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CHAPTER ONE
THE NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1.1 Introduction

 Every system of public administration is the product of many

influences/factors.
 Its form and content reflect its historical origin; existing patterns
are a composite of practices and procedures of both ancient and
contemporary.
 As White (1955:13) noted, no administrative system can be well
understood without some knowledge of what it has been, and
how it came to be what it is now.
 Therefore, when we study public administration, it would be
indispensable to look at it from a historical perspective.
 The study of Public Administration is strictly related with the
very existence and changing functions/roles of the government.
i.e., the scale, range and nature of PA rely on role of
government. Due to this reason, public administration must
always be seen in the context (framework, situations,
perspective) of the problems confronting the government.
 In the ancient time ( before the 19 th century), the functions/roles
of state was very few/limited in number which is limited only to;
 Protecting the country from external invasions/external
defense
 Maintenance of internal law and order
 Levying and collection of taxes
 Governments do not have any important responsibility in
regulating the socioeconomic life of the society and the
management of socio-economic life of the society was not

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 considered as government responsibility. i.e, the socio-
economic life of the society was largely regulated by private
relations/market and people lead their own live without
government intervention.
 However, the absence of any kind of significant government
involvement in socio-economic life of the people resulted in
a number of problems in the society. These problems
initiated different philosophers and scholars that
there must be government intervention in the socio-
economic life of the society. After that people expect more
from the government and the government is started to do
/assume more responsibility than before.
 In general, the following are factors behind the changing
role of state and thus of public administration;
a) Industrialization- the development of industry and the
associated growth of towns (urbanization) led to various
socioeconomic problems such as those related to housing, health,
unemployment and so on. These problems were not satisfactorily
resolved through the market system, and thus political demands
eventually led to state action.
b) Social cost: as the scale of commercialization increased, it
became apparent that the activities of one organization or
individual could impose extra costs upon the society in general; for
example environmental damage from pollution. Thus, pressure upon
the state both to regulate and to take certain responsibilities upon
itself became necessary
c) Market inadequacies: certain basic facilities that would bring
successful economic growth were not being effectively provided by
the private sector. e.g., road, education, health, street light, posts
etc.

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 d) Political demands: as a result of many factors like those
mentioned above, various groups organized themselves in order to
present their views politically. Those groups requested an integral
and active intervention of the state in their interest and affairs.
e) Exploitation of the weaker by the stronger
f) Insecurity of jobs for employee or dangerous working conditions
for employee
g) Exploitation of child labor etc.

 In general, public administration showed tremendous growth, both as

a profession/activity and as a field of study, alongside the expansion
of government functions and changing trends in its essential roles.
This has been manifested through the growth of the institutional
machinery and hierarchy of professional bureaucracy as well as
through the growing concerns of scholars in the subject.
 Public administration as an academic discipline (as a branch of
learning or as a field of study) or the official academic status to the
discipline is not more than a and two decade century. i.e., especially
after the publication of Wilson’s essay on the “study of public
administration.”
 However, PA as an activity/practice/ is as old as human civilization or
from the beginning of social organization. i.e., PA as an activity has
existed long before the systematic study of the subject.
 Although we acknowledge the age-old practice of administration,
governmental administration of the earlier times (ancient and
medieval) differed considerably in its structure and goals from the
modern era.
 features of state administration in the ancient and medieval
period:

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  Authoritarian, patriarchal, hereditary and elitist (or
discriminatory) in character, informal and fluid structure,
 The so-called administrators were few in number, selected
entirely at the discretion (upon the will) of the monarch and
their official status was no better than the personal servants of
the king,
 Performs limited functions or Administrative (state) functions
were limited in scope,

 features of state administration in modern period(after 19th

century)
 Takes the form of public bureaucracy, and administrators were
recruited on the basis of public law, became more formal,
 More formal structure performing largely within a legal
framework,
 Performs multiple of functions, much beyond revenue collection,
maintenance of law and order, as well as security functions.
 Tasks becoming by-and-large welfare concern and public
oriented,

 The scope and volume of modern public administration is increasing

with an increasing social complexity, specialization, differentiation,
population, urbanization and public communication.

1.2. Meaning and Scope of Public Administration

Definition:
 the term administration come/derived from two Latin words
 public-people
 administration-management
 public administration-to care or look after people or

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  to manage governmental affairs at all levels
 there is a slight differences between administration and
public administration
 Administration –different writers define administration in d/t
ways;
 Administration is a determined action taken in pursuit
of a conscious purpose. It is a systematic ordering of
affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at
making those things happen which one wants to happen
(Marx).
 It is the organization and direction of human and
material resources to achieve desired ends…getting the
work of government done by coordinating the efforts of
the people so that they can work together to accomplish
their set (predetermined) tasks(piffner)
 Administration is a process common to all group effort,
public or private, civil or military, large-scale or small
scale... (L. D. White)
 Administration is the activities of groups cooperating to
accomplish common goals (Herbert Simon).
 In general, administration exists whenever people
cooperate to achieve the goals of their
groups/organization and such achievement requires
planning, organizing, cooperation and control.
 It involves the mobilization of resources and direction of
human and material resources to attain specific goals.
 A brief analysis of the definitions listed above reveals
that administration comprises the following essentials,
namely, (1) cooperative effort, and (2) purposefulness
and systematic application. One does not find any

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 administration if there is only a common purpose
without a collective effort or vice-versa.

 Public administration- is any kind of administration in the

public interest or government in
action/administration.
 So, the difference between administration and public
administration is seen in terms of scope.
Scope of public administration
 It is the major concern of PA as an activity and as discipline and
there are d/t views regarding the scope and ranges of activities
to be included in PA.
 Narrow view- some tinkers view it narrowly to consider only
those activities concerned with the executive branch of
government as PA.
 Public administration consists of all those operations with
the purpose of the fulfillment or enforcement of
policy( White).
 Public administration is detailed and systematic
application of law"(Wilson).
 Public administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of
policy as declared by the competent authorities…it is law
in action, it is the executive side of the government",
(Dimock).
 Broader view- Nigro (1965) defined public administration in a
more comprehensive way to include, besides the above-
mentioned aspects, the relationship between public
administration and the political and social systems as well. For
him public administration:
 Nigro (1965) defined public administration in a more
comprehensive way to include, besides the above-mentioned

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 aspects, the relationship between public administration and the
political and social systems as well. For him public
administration:
 Is cooperative effort in a public setting
 Covers all the three branches of the government; i.e.
executive, legislative, and judiciary and their
interrelationships
 Has an important role in the formulation of public
policy and is thus part of the political process
 Has an important role in the formulation of public
policy and is thus part of the political process
 Is closely associated with numerous private groups
and individuals in providing services to the community
o
 Prevailing view- divides the scope of Public Administration
into two
Parts namely, administrative theory and applied
administration.
1) Administrative theory-include the following aspects,
a) Organizational Theory -
The Structure, organization, functions and methods of all
types ofpublic authority engaged in administration,
whether national, regional or local and executive.
b) Behavior - The functions/behaviors of administrative
authorities and the various methods appropriate to different
types of functions. The various forms of
c) Public Personal Adminstration -The problems concerning
personnel e.g. recruitment, training,promotion,
retiremenPPPt etc. and the problems relating to
planning,research, information and public relation services.
2) Applied administration- include the following aspects,

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 a) Political functions -
It includes the executive - legislative relationship, administrative
activities of the cabinet, the minister and permanent official
relationship.
b) Legislative function -
It includes delegated legislation and the preparatory work done
by the officials in connection with the drawing up of bills.
c) Financial functions -
It includes total financial administration from the preparation of
the budget to its execution, accounting and audit etc.
d) Defense - Functions relating to military administration.
e) Educational function - It includes functions relating to
educational administration.
f) Social welfare administration -It includes the activities of the
departments concerned with food; housing, social security and
development activities.

g) Economic Administration -It is concerned with the

production and encouragement of industries and agriculture.
h) Foreign administration -It includes the conduct of foreign
affairs, diplomacy, international cooperation etc.
i) Local administration -It concern with the activities of the
local self- governing institutions.
 There have been also attempt to define public administration
with respect to its internal and external dimensions:
o Internal administration is defined to mean the
management of an organization or agency that involves
systems, processes and methods through which needed
resources of personnel, material and technology are
used to perform certain prescribed functions.

