow, 1900, p. 22).

II. Scientific Methods for Administration of Growing Economy

There was a rapid growth in the economy during Industrial Revolutionary period
when scholars was urged to discover solutions so that production of the companies will
be at the optimum efficiency. Frederick Winslow Taylor in his book, Scientific
Management, aimed to improved production efficiency by scientifically training the
group of workmen instead of improving the leader (LumenLearning.com). Another
scientist who also studied the productivity is Henri Fayol, however, instead of focusing
the need of improvement to the employees, Fayol believed that the improvement must
be initiated in the management level and shall be implemented towards the whole
company (LumenLearning.com). Relating the public administration to private
companies brought out some arguments that public administration is distinct from
private administration. After thorough evaluation of the administration practices in
organizations, Fayol have successfully developed lists of 14 general principles of
management that exists in all kinds of administration which he has presented in his
book, General and Industrial Management, on 1916 (Vliet, 2009). These principles
inspired Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick to present their own general principles of
management which commonly known in acronym POSDCORB meaning Planning,
A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines 3

Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting (Mulder, 2018).

While Max Weber was concerned about the evolution of modern civilization and has
attempted to know the sociological effect of Taylor’s theory also known as Taylorism
because he believed that managements seek technically optimal results at the expense
of emotional or humanistic content (Kernalysis.com). This inspires Weber to establish
the first constructive discipline of public administration (Mwanza, p.2). Weber created
the bureaucracy theory of management which has focused on the rationalization,
establishing rules, structured hierarchy of subordination and management based on
written records (Kernalysis.com).

III. Taylorism: Against the Rights of Industrial Workers

The theories in the second stage which are all focused on the efficiency of the
industrial workers were challenged by the scholars who focused, on the other hand,
on the psychological and social problems encountered by industrial workers. The
inquiries was triggered by the experiments done by Professor George Elton Mayo in
Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric, from which he discovered that workers are
more satisfied in their jobs when they get involved in the process of decision-making
rather than short-term incentives (British Library). But in order to establish
theoretical foundation for this claim, Herbert Simon has advocated that
administrative behaviour in an organization should be analysed through
understanding and studying the decisions made by the administrators
(Academia.edu).

IV. Public Administration Back to Branch of Political Science

This stage has been called as “The Crisis of Identity” since the mother discipline
introduced by Politics Administration Dichotomy was challenge due to “absence of
comprehensive intellectual framework of public administration as a separate
discipline” (Kumar, 2016).

V. Reinvention of Government for Customer Satisfaction

The democracy principle of the government in this time came from this stage of
development of public administration which is commonly known as New Public
Management. This perspective has used certain ideas from previous management
theory and combined them as guide in reinventing the government. This perspective
has been initiated by Prime Minister Maragret Thatcher in United Kingdom who was
also an entrepreneur aside from being a prime minister. This stage has introduced
the changes in organizational methods, civil service relations, budget plans,
financial management, audit, evaluation and procurement (Wikipedia). This also
settles and decreased the distinction of public administration from private
A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines 4

administration (Kalimullah, Alam & Nour, 2012). Similar to private sector in which
management approaches are driven by customer satisfaction, administration in
public sector is also focused on the satisfaction of the citizens who are the
recipients of the public service (Wikipedia).

In addition, during 1990s to 2000, public administration has shifted to paradigm

of governance which refers to “institutionalization of a system through which
citizens, institutions, organizations, and groups in society articulate their interests,
exercise their rights and mediate their differences in pursuit of the collective good”
(ADB, 1995 as cited in Brillantes & Fernandez, p. 8)

Reinvented Government Brought to Philippines

The study and practice of public administration in Philippines were coined from
the influence of United States during the colonial periods and the civil service system
under Act No. 5 was established in 1990 (Reyes, 2019). The discipline of public
administration was begun to be studied in 1952 when Institute of the Public
Administration was established (Reyes, 2019).

The theories that have studied during the evolution of the public administration
greatly helped the government system of the Philippines. The Wilsonian theory has
presented the importance of separating politics from public administration which held
the civil service workers or government employees prohibited from being candidate or
even doing campaigns for candidates in political positions. The scientific management
and behavioural science of public administration introduced the merit and fitness
principle in determining appointments and importance of performance evaluation as a
management tool to measure the output of an employee or a unit in one organization.
The bureaucracy theory of Max Weber and the new public management has prioritized
to organize and systematize the policies, procedures and monitoring of the
administrative duties and activities for better service to the Filipino people by which
economic growth of the Philippines is also attained.

Public administration is a science that needs to be carefully studied because

every decision to be made by administrator will affect the public or the citizens. This
also necessitates that the law, rules, and regulations to be properly analysed, discussed
and published for public opinion to establish its acceptability in the greater number of
population. Government shall serve the public and thus, policies and ordinances shall
be at the benefit of the greater number of people.
A Developed Public Administration Inherited by Philippines 5

References

 An Overview of Management Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.kernsanalysis.com/sjsu/ise250/history.htm

 Brillantes, A. Jr. & Fernandez, M. (n.d.). Is There A Philippine Public

Administration? Or Better Still, For Whom Is The Philippines Public Administration?.
Retrieved from
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/eropa/unpan032064.pdf

 Classical Perspectives. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-management/chapter/classical-
perspectives/

 Goodnow, F.J (1900). A Study in Government Politics and Administration. New

York, U.S.A.: The Macmillan Company

 Juneja, P. (n.d.). Public and Private Administration. Retrieved from

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/public-and-private-administration.htm

 Kalimullah N.A., Alam, K. & Nour M.M. (2012). New Public Management:
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New_Public_Management_Emergence_and_Principles/links/5d28c718a6fdcc2462d
a1674/New-Public-Management-Emergence-and-Principles.pdf

 Kumar, M. (2016). Evolution of Public Administration as Discipline. Retrieved from

https://polticsmania.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/evolution-of-public-administration-
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 Mulder, P. (2018). POSDCORB. Retrieved September 27,2019 from ToolsHero:

https://www.toolshero.com/management/posdcorb-theory/

 Mwanza, M. (n.d.). Evolution of Public Administration. Retrieved from

https://www.academia.edu/20218390/Evolution_of_Public_Administration

 New Public Management. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2019 from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Public_Management

 The Hawthorne Experiment Thinker. (n.d.). Retrieved from British Library:

https://www.bl.uk/people/elton-mayo

 UP Open University. (2019, July 30). Introduction to Public Administration.

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKri6J6RMc&list=PLmyKlol1-
P3G2YDdGpGqoxMkLGRXCVOPc&index=4&t=1s
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 Van Vliet, V. (2009). 14 Principles of Management (Fayol). Retrieved from

https://www.toolshero.com/management/14-principles-of-management/

 Wilson, W. (1887). The Study of Public Administration. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2139277