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 o External administration on the other hand refers to
activities and processes of administration, which are
needed to establish and to activate relationships with
agencies and groups outside the administrative control
of an organization to achieve its objectives.
 Generally, public administration is the non-political
bureaucratic machinery of the government, but operating
within the political context, for implementing its laws and
policies in action such as the collection of revenues,
maintenance of law and order, maintaining an army,
providing/running social and economic services.
 It covers all branches of government though it tends to be
concentrated in the executive branch
 Provides regulatory and service functions for the people in
order to attain good life
 It is an interdisciplinary subject in nature as it draws upon
other social sciences like political science, economics and
sociology.
1.3. Role and Importance of Public Administration - In
today’s modern state and in developing countries, functions
and role of Public Administration is very important. The role
and importance of Public Administration are as follows,
1. It is the basis of Government - It is possible for a state to
exist without a legislature or judiciary; but not even the most
backward state can do without administrative machinery.
2. It is the instrument of change in the society - Public
Administration is regarded as an instrument of change and is
expected to accelerate the process of development. In our
country, the government has undertaken the task of leveling
down the economic inequalities, spreading education among
all abolishing untouchability securing equality of status, rights

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 of women and effective and all round economic and industrial
development. The burden of carrying out these social changes
in a planned and orderly way rests upon the Public
Administration of the country.
3. It plays vital role in the life of the people –
Today every aspect of human life come within the range of Public
Adminstration. Various departments of government such as
education, social welfare, food, agriculture, health, sanitation,
transport, communication etc. are run by the department of
Public Administration. Thus Public Administration is rendering
various types of services to the people from birth to death of
an individual.
4. It is a stabilizing force in the society as it provides
continuitys
Public Administration is carried on by the civil servants who are
the permanent executives. Political executives i.e. ministers
may come and go, systems of government or constitutions may
undergo change but administration goes on forever. Hence,
Public Administration is a great stabilizing force in society. It
is a preserver of the society and its culture.
5. It is instrument of national integration in the developing
Countries which are facing class wars
 Gerald Caiden (1971) has listed the following crucial roles as assumed
by public administration in contemporary societies:
(i) Preservation of the polity
(ii) Maintenance of stability and order
(iii) Institutionalization of socio-economic changes (not
haphazardly)
(iv) Management of large-scale commercial services
(v) Ensuring growth and economic development
(vi) Pro tection of the weaker section of the society

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 (vii) Formation of public opinion (working towards public interest)
(viii) Influencing public policies and political trends

1.4. IS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AN ART OR A SCIENCE?

 Art- is the knowledge acquired by learning and practice
- It is characterized by making decision y using commonsense
judgments/, personal feeling, belief, creativity, impulses etc.
- It is know-how, skills or how to accomplish a desired
objective with insufficient data or information.
 Science- it is the act of doing an activity in the systematic
way.
- It is characterized by making conclusions based on the actual
facts and verifies knowledge through cause-effect
relationship
- Absence of normative/ethical value, predictability of behavior
and universal application are the basic features of science.
- It be generally learnt, thought and researched to know the
universal truth.
 Public administration holds two meanings;
 The first stands for the activity of administering
governmental activities which can be learnt through
experience. With this regard, it is definitely an art.
 2nd –it is also an academic discipline/ field of study or an area
of intellectual inquiry. And what needs analytical explanation
is the science aspect of public administration.
 There are different arguments for and against this issues;
 The controversy has originated b/c ‘science’ has, historically,
stood for only physical science like chemistry and physics
and it studies lifeless objects which have no will of their own
and can be manipulated the way the experimenter chooses.

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 It is characterized by regularity/you can verify/, predictability
and reproducibility of behavior.
 However, the concern public administration is not only with
lifeless objects, it deals also with human behavior who thinks,
has a will of his own and acts in accordance the dictates of
his will with different attitudes, perception and orientations.
So, shall we get those behaviors of physical science in
public administration and other social science?
 There have been many people writing or arguing public
administration as possessing an element of science since the
1880s.
 Woodrow Wilson, who was known as the pioneer of public
administration, called it the "science of public
administration" as early as 1887.
 Willoughby (1927), who was one of the early writers of the
field, also said that there are certain fundamental principles
of general application in public administration analogous to
those characterizing any science i.e, there is agreed
principles in public administration (POSDCoRB).

 Collections of papers were also presented in 1937 on the

subject under the title of "Papers on the Science of
Administration". Writers of those papers reflected their
positions in that for any discipline to claim the title and
status of science, there should exists a body of principles
embodied in it.
 The outcome of good administration can be predicted to be
efficient work force and efficient and productive output.
Therefore, the ability to determine future occurrence through
present indices makes Public Administration Science-
oriented in nature.

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  On the other hand, writers like Basu, argued said that all the
three features science are yet imperfectly present in public
administration. In other words, the debate is that public
administration cannot be called a science until the following
three conditions are fulfilled.
 The place of normative values in public administration should
be clearly identified and made clear,
 The nature of human behavior in the area of public
administration is better understood and his conduct is more
predictable
 The principles of administration could be derived from a body
of cross-cultural studies, thereby making them relatively free
from cultural bias. i.e, public administration has had its
growth in the cultural framework of the west which may not
hold valid in other parts of the world.
In general, public administration is a mixture/has element of both science
and arts b/c,
 It has an organized body of knowledge/agreed principles/ which
contains certain universal truth(science element/
 It requires skills which are personal possessions of administrator/art
elements/
 Administrators to be successful in his profession, he must acquire
knowledge of science and the art of applying it. So, science provides
knowledge/principles/ and arts deals with the application of those
knowledge and skills. i.e, science and arts are not mutually exclusive
rather complementary to each other.
 With this regard, science is a root and art is a fruit.

1.5. Public administration vs. Private administration

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 Public administration governmental administration concerned with
achieving state purpose while private administration is concerned
with the administration of private business organization which is
not owned by government.
 Differences
 the primary aim of Public administration is public services
while the primary of private administration is profit
maximization
 the beneficiary of public administration is the whole society
while the beneficiary of private administration private
individual owner or who are capable to pay
 the efficiency of public administration is
measured/evaluated by social costs such as public service,
accountability and social responsibility. Even in order to
promote public interest, government undertake
unprofitable projects or provide at subsidized rates while
that private administration is measured by financial costs
and benefits or minimum cost and maximum output
 with regard to level of complexity, public administration is
more complex in terms of size and activities b/c they need
to respond to more conflicting demands of public interest
while private administration is less complex
 public administration is characterized by slow in decision
making and bureaucratic(red-tape) in nature due adherence
to rules and regulations while p private administration is
fast in decision making
 public administration is highly affected by the work of
politics or work with political context while private
administration is less affected by the work of politics or
non-political

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  decision making criteria in public administration is not
based on commercial forces rather based on public
criteria/interest while that private administration is based
on commercial forces
 with regard to vice versa influence, public administration is
less likely to be affected by private administration while
private administration is highly affected by decisions, laws
and procedures of public administration
 similarities
 both are working with scarce resources
 both sectors requires effective mobilization and use os
resources( human and material ) resources to achieve goals
 both rely on common skills, techniques and procedures
 Both have same kind of organization structure or hierarchy,
superior – subordinate relationships, etc.
 Both carries on continuous efforts to improve their internal
working and for efficient delivery of services to people or
customer
 Both service the people
1.6. THE ENVIRONMENT OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
Environment in the context of this topic refers to actors and
forces that affects or determines public administration or in
which it operates. The environment under which public
administration operates, that would have major implications on
its success or failure as well as in shaping its basic features,
can generally be classified as internal and external.
a) Internal environment- refers to those conditions, which are
in most cases within the control of the administration, yet
having their own challenges and/or advantages. These may
includes,

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  The organization itself i.e., structure, pattern of
authority in the formal hierarchy, purpose and
tradition, historical legacies or traditional practice and
internal network and working procedures of the
organization.
 The behavior and structure of formal and informal
groups like peer groups, labor unions, and advisory
council have also strong influence on the style of
administration.
 Groups and individual within the organization
 Internal resources( human, material, financial/
available for the organization
b) External environment- refers to those factors, which is
outside the control of the administration but having major
impact in shaping the features and determining the success
or failures of the overall objectives that public
administration. It includes the following factors which is
abbreviated as PEST,
 Politically, the type of government and the resultant
constitution, policies, laws and directives; national and
international political trends and changes; bilateral and
multilateral agreements and policies;
 Economically, national economic trends and level of
growth and development; the global market and
economic situation as well as the extent of mutual
economic assistance and cooperation;
 Socially, population/demographic trends and changes;
societal beliefs, values, attitudes, cultures, and
lifestyles; public expectations and demands;

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  Technologically, ability or access to use the type of
technology being used elsewhere in the world, such as
in communication and production;

1.6.1. Public administration in developed countries

In the context of this note, the term "developed" or "industrial" societies

refer to those countries of Western Europe and USA where industrialization
has brought about major changes in economic structure and growth
accompanied by political and administrative modernization. Nevertheless, it
should be noted that administrative modernization is not a typical or
exclusive feature of developed countries. Because some developed
countries might not have modern administrative system, while we could find
a developing country that employs modern administration. Despite
individual differences, the following are features administrative system of
developed countries;
 Government organization is highly distinguished and functionally
specific and the roles are based on achievement criteria than on
attribute or assumed power. The bureaucracy is marked by a high
degree of specialization or professionalism. Recruitment of personnel
is generally based on merits.
 Laws and political decisions are largely rational. Public policy
making is effectively made by professional public administrators.
 Administration has become to take all-encompassing functions that
affect major spheres of the lives of citizens.
 There is high correlation (association) between political power and
legitimacy (legality) and there is an extensive popular interest and
involvement in public affairs.
 Incumbents of political or governmental offices are generally
considered as lawful or reasonable holders of those positions,

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 Transfer of power and positions tend to occur in accordance with
prescribed rules and procedures.
 Public administration is more responsive and responsible to the
society. i.e, they provide efficient and effective public services and
performs both routine and welfare tasks
 Extremely affected by the development of modern science and
technology, communication and networks.
 Administrative institutions are relatively autonomous

1.6.2. Public administration in developing/third world/ countries

-3rd world countries, 1st world countries and 2 nd world
countries based on the social, economic and political
criteria
 Most of them have got their independence from
colonialists immediately after the Second World War
they have been in the process of transition facing
serious problems of social turmoil and
disturbances, economic depression (downturn)
and administrative chaos (confusions).
 Note: in theory, the tasks of public administration in
industrial societies do not differ from the developing
ones but, features of administrative systems are highly
relates the environment they exist.
 The following points are indicators of the general
administrative patterns currently found in 3 rd
world countries;
 The basic pattern of public administration is imitative
(copied) rather than indigenous (original). They follow style
of bureaucratic model of developed countries( especially of
their colonies)

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  The bureaucracies are deficient (lacking) in the requisite
skills necessary for development programs. In spite of
abundance (plenty) of labor (employable manpower) in
relation to other resources in most of the developing
countries, trained administrators with management capacity,
developmental skills, and technical proficiency are extremely
in shortfall.
 Give more emphasis to non-productive and developmental
orientation than the productive one
 Extensive (huge) discrepancy or disagreement between form
and reality, which Riggs has called it "formalism", i.e, what
is actually performed is always differ from what has been
reported.
 They report as if productive targets are met, which in fact
remain only partially fulfill.
 The bureaucracy in developing countries is likely to have
high degree of operational autonomy as a result of several
operating forces in newly independent states.
 There is always surplus of employees in public organization.
B/c they use public services as a substitute of social security
program or to relieve the problem of unemployment.

Chapter Two
2. Evolution and Approaches of Public Administration
2.1 Evolution of public administration
 Public administration as an activity/action was as long as human
civilization or has a long history.
 But, as a discipline, it is not more than a century. i.e, it traced back to
the publication in 1887 “the study of public administration” by

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 Woodrow Wilson. It may thus, regarded as among the newest of social
science.
 Public administration has developed/passed as an academic field
through a succession of six paradigms/shifts/phases/periods.
 Each paradigm may be characterized by according to whether it has
‘locus’ or ‘focus’.
 Locus is institutional ‘where’ of the field while focus is the
specialized ‘what’ of the field.
 Paradigm I-Politics-administration dichotomy(1887-1926)
 Proponents- W.Wilson-father of PA and originator of politics-
administration dictotomy
-White and Goodnow
 They argued that politics and administrations are different b/c,
 Politics-deals with policy formulation and has to do with the
expression of state will
-its location is in legislature and higher level of
government where decision would be made
 Administration- deals with the execution of policies impartially and
its location/institution center in government
bureaucracy
 Due to this they must be separated.
 Paradigm II-Principles of administration/1927-1937/
 The central belief of this period was that there are certain
principles of administration/existed and it is the task of the
scholars to discover them and to promote their application.
 This period opened by the publication W.F. Willoughby’s principles
of administration on 1927 followed by the publication of number of
works such as
 Mary Pater Follet’s-creative experience
 H. Fayol’s –industrial and general management
 Mooney’s and Reiley’s-principles of organization

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  Uwrick and Gulick’s papaers on the science of
administration and they coined principles of
administration called POSDCoRB.
 All these papers/works showed that these principles can be
studied as a technical question regardless of the purpose of
the organization, the personnel comprising it or any
constitutional, political or social theory underlying its creation.
 In general, this period were the golden years of ‘principles’ in
the history of public administration b/c, it was during this time
that
 It was considered/got the status of science/called
science of administration
 It commanded high degree of respectability and its
products were in great demand both in government and
business
 Different principles and theories of administration were
developed
 Principles of organization were discovered etc
 Paradigm III- Era of challenges (1938-1947)
 During this period’
 The idea of politics-administration dichotomy was
rejected/challenged b/c, for one thing politics and
administration in any cannot be separated rather they do co-
exist, for the second thing, Administration is not only
concerned with policy decision but it deals with the policy
formulation
 The principles of administration were also challenge by
behavioralist/Human relation proponents such as Chester
I.Bernard and Simon.
 They argued that there could be no such thing as principles
of administration and what are paraded as principles are in

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 truth no better that ‘proverbs’ of administration(Simon) b/c
for one thing, it only depends on the formal structure of the
organization and give emphasis on efficiency but ignore
human aspects/elements. For the second thing, for every
principles of administration, there was a counter principle or
mutually contradictory
 The idea that public administration is a science is challenged

 Paradigm IV-Era of Identity crisis( 1948-1970)

 During this period, public administration lack identity or
loss its focus and renewed locus i.e, government
bureaucracy.
 Some argued that is part and parcel of political science
which is the biological parents or mother of the field while
others said that due its secondary relation, public
administration is part management. i.e, to administrative
science or generic science
 Paradigm V-Public administration as an independent
discipline(1971-1990)
 Public administration as a successful field of study or
practice
 In 1970, the national association of schools of public affairs
and administration (NASPAA)\ was founded.
 The association is composed of 250 colleges and university
that offers the country’s master public administration
programs
 The formation of NASPAA represented not Only an act of
secession by public administrationists from political science
or Management science, but a rise of self-confidence As
well.

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  1973, there were over 26,000 students enrolled in master
degree programs in public administration and public affairs.
 Progress, particularly in the area of Organization theory
and information\ Science, has been made in this direction.
 Additionally, considerable progress has been made in
refining the applied techniques and methodologies of public
administration.
 Paradigm VI-Governance (1991-present)
 It is the movement away from government or control over
citizens and delivery of public services by institutions of
the state to configuration of policies, laws, organization,
cooperative arrangement and agreement that control
citizens and delivery of public benefits.
 Here, governments are institutional while governance is
institutional plus network.
 Major developments during this period,
 Institutional distinctions between public, non-profit
and private sectors as well as federal, state and
local governments are blurred/fuzzy/
 Governments hierarchy is flatten and
spread/restructured
 The size and capacity of government is reduced or
withering/shrinking/ state

2.2. APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PUBLIC

SADMINISTRATION
 An approach is a way of gaining access to the
understanding of a subject or a discipline
 . It also refers to a particular manner of dealing with the
problem.

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  The study of public administration has been approached
from various angles,
a) Mechanical approach
 Contributors-Taylor, Gulick,Uwrick,White and
Warner
 It is the earliest approach to the study of public
administration.
 According to this approach, administration is a
mechanical organization and it is possible discover
certain principles of administration which will make
the organization function efficiently and effectively
 E,g., F.W.Taylor-one can discover best way or
principles of doing or managing everything.
 It give more attention on how public administration
achieve efficiency ,
 Efficiency alone was considered as a sole goal of
public administration
 It consider human beings as a machine
 Gives more emphasis for formal structure and they
believe that people motivated by only
economy/money
 Limitation-ignore human aspects/elements
b) Structural/institutional approach
 Structure- a device through which human beings
working in the organizations are assigned tasks
and related to one another
 . It is believed that the effective functioning of the
organization depends upon the structure that a
group of human beings build and operate.
 It studies administrative organization, personnel
management, financial administration and

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 administrative accountability in terms of structure
of public administration.

 So, it gives more emphasis on the structure of the

organization

 Limitation- it ignore the ecological study, human

factor, and development administration aspects of
the organization

c) Juridical/legal approach

 This approach studies public administration from

view point of law.

 It lays emphasis on constitutional structure of

public administration.

 It also takes into account aspects such as

languages of various constitutions, decisions of
judicial bodies and codes of law

 Concerned with legal obligations and rights of

citizens

 Limitations-ignore human elements

d) Behavioral approach

 Pioneer- Herbert Simon

 It is new approach to the study of public

administration.

 mainly concerned with the scientific study of

human behavior in diverse social environments

 it examines public administration by studying

individual and collective human behavior in
administrative situation

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  takes into account the organizational behavior and
human psychology

 limitation-ignore economic and other human

elements

e) Human resource, ecological, development and public

policy are approaches that are more recent to the study
of public administration.

Chapter Three

3. Administrative Thoughts (Organization Theories)

3.1 Introduction

Organization theory relevant to public administration has developed rapidly

since 1920s. The primary purpose of organization theory as an academic
study is:

a) To understand and explain organizational problems as they related to

the structure, inter-relationship, coordination and internal
functioning.

b) To understand and explain how people in organizations behave and how

organizations function.

 Four broad schools of thoughts to organization or administrative

theory may be discerned namely, "classical theories", "neo-classical
theories", “systems theory" and theory of bureaucracy.

3.2. The Classical Organization Theories

 It is also known as structural or scientific administrative theory and it

includes the following sub-theories;

 Scientific management theory-F.W. Taylor

 Administrative management theory- Henery Fayol, Gulick and Uwrick,

Mooney and Reily

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 Theory of bureaucracy- Robert Michael, Karl Marx and Max Weber

1) Scientific management theory

 It is one of the classical organization theories that give more emphasis

the application of scientific methods to discover new knowledge and
scientific study of work methods to improve work efficiency. i.e,
improving workers’ efficiency through scientific study of work.

 So, the objective of this theory is to find the most efficient method of
performing any tasks and to train workers on that method. i.e., he
believed that it is possible to find ‘one best way’ of doing an activity
which is applicable to all kinds of human activity.

 He argued that management is a true science which comprised a

number of principles applicable to all organizations be it private or
public.

 He focused his unit of analysis on the physical activities of workman-

machine relationships and how productivity and efficiency can be
enhanced. This indicates that he gives more emphasis on productivity
than workers.

 To him workers were truly rational and real economic men who could
be programmed to be efficient machines.

 So, according to him, the main objectives of management is to secure

maximum prosperity to the employer, coupled with maximum
prosperity each employees and customers.

 i.e, the result of higher productivity should equally benefit all people
through higher wage/salary to workers, greater profit for
organization/management and payment of lower prices for the
product to the customer.

 This means his philosophy scientific management is that there is no

inherent conflict in the interest of employers, workers and customers.

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 To increase productivity and profits, he under took different studies;

A) Time and motion study

 Objective: to standardize activities for workers or determine a
full-day’s work Time and motion study involves breaking down the task
into various elements, or motions, eliminating unnecessary motions,
determining the best way to do the job, and timing each motion to
determine the amount of production that could be expected per day
(without allowances for delays).
 In this study he wished to know how long it would and should
take a machine or workman to perform a given process to produce a
part using specified materials and methods under controlled stations.
He used stop - watch system to start and finish the test. This study
permitted the determination of practical, relatively precise and
reliable standards of output. That is, the study enabled him to set
feasible standards per man or machinery usually higher than the
average of current performance of that time.

B) Uniform method of routine tasks
 Objective: to adjust worker with workIt is intended to prepare
and direct the effort of those responsible for establishing the
conditions under which these standards could be set and met. With
this objective in mind he worked out such techniques as: instruction
cards, order of work cards, material specialization, inventory control
systems, material handling standards.
C) Functional foremanship study - which man for which work.

 Objective: to scientifically select the best worker for a given job

It was concerned with assuring which man will be best for which job,
considering his initial skill and the potential for learning.
D) Individual Incentive/PIECE RATE SYSTEM/

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  Objective: to determine the appropriate wage or salary In order
to solve the problem of wage systems that encouraged soldiering,
Taylor also advocated the use of wage incentive plans. His study
reached higher pay would serve as an incentive for workers that
would result from the increased productivity. During his (Taylor’s)
time there was a reduction of rates if the workers earn beyond an
acceptable limit. But his view was that, having scientifically
measured the worker’s jobs and set rates accordingly, and then
efficient workers should be rewarded for their productivity without
limit.
 Based on his study, he developed the following principles of
scientific management;
1. The development of true science- he Develop a science for each
element of a job, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb1 method.
2. Scientific selection of workmen- Scientifically select and then train,
teach and develop the worker, whereas in the past a worker chose her
own work and trained herself as best she could for their own and the
company's -prosperity.
3. There is an almost equal division of work and responsibly between
management and workers. The management takes over all work for
which they are better fitted than workers, while in the past almost all
of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown
upon the workers
4. Intimacy and friendly cooperation between management and workers-
Heartily cooperate with the workers to insure all of the work being
done in accordance with the principles of the science, which has been
developed.

1
Rule of thumb is the usual practice at work organizational level, leaving
workers to work according to the initiative of them by managers.

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However Taylor testified that in order for these principles to be successful
“a complete mental revolution” on the part of management and labor
regarding their duties, towards their work, towards their fellow workers
and towards all of their daily problems. It demands the realization of the
fact that their mutual interest is not antagonistic; and mutual prosperity is
possible only through mutual cooperation. i.e, they have common interest in
increasing productivity and mutually cooperate.

 In general, the major theme of scientific management was;

 Work could be studied scientifically
 Work processes are separable into units
 The efficiency of each work unit could be testified and
improved through careful scientific analysis
 Techniques could be applied universally
 Contributions of scientific management school to the
development of public administration(Taylor’s contribution)
 Initiate better performance –through specialization of activities
 The methods of scientific management can be applied to a
variety of organizational activities, besides, those of industrial
organization.
 It provides an ethos and mission in life
 Scientific selection and development of workers has recognized
in all organization
 Efficiency techniques(time and motion study) was still
applicable in any organizations
 Limitations/criticisms/of scientific management theory
 Taylor misread the human element
 He equated people (workers) with machine.
 He said, workers are extension of machine (cops of machine).
 It is impersonal and under emphasis the human factors
 Division of work and specialization was criticized on the ground that

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  Workers get depersonalized/disordered
 Workers loose the sense of participation
 It leads to automation of workers
 He did not consider the organization as a whole but give more
emphasis for production and technical level. i.e, less
interested/concerned about the total work situation rather more
interested in the mechanical aspects of the work
 He saw money only as a motivator
 He believe that people are rational and motivated only by
material gain and
 He failed to recognize the complex nature of human behavior
 The application of scientific principles was not smooth
 Give money for workers and then work, if they do not work,
penalize, if not fire them out
2) Administrative management theory
 Contributors-Henry Fayol-father and founder of adm’ve management
theory
-Gulick and Uwrick
-Mooney and Reiley
 Henry Fayol (1841-1925) –French industrialist
 He focused on the enterprise as a whole, not as a single segment of it
unlike the scientific management theory which focused on
production, technical and operational level of activities.
 Fayol's Administrative Management theory was often considered as
the first complete theory of management, the focus of which was on
the job of the chief executive and on the principle of unity of
command that were most neglected and least understood by
‘Taylor’ but most crucial.
 He divided all activities in an organization under six groups;
a) Technical-producing and managing products
b) Commercial-buying raw materials and selling it

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 c) Security- protecting employees and property
d) Financial- search for and optimum use of capital
e) Accounting- recording and taking stocks of costs, profits and
liabilities, keeping balance sheets, profits and loss statements
f) Administrative- planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating
and controlling
 He also propounded/advocated/the following fourteen principles of
organization;
1) Division of labor or specialization-breaking down tasks into its
components, training workers to become specialist and putting
activities in a sequence so that one person;’s efforts build on
another’s
2) Authority and responsibility- the right give order and an
obligation to do or not to do some thing
3) Discipline- members need to respect rules and agreement that
govern the organization
4) Unity of command- an employee should receive directives from
only one superior. i.e., one person should have one boss/c be
believed that when an employees reported to more than one
superior, conflicts in instructions and confusion of authority would
be resulted.
5) Unity of direction- group of activities with the same objectives
must be coordinated by one head. i.e, one head, one plan and one
set of objectives
6) Subordination of individual interest to the general interest
or common good. i.e., goals and interest of the organization must
precedes over individual or group interest
7) Centralization- he believed that administrator/manager should
retain final responsibility but also need to give/delegate enough
authority to their subordinates to do their jobs properly

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 8) Remuneration of personnel- compensation/wages for work done
should be fair and equitable to both the workers and organization
 It must reflect the living costs, general economic conditions,
values of employees, the demand for labor and economic state
of the organization
9) Scalar chain- the line of authority that extends from the top to the
bottom of the organization must be maintained and define the
communication paths. i.e, it must preserve integrity of hierarchy
and ensures the unity of command
10) Order- materials and people should be in the right place at the
right time
 People in the job/position must suited for that jobs
 A place for everything/everyone/ and everything/everyone in its
place.
11) Equity- in dealing with subordinates, managers should friendly,
fair, kind and lawful so that it is possible to have /produce loyal and
devoted workers
12) Stability of tenure for personnel
13) Initiatives- members of the organization should be give an
opportunity to demonstrate their creativity, exercise their
judgment etc.
14) Spirit De corps- unity is strength and workers, management
should work together.

 LUTHER GULICK AND LYNDALL UWRICK

 They contribute a lot towards formulating principles of administration
and organization based on their experience.

 They also edited papers on ‘science of administration’ in 1937.

 They believed that a science of administration can be developed based

on some principles and experiences of administrators

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 They were heavily influenced by the work of Hennery Fayol

 Gulick – took fayol’s five element of administration such as planning,

organizing, staffing, coordinating, commanding and controlling
as a framework and expand duties of administrators into POSDCoRB.

 He also identified ten principles of administration which is influenced

by Fayol;

1) Division of labor/specialization

2) Bases of departmental organizations/departmentation (function,

territory, product line, customer and process/

3) Coordination through hierarchy

4) Deliberate coordination

5) Decentralization

6) Unity of command

7) Coordination through committee

8) Line and staff-in line structure, there is direct control by the superior
while line authority is providing advice, and counseling.

e.g., HR manager has line authority over staff of HR department and

staff authority in supporting, assisting and advising other manager.

9) Delegation

10) span of control

 Uwrick- also identified 8 principles of administration applicable to

all organization;

1) The principles of objectives- all organization should be an

expression of a purpose

2) The principles of correspondence- authority and responsibility

must be co-equal

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 3) The principle of responsibility- the responsibility of higher
authority for the work of the subordinate is absolute

4) The scalar principle- all organization must have pyramidical

type of structure

5) The principles of specialization- limiting ones work to a

single function

6) The principle of coordination

7) The principle of definitions- clear prescription of every duty

8) The principle of span of control-

 Mooney and Uwrick- they argued that all organizational

structures should be based on the system of superior-subordinate
relationships arranged in a hierarchical order termed as ‘scalar
principle’ and according to this principle, in every organization,
there is a grading of duties in varying degrees of authority and
corresponding responsibility

Contributions of classical theory

 It had laid the foundation for the later developments in

administrative theory

 They identified key administrative processes, function and

skills that are recognized even today

 They give attention on administration as a valid subject of

scientific inquiry. i.e, as a separate field of study

 It was the first attempt to study public administration from

scientific perspective

Limitations of classical theory

 Most of them viewed organizations from mechanical point of

view than social point of view

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  Most of them viewed employees as machines/tools than
human being( Taylor)

 Economic motivation was seen as the only means to motivate

workers to produce more

 Some of the principles are rigid- e.g unity of command

 The theory is more appropriate for stable and simple

organization than for today’s complex and dynamic
environment

3.3. The Neo- Classical School

 There are two related theories;

 Human relation approach-Elton Mayo

 Behavioral approach-Herbert Simon

 Both were emerged as opposing the ideas of classical organization

theory because classical management theory viewed organizations
from the mechanistic view point and considered workers as cogs.
 The neo-classical organization theory deals with man in the
organization.

1) Human relation approach

 The term human-relations mostly refer to relations among workers

and between workers and employers/management which are not
regulated by legal norms. i.e., these relations are concerned with
moral and psychological rather than legal factors.

 It is based on the social environment of work, individual and group

behavior, inter-personal relationship etc.

 It emphasis on the interactions of people and their motivation in the

organization in order to understand the practice of management

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 unlike classical theorists who emphasized on structure and
principles.

 Focused on motivation, communication, work group formation,

leadership and their productive capacity.

 The role of information group within formal organization

 He conducted experiments in 1920 and 1930s to understand the

importance of human aspects;

I. The first inquiry/preliminary investigation

 He started his first study on solving the problem of employee

turnover in textile mile near Philadelphia in 1923.

 In the circumstance, there were no as such problem of turnover in all

department except mule-spinning section where the turnover was
nearly 250 percent. None was able to find out the reason for this
large turnover.

 All possible incentives were introduced to minimize this large

turnover but did not yield any good result. As a last resort the matter
was referred to Harvard University.

 Mayo studied the problem of mule-spinning department intensively

from various angles with the help of management. He introduced rest
periods with every team of pieces.

 The results were encouraging. The scheme was extended to all the
workers to eliminate the problems of fatigue. The symptoms of
uneasiness disappeared, the labor turnover almost came to an end,
production rose and the moral generally improved.

 He named this research “The First Enquiry”.

II. Hawthorne studies

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 Purpose- to study the effect of physical factors (illumination, rest
periods, length of working days and payment schemes) upon
productivity.

 B/c classical organization theorist believed/ assumed that given

proper ventilation, room temperature, lighting and other physical
conditions and wage incentives, the worker could produce more.

 Findings and implications of the study

 There are other factors other than physical factors and monetary
incentives, which affect productivity.

 Social factors- ability to talk to each other, the right to choose

their rest period, the right to leave work station without
permission, the right to have a say in suggested changes etc

 Psychological factors- social acceptance, recognition and

social importance etc

 From this we can understand that human beings are social beings
rather than rational and economic beings.

2) Behavioral approach

 It deals with the ‘inside ‘human being with a focus on the place of
his values and rationality in the working of the organization.

 The human behavior determines the attitudes and working behavior of

people and Understanding of ‘inside’ the man is important to
understand the organization.

 Herbert Simon analyzed the human behaviors in terms of its value

preferences in decision making process. It is this central concern that
is significant to understanding of the organization and its working.

 In conclusion, the classical and neo-classical approaches vary in the

following important aspects:

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  Whereas the human relations school is concerned with the
organization evolving effectively from inter-personal behavior,
the classical school predetermines the organization within
which individuals are required to function
 The human relations approach results in a comparatively flat
organizational structure, whereas the classical approach results
in a pyramidal structure
 Authority is regarded by the human relations approach as a
social factor, but as organizational factor by the classical
approach
3.4. SYSTEM APPROACH

 The systems approach treats organization as an example of a

"system", i.e. a set of interdependent parts forming a whole with the
objective of fulfilling some definable goals

 It views organizations and its environment within which they operate

as sets of inter-related parts to be managed as a whole in order to
achieve common goals.

 According to the systems approach, an organizational system has four

major components.

 Inputs: are the various human, financial, equipment and

informational resources required to produce goods and
services.
 Transformation process: are the organization's managerial
and technological abilities that are applied to convert inputs in
to outputs.
 Outputs: are the products, services and other outcomes
produced by the organization.
 Feedback: is information about results and organizational
status relative to the environment. It is a key to system control.

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3.5. BUREAUCRATIC THEORY

 The bureaucracy is a combination of two words;

 Bureau- an official or organization established to perform

certain activities or it may mean governmental departments

 Cracy- a form of government rules

 Bureaucracy- is the system of official rules and ways of doing things

that a government or an organization has which are complexes in
nature or a system of government in which there are large number of
state officials who are not elected.

 Bureaucracies are most often associated with governments, but any

large organizations such as corporations can be bureaucrat in nature.

 Notable contributors- Robert Michael, Karl Marx and Max

Weber etc.

 KARL MARX(1818-1883) oligarchic

 Prior to the tremendous contribution of Max Weber, Karl Marx

attempted to explain bureaucracy in a scientific manner.

 He tried to conceptualize the role of bureaucracy in his works on state

organizations, while developing a critique of the political economy of
capitalism that existed in Europe in the 19th century.

 Different from Weber's understanding of bureaucracy as an ideal type

that can exist only in abstraction, Marx examined it as a set of
relationships that arise in a specific socioeconomic context.

 He pointed out that bureaucracy arose with capitalism and the nation state in
Western Europe around the sixteenth century.

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 He said that bureaucracy of the state is viewed as an instrument that
the dominant class uses to exercise its power over other social
classes.

 It is in fact, one of the primary means of perpetuating class division and

consolidating the power of the dominant class and he believes that it will be
withered away at the end of class struggle.
 For him, bureaucracy consists of administrators and managers who do not
perform the productive activity themselves, but only control workers.
 He also mentioned typical features of bureaucracy as secrecy,
hierarch/authority as a source of knowledge and closed corporation.
 He further believed that authority is the principle (source) of
knowledge, and the desiccation (preservation) of authority is its
sentiment by maintaining obedience to fixed normal activity, fixed
principles and loyalty.

 For individual bureaucrats, the state's purpose becomes their private purpose
of hunting for higher position and making a career for themselves.
 According to Marx, the bureaucrat cannot be a rational actor in terms of
competence.
 Its hierarchy of structure means a hierarchy of knowledge, thus
comprehensive knowledge is impossible in a situation where knowledge is
deliberately split up into practical reality and bureaucratic reality.
 Generally, Marx as quoted in Rumki Basu (1994:79), described
bureaucracy as follows:

The bureaucracy is a circle from which no one can escape. Its

hierarchy is a hierarchy of knowledge. The top entrusts the
understanding of detail to the lower levels, whilst lower levels
credit the top with understanding of the general and so all are
mutually deceived".

 From his explanations, we can understand that he has overemphasized the

evil side of bureaucracy, and his view is in clear contrast to the conception of

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 his countryman, to the Weberian conception of bureaucracy as
"rationalization of organization".
 Nevertheless, whatever arguments he has made and explanations he
provided about bureaucracy, public administration as a discipline didn't care
much for his views since it was not his purpose to develop a theory of public
administration. He simply wrote a critique on bureaucracy alongside his
famous critique of the political economy of capitalism.
 ROBERT MICHAEL(1876-1936)

 Robert Michael, who is equally known in the theory of bureaucracy,

concentrated his analysis on the internal politics of large
organizations and to the phenomenon of elite domination in
organizations.

 In other words, Michel’s major focus was not on the state bureaucracy but on
the internal political structures of large-scale organizations.
 His observation was based on the internal structure of the German
Socialist Party, which was supposed to be organized along democratic
principles yet the reality was quite different, and he discovered that
the system was oligarchic.

 He concluded that all big organizations tended (had a propensity) to develop

a bureaucratic structure that ruled out the possibility of internal democracy.
 Furthermore, he viewed bureaucracy as inevitable in the modern
state. Through bureaucracy, the politically dominant classes secure
and preserve their power.

 They use, indeed they expand, positions in the bureaucracy to provide

security for middle-class intellectuals who, in turn, support the state

 Bureaucracy tends to oppress the rest of society.

MAX WEBER (1864-1920)

 Bureaucracy as an organizational model was first developed
systematically by him in 19th century.

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 He used an “ideal-type” approach to identify the structure, process and
behavior of bureaucratic organization. The “ideal-type” was not intended to
be an observed reality. Rather, it is a mental construct that claims to identify
what would emerge if a phenomenon (such as bureaucracy) could develop
into its most complete form.
 He did not agree with Marx that bureaucracy will eventually wither away.
Indeed, he predicted that bureaucratic administration will pervade all forms
of organization, whether in the religious, educational, or economic spheres of
life.
 He related bureaucracy to the legitimacy of authority. If people believe that it
is a legitimate authority, then they will obey the order of the superior. Thus,
bureaucracy is based on the notion of rational-legal `authority – that is, an
authority which employees recognize as legitimate - being inherent in the
administrators in the hierarchical structure.
 According to him, every organization can be defined as "a structure of
activities (means) directed towards the achievement of certain
objectives (ends)".

 Every organization develops a system of specialization (division of

tasks) and a set of systematic rules and procedures to maximize
efficiency.

 Weber stressed that the bureaucratic form of organization is capable

of attaining the highest degree of efficiency since the means used to
achieve goals are rationally and objectively chosen towards the
desired ends.

 In this sense, it is the most rational means of carrying out functions

effectively in any organization, superior to every other form in
precision, stability, discipline, and reliability.

 Weber tried to identify the various factors and conditions that

have contributed to the growth of bureaucracy in modern
times. Namely:

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 (a) The development of modern large-scale organizations and
corporations. Whatever may be the evils of bureaucracy, it is
indispensable for the running of complex administrative structures.
(b) The role of expanding technical knowledge and the
development of modern technology. i.e. A considerable degree
of bureaucratic specialization is required to attain high level of
efficiency regardless of the economic system to be either capitalistic
or socialistic.
(c) The capitalist system itself. i.e., the proper functioning of the
capitalist system necessitates a stable state and a well-organized
administration, which is the bureaucracy.
 In addition, Weber specified the following structural and behavioral
characteristics or conditions that an organization must possess before properly
being called or distinguished as a bureaucracy:
1) Division of labor
 This is related to the identification and classification of activities
necessary to accomplish objectives.
 Accordingly, job placement is based qualifications and/or special
training.
2) Hierarchy of authority- it is the feature of any bureaucratic form of
organization.
 The organization of offices follows the principles of hierarchy, with a
clear separation between superior and subordinate offices; i.e. each
lower office is under the control and supervision of a higher one.
 A hierarchy is necessary to coordinate and integrate the activities of
the specialized offices.
 Being a bureaucratic official constitutes a career, and there is a system
of promotion and career advancement on the basis of seniority or
merit, or both.
3) Well define rules and regulations

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  Bureaucracy operates in accordance with a consistent system of abstract
rules laid down regarding the performance of official jobs.
 There is also consistence in the application of the rules to specific cases
to avoid personal favoritism, arbitrariness, or nepotism that would
otherwise hinder the function of an organization.

4) Rationality
 Weber's ideas on efficiency and rationality are closely related
to his ideal (typical) model of bureaucracy.
 For Weber, bureaucracy is the most rational known means of
achieving imperative control over human beings.
 For example, candidates are selected on the basis of technical
qualifications, which will be tested, in the most rational cases,
by examinations, or guaranteed by diplomas certifying
technical competence, etc.
 Personal whims of the leaders are no longer effective in such a
system; there is a clear demarcation between personal and
official affairs.
5) Formal and impersonality
 The bureaucratic form has no place for personal whims,
fancies, or irrational sentiments.
 Officials are subject to authority only with respect to their
impersonal official obligations,
 This requirement is intended to assure equitable treatment of
clients rather than emotionally dominated administration.
6) Neutrality
 Bureaucracy is supposed to be apolitical and neutral in its
orientation.
 It is also value-neutral committed only to the work it is meant
to perform.

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 7) Rule orientation
 the official is subject to strict and systematic discipline and
control in the conduct of his/her office,
 While the first three points are structural characteristics of
bureaucracy, the rest four points are behavioral characteristics.
 He concluded that a fully developed bureaucracy has those
advantages of speed, precision, non-ambiguity, continuity, discretion,
unity, strict subordination, and reduction of friction and of material and
personal costs.
 However, despite the advantages of bureaucracy as stated by Weber,
it was criticized along several lines that stems from its supposed
mechanistic nature.
 Criticisms of bureaucracy
 Too much emphasis on rules and regulations which are rigid
and inflexible. This limits bureaucrats capacity not to adapt to
changing circumstances
 There is limited scope for human aspects and informal groups
in increasing efficiency(Chester Bernard
 Unnecessary delay in decision making due to formalities and
rules
 Difficulty of changing with uncertainty and change. i.e.,
applicable only in stable environment
 The impersonal treatment of clients envisaged by Webber is not
always operable in practice as many research disprove such
principles of impartiality
 Too much emphasis is given to the technical qualifications
employees for promotion and transfer. i.e., dedication and
commitment of employees is not considered
 It is considered as ‘a product of specific historical and political
settings(Riggs)

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  The general rules, which may make for overall efficiency, could
produce inefficiency and injustice in individual cases. E.g.
Bureaucracy has a lot of paper work which results in a lot of
wastage of time, effort and time.

Chapter four
4. Major areas of public administration
4.1. Public policy ( policy-plan-program-projects-activities)
 Policy formulation is necessary prior to every action in every form of
organization, be it private or public
 So, it is a prerequisite for all management.
 Meaning of policy and public policy
 The different definitions of public policy reflects its multi-faceted
nature, yet all draw elements of public decisions, choices, positions and
statements of intents.
 Policy can be broadly defined as a proposed course of action of an
individual, a group, an institution or a government to realize a specific
objective or purpose within a given environment (Rumki Basu).
 Policy is a set of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or
group of actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of
achieving them within a specified situation.

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 It is "a matter of either the desire for change or the desire to protect
something from change" (Barber, 1983:59).
 Barber further added, "Policy making occurs in the determination of
major objectives, in the selection of methods of achieving these
objectives, and in the continuous adaptation of existing policies to the
problems that face the government".
 Policy lays down the framework within which organizational goals
are set to be accomplished. i.e., it give the overall guide by setting up
boundaries/limits and directions within which actions will be taken.
 Policy ingredients:
 Goals-the desired end to be achieved
 Plans or proposals-specific means of achieving the goals
 Programs-authorized means of achieving goals
 Decisions-specific actions taken to set goals, develop plans,
implement and evaluate programs
 Effects-the measurable impacts of program

 Public policy
 Public policies are those policies which are developed governmental
bodies and officials though non-governmental actors and agencies
such as elders, executives, judge, administrators, councilors,
monarchy etc, may also exert direct or indirect influence/pressure in
policy making process.
 Public policy is an attempt by the government to address a public
issue
 Public policy refers to all of the laws, regulations, and other programs
developed by governments to solve problems.
 The government, whether it is city, state, or federal, develops public
policy in terms of laws, regulations, decisions, and actions.
 In general, there are three parts to public policy-making: problems,
players, and the policy;

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  The problem -is the issue that needs to be addressed.
 The player -is the individual or group that is influential in
forming a plan to address the problem in question
 Policy -is the finalized course of action decided upon by the
government.
 The special characteristics of public policies as differentiated from
other policies emanate from the fact that they are by "authorities" in a
political system and the concept of public policy comprises the
following general features;
 Purposive or result oriented action rather than random behavior
or chance happenings is the hallmark (characteristic" of public
policy. i.e., it is formulated to and implemented in order to
achieve objectives
 It is the outcome of governments’ collective actions. i.e., Public
policy refers to the action or decisional pattern taken by public
administrators or government officials in a collective sense on a
particular issue over a period rather than their separate
discrete decisions on that matter in an ad hoc fashion.
 It is what governments actually do and what subsequently
happens, rather than what they intend to do or say they are
going to do,
 It may be either positive or negative in form. Positively, it may
involve some form of government action regarding any issue or
problem; negatively, it may involve a decision by government
officials not to take action on a matter on which governmental
opinion, attitude, or action is asked for,
 At least in its positive form is based on law and is authoritative;
it has a legal sanction behind it, which is potentially coercive in
nature and is binding on all citizens,
 It emerged in response to policy demand on some public issues
made by other actors

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i) Policy and decision
 Most people use the two terms interchangeably.
 Decision- is the act of making a choice
 It is about making a choice from alternatives in order to take action
and it can be taken only when there are more than one alternatives
available
 Policy- is abroad guidelines/rules/principles to make a decision. i.e., it
is a broad directions that guide an organization in order to make
decisions
 It is set of decisions concerning the selection of goals and methods of
attaining them in a specified situation. i.e., it is the sum total of
decisions
Differences- policy is a more comprehensive term as it encompasses a
series of decision
- Policy has comparatively longer time perspectives while
decision can be a one-time action
- Policy making involves decision making, but every
decision is not policy
- Administrators take decisions in their day to day work
within the framework of policy
Similarities – both are concerned with choice among alternatives
-both can follow similar processes in generating alternatives
ii) Policy and politics- in practice policy formulation overlap with
policy decision in policy making processes.
 Policy making is part of politics and political actions
 Policy acts as a specialized branch of theory and practice in politics
iii) Policy formulation and policy decision
 Policy formulation/making is about getting a preferred policy
alternative approved and it selection from among a number of policy
alternatives

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 Policy decision is action taken by officials to approve, modify or reject
preferred policy alternatives. i.e., actions on a preferred policy
alternatives

 Factors determining policy formulation

 Policy-making cannot be adequately understood apart from the
environment in which it takes place.
 Demands for policy actions are generated in the environment and
transmitted to the political system. At the same time, the environment
places limits and constraints upon what can be done by policy makers.
Hence, environment is a decisive factor on public policy formulation.
 Environment, in turn, includes geographical characteristics as natural
resources, climate and topography; demographic variables like
population size, age and sex ratio distribution and spatial location;
political culture; social structure; and the economic system. Of these
environmental aspects, political culture and socioeconomic
variables are considered as the more influential factors in public
policy formulation.
A) Political culture
 Culture- the entire pattern of social life, the inherited modes of living
and conduct that the individual acquires from the community or
environment. Most social scientists agree that culture is one of the
many factors that shape or influence social action.
 Political culture- Political culture is also part of the general culture,
which denotes widely held values, beliefs, and attitudes concerning
governmental policies and actions.
 It is what people believe and feel about government and how they act
towards it.
 It the attitudes, values, beliefs and orientations that individuals in a
society hold regarding their political system.

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 What is relevant here is therefore to see some of the implications and
significance of this culture for policy formulation.
 Differences in public policy making of various countries can be partly
explained in terms of variations in their political culture.
 For example, the time orientation of people-their view of the relative
importance of the past, the present and the future has implications for
policy formulation.
 A political culture oriented more to the past may recognize age-old
traditions, customs and social moves, while future oriented political
culture comprehends to change and innovation.
 Rumki Basu (1994:273) further identified three types of political
cultures as parochial, subject, and participant.
1) In a parochial political culture, citizens have little awareness of or
orientation towards either the political system as a whole or the
citizen as a political participant. Citizen's participation in the policy
formulation in a parochial political culture is essentially non-
existent, and government will be of little concern to most citizens.
2) In a subject political culture as that of in many developing
countries, citizens are oriented towards the political system, yet
they have little awareness of themselves as a participant. They are
aware of governmental authority and they may have political views,
but they are essentially passive. In the subject political culture, an
individual may believe that he/she can do little to influence public
policy, which may lead to his/her passive acceptance of
governmental action.
3) Participant political culture- citizens have high degree of political
awareness, information and have explicit orientation towards the
political system as a whole and people are actively participate in
politics. In addition, government and public policy are viewed as
controllable by citizens. It is also assumed that more demands will

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 be made on government in participatory political culture than the
other two types.
B) Socio-economic Variables
 It is that society's level of economic development will impose
limits on what the government can do in providing public goods
and services to the community.
 Economic development shapes both political processes and
policy outcomes. In other words, differences in the policy
choices of governments with different political systems turn out
to be largely a product of differing socioeconomic levels rather
than a direct product of political variables.
 Levels of urbanization, industrialization, income and education
appear to be more influential in shaping public policy outcomes
than purely political variables like voters' participation, inter-
party rivalry, and political party strength.
 Types of policy
 Policies may be classified in many different ways. The following is a
sample of several different types of policies broken down by their
effect on members of the organization.
A) Distributive policies
 It extends goods and services to members of an organization, as well
as distributing the costs of the goods/services amongst the members
of the organization. Examples include government policies that impact
spending for welfare, public education, highways, and public safety,
or a professional organization.
B) Regulatory policies or mandates
 It limits the discretion of individuals and agencies, or otherwise
compels certain types of behavior. These policies are generally
thought to be best applied when good behavior can be easily defined
and bad behavior can be easily regulated and punished through fines
or sanctions e.g. speed limit

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C) Constituent policies
 It creates executive power entities, or deal with laws. It also deals
with Fiscal Policy in some circumstances.
 Approaches of policy making in the study of public
administration
 There are different conceptual approaches to policy making in the
study of public administration.
 As a field of study, public administration examines every aspect of
governmental efforts to get implemented public policies.
 Simon suggested in that while studying public administration,
scholars should concentrate less on public policy and on the behavior
of decision makers and the process by which they defined public
policy.
 For him, decision-making is the heart of administration; it pervades
the entire administrative process as much as the art of getting things
done.
 He believed that there is a possibility of measuring and evaluating
efficient decision-making, and the need to define, quantify and
measure administrative choice.
 The three decision models, which Simon identified in 1960 include:
 Non-programmed decision-making based on instinct, judgment,
intuition, and other extra-rational factors,
 Pure rationality optimal decision-making, and
 Satisfying decision-making,
 Simon dropped the notion of optimal rational choice altogether and
opted for bounded rationality and a satisfying model of decision-
making. In other words, he believed in that people accept what is
good enough or satisfying to them and don't search for all possible
alternatives so as to select the optimal rational alternative.
 Decision-making process could be broken down into intelligence
(searching the environment for conditions necessary for decision);

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 design (inventing, developing, and analyzing possible courses of
action); and choice (selecting a course of action).
 Charles Lindblom (1959) identified
 the rational comprehensive approach-ways policy making has
been described in theory
 Incremental steps-ways policy making is actually made
A) Rational comprehensive approach
 This approach to decision-making is rational and comprehensive,
because all alternatives and values are taken into account and
logically selected and weighed in their relative importance.
 In this policy approach, an administrator has to follow certain
principles such as identifying a priority objective, rationally ranking
all the relevant "values" or "advantages" to pursue the best policy,
formulating several possible alternatives to achieve the stated
objective, selecting the best alternative, and so on.
 But rational decision-making is difficult in practice since there are a
variety of factors that complicate the task of the policy maker.
 The rational method has been criticized as being impracticable for a
number of reasons:
 It is practically impossible to collect all information and make a
complete list of policy options,
 The process involved in this approach is time consuming and
expensive,
 The assumptions that values can be ranked and classified is
erroneous, since there are always differences among the
legislatures, administrators and the public on the values that a
nation should pursue,
 The assumptions to consider everything before a new policy is
decided is impossible since the consequences of adopting a new
policy is in most cases unknown

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B) The incremental approach
 Although the rational comprehensive approach is theoretically good,
what actually occurs in administrative decisions is quite different; i.e.
"successive limited comparison" technique or incremental step.
 In this approach, Firstly, administrators operating under limited
resources take up on a priority bases, programs of immediate
relevance. Secondly, they do not outline a wide range of possibilities
in selecting appropriate policies, but only a few "incremental" steps
that appear to them feasible on the basis of their experiences.
 Two advantages of instrumentalism are identified, namely:
 Decision-makers could proceed through a succession of small
incremental changes, thereby have the advantage of avoiding
serious alterations in case of mistakes in decision making,
 This method is truly reflective of the policy-making process by
means of consensus and gradualism and contemplates possible
changes in public policies,
 Though it is widely accepted that incrementalism describes the reality
of the policy making process, it has its own disadvantages or
weaknesses, among which:
 Incrementalism can result in important policy options being
overlooked,
 Incrementalism discourages social innovation and is partisan in
approach, which in reality means the interests of the most
powerful get maximum attention by policy-makers,
 Incrementalism cannot be applied to fundamental decisions
such as declaration of war, hence cannot be considered as an
approach without flaws or mistakes,

 Official Policy Makers

 Official policy-makers are those who are legally empowered to
formulate public policy.

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A) Legislature- it tends to have greater independence in policy making in
presidential systems (USA) than in parliamentary systems (Britain).
B) Executive(political executives)-modern governments everywhere
depends upon executives leadership both in policy formulation and
implementation
C) Administrative agencies- they make law through delegated legislation.
Why?
 Technical complexity of many policy matters
 Legislature’s lack of time and information etc.
D) Courts- in countries where courts have the power of judicial review(in
common law countries such as UK, USA), they have played an
important role in policy formulation
 Unofficial policy makers
 Includes, political parties, interest groups, civil society organization,
individual citizens etc.
 Public Policy Evaluation
 Once we make public policy and implement it, it is imperative that the
effects of such policies have to be evaluated and analyzed.
 Public policy evaluation is concerned with the analysis of the effects of
governmental decisions on the target public.
 In other words, it is an attempt to assess the content and effects of
policy on those for whom it is intended. It means commenting on the
merits and demerits of a policy.
 Often policy evaluation occurs throughout the policy process, not
necessarily at its termination stage.
 There are generally three recognized methods of policy evaluation;
namely:
(a) Policy impact evaluation: It is an assessment of program (policy)
impact and effectiveness, the extent to which programs are
successful in achieving the intended objectives,

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(b) Policy strategy evaluation: This refers to the assessment of the
relative effectiveness of program strategies and variables with
emphasis on determining the most effective and productive
strategies, methods and procedures,
(c) Policy project appraisal: It is a process of assessing individual
projects through site visits and other means with emphasis on
managerial and operational efficiency.
 In discussing policy evaluation, we need also to understand the
differences between policy output and policy outcome.
 Policy output refers to the quantifiable actions of the government
that can be measured in concrete terms,
 Policy outcomes refer to the qualitative impacts of public policies
on the lives of the people.
4.2. Personnel Administration
 Personnel administration is that part of administration concerned
with the management of people at work. In other words the central
concern of personnel management is the efficient utilization of
employees of an organization.
 It is the art and science of planning, organizing, implementing and
evaluating the personnel resources in government organization to ensure
their best use for the achievement of the objectives, goals and targets of an
organization.
 In general, public personnel administration is a branch of public
administration which is concerned with effective management of people at
work in government organizations, institutions and departments.
 The success and failure of any organization depends the competence,
culture and interests of workers.

4.2.1. Functions of public personnel administration

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 The core functions of public personnel administration are those which public
agencies must perform in order to permit public employees to work competently
under satisfying working conditions:
1. Recruitment, Selection and promotion (Procurement)
 Recruitment is a process through which suitable candidates are included to
compete for appointments to the public service
 Selection is the process of choosing individuals who have relevant
qualifications to fill jobs in an organization.
 Recruitment and selection of personnel is one of the crucial tasks of modern
government and lies at the heart of the problem of personnel administration.
 Recruitment and selection in the public service should be based on the
principles of merit and nondiscrimination.
 Building a motivated and capable civil service requires merit-based
recruitment and selection (although for high-level appointments merit may
well include an element of personal commitment to the political leadership and
its agenda).
 The recruitment and selection process includes a number of different steps,
which are as follows:
i. Develop/obtain accurate job description:
ii. Defining the ideal candidate:
iii. Announcement of vacancies (invitation of candidates) through
newspapers, journals, and any appropriate media,
iv. Short-listing of the most appropriate applicants:
v. Holding of examinations for testing or determining the
abilities of recruits (exams would be in the form of interviews, written
tests, or practical tests)
vi. Selecting the best or eligible candidate/s from among those
who have been examined or tested
vii. Placement or appointment of selected recruits. Appointment
could be permanent, temporary, provisional, or probationary.
viii. Induction or orientation of the employee

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 2. Human resource planning
 It is the process through which a government strives to ensure that it has the
appropriate quantity and quality of employees to carry out its responsibilities.
 It aims to eliminate the gap between the existing supply of qualified
employees and the current and anticipated demand.
 The objectives of personnel planning are:
 to monitor and control the growth of government employment
according to fiscal targets;
 to ensure that existing staff are utilized and effectively deployed in
response to government policy and development priorities;
 To enable the government to achieve its strategies for staff acquisition,
retention, development, and exit.
3. Job analysis and job evaluation
 Job analysis is a systematic procedure for gathering, analyzing and
documenting information about particular jobs.
 It is the process of defining a job in terms of its components, activities
and requirements.
 The immediate products of job analysis are job description and job
specification.
 Job description is a written statement that describes the activities and
responsibilities of the job
 Job specification summarizes the personal qualities, skills, and
background required for getting the job done.
 Job evaluation is concerned with establishing the relative worth of a job
compared to other jobs within an organization.
 The techniques of job evaluation include market based evaluation, whole-job
ranking, point rating and factor comparison, and position classification.
4. Compensation
 Compensation is concerned with every type of rewards individuals
receive in exchange for performing organizational tasks.
5. Performance evaluation/appraisal

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 It is a systematic evaluation of the performance of employees against
agreed upon standards.
 Performance appraisal may be understood as the assessment of an
individual’s performance in a systematic way.
 The aim of performance appraisal;
 To improve current performance
 To assess training and development needs
 To assess future potential for promotion
 For salary review purpose
 To know factors influencing performance of employees including
leadership styles and behaviors etc.
6. Training and development
 It is designed to improve the administrative machinery by enhancing
the knowledge, attitudes and skills of employees.
 The term training and development are used interchangeably by many
people. However, the former focuses on present jobs while the latter
prepares employees for possible future jobs.
 The terms training and education are also often used as if they are
synonymous. But they are not, and an understanding of the
differences between them is important to understand the training
process in organizations. Both training and education are processes,
which help people to learn, but they differ in orientation and
objectives. Attwood and Dimmock (1996:96) simply described:
 Training as "...oriented towards the needs of the organization,
specific to the employee's work situation, aimed at making workers
more effective in their jobs, relatively short in timescale, and often
fairly narrow in content".
 Education as "...oriented to the needs of the individual, more
abstract in nature, geared to the needs of the individual and to the
society generally, generally a long-term process in terms of
timescale, and widely drawn in content".

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 7. Ensuring employees rights and obligations
 Government employees, whether as employees or as citizens, have
five basic rights:
 some protection for the job itself and the right not to be
downgraded, disciplined, or dismissed without due process
 nondiscrimination on the basis of race, religion, or gender;
 freedom of speech and religion, subject to reasonable restrictions
 respect for individual privacy, also under reasonable restrictions;
and
 Right of association, including the right to form unions.
8. Promotion, demotion and transfer

4.2.2. The concept of career civil service

 Herman Finer, quoted in Rumki Basu (1994:295), defines the civil
service as a "professional body of officials, permanent, paid and
skilled".
 In this connection, a civil servant may be understood as a "servant of
the general public (not being the holder of a political or judicial
office), who is employed in a civil capacity and whose remuneration is
wholly paid from the budget provided by the parliament or any
legitimate body of the government".
 This does not include army forces, the judges, the parliament, and
seasonal workers.
 The civil service constitutes the "permanent" executive in the modern
state.
 The major requirement of the civil service is that it shall be
"impartially selected, administratively competent, politically neutral,
and imbued (instilled) with the spirit of service to the community".
 Willoughby defined career civil service as:
"A system that offers equal opportunities to all citizens to enter
the government service, equal pay to all employees doing work

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 requiring the same degree of intelligence and capacity, equal
opportunities for advancement, equal favorable conditions and
equal participation in retirement allowances and makes equal
demands upon the employees".
 Professionalisation of the civil service became absolutely necessary to
attract the best available talent to government jobs and enable them
to make a rewarding career of it. For example a Commission
established in 1933 in the US defined the concept of career civil
service and identified its main characteristics as:
 High prestige and status attached to government service,
 Appropriate recruitment procedures,
 Broad avenues for promotion and transfer of personnel,
 Clear pay scales, and
 Adequate retirement and pension system
 In addition/similar to the above outlined ones, the main
characteristics of a career civil service that have got common
acceptance are:
(1) Permanence of tenure and stability of service,
(2) Equal opportunity of competing for government services,
(3) Merit to be the sole criteria of recruitment with due recognition
to ability and personal efficiency in a sound promotion system,
(4) Fairly large extent of territorial jurisdiction of public employees
to enlarge their scope of activity and improve their avenues for
promotions, and
(5) Adequate steps taken to provide in-service training to civil
servants to keep them in touch with the latest trends and
developments in administrative theory and practice.
 Ideally, a career civil service is a system of service, with recruitment
on merit, security of tenure, and due recognition of service and merit
through timely promotions. Every organization has its own service
systems comprising permanent civil service groups, whose size and

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 function depend on the nature of the organization. Modern civil
service constitutes people with both general and technical
qualifications.
 Therefore, Career civil service has been understood as a system
aimed at recruiting young people having the talent and ambition, with
capacity for learning and growth, training them in order to develop
their potentialities for the service of the state.
 The basic task of the civil servants is to transform politics into action.
Besides, the higher echelons of the civil service assist their political
superiors in policy-formulation through expertise advice, assistance,
and information. With the diversification of the nature of the civil
service personnel, civil servants of the technical category engaged in
various productive and public sector organizations are rendering
useful social and economic services to the people.

4.2.3. Some issues in personnel administration

A) Civil Service Neutrality
 The theory of the neutrality of the civil services was developed in
England to maintain the continuity of the civil service within the
unstable political system due to periodic elections and the resultant
change of government.
 Career administrators perform mainly the following functions:
i) Execution of laws and government decisions,
(ii) Providing expert guidance, information and managerial
assistance to the political executive,
(iii) Maintaining the continuity of administration
(iv) Helping the political executive to understand the probable
consequences of alternative courses of action,
 Unlike the political appointee, such as a minister, a career official is
professional in administrative affairs and enjoys a permanent tenure,
and is expected to be non-partisan and politically neutral.

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 Political neutrality means not only the absence of political activity or
bias on the part of civil servants, but also that they will serve every
government that comes to power irrespective of its party affiliations.
 The main reason for the advocacy of civil service neutrality is that the
civil servant can serve the changing governments drawn from
different parties with the same vigor and honesty
 Apart from the rights of civil servant in voting, if they engage in
partisan politics their role as an impartial advisor would be seriously
impaired in the eyes of the public.
 The issue of civil service neutrality doesn't mean differences in goals
or objectives with that of the political appointee. Rather, if the
administration is to work efficiently and smoothly and the government
objectives to be achieved successfully, the political executive (for
example, the minister) and the civil servant must work in close
cooperation and harmony.

 The basic assumptions behind the concept of bureaucratic neutrality

are that it seeks to reflect the merit system in those systems where
the concept is recognized in the behavior of the bureaucrat, and that
the advantages of permanency, continuity, reliability, and
professionalism far outweigh the disadvantages, conservatism,
reluctance, to depart from to accommodate change
 These assumptions are, however, refused in modern times in all
political systems- including Western democracies where such ideas
originated. Therefore, the only acceptable connotation of the doctrine
of civil service neutrality seems to be an idea of non-partisanship and
impartiality in the sense that they shouldn't carry on their operations
in any political considerations.
 The relevance of the classical theory of neutrality has often been come
to be questioned for the following reasons;

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  The process of policy decision-making is no longer confined to
the political executive; it trickles down or percolates through
the entire structure or makeup of the government resulting in
the inescapable items of delegation that let administrators to
make bylaws or sub-policy decisions.
 In the context of large-scale welfare governments, neutrality is
neither possible nor desirable. A certain commitment to the
goals and objectives of the state is inescapable in the face of the
civil servant-neutrality cannot be allowed to degenerate into
disinterestedness.
 In the sphere of policy advice and execution, modern
bureaucracy takes an active part.
 As a human being, civil servant cannot be psychologically
neutral on issues and problems, which confront them.

B) The Generalist-Specialist Controversy

 A generalist is a public servant who has no specialized background
and who can be moved to any department or branch of administration.
 The generalist is well versed in the procedures of administration and
generally performs POSDCORB functions. In some instances, a
generalist officer is understood as one with a liberal college education
and, after some training, appointed to a middle level supervisory post,
which doesn't call for any compulsory technical qualification.
 They occupy the superior position, which comprises policy making
level.
 The specialist is one who has special knowledge or skill in a
particular field such as a doctor, an engineer, a technician, etc
 This may include not only services discharging a technical function
based on a pre-entry vocational training, but also those which after
entry specialize in particular areas of administration requiring no pre-

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 entry vocational training. The specialized services are also called
"functional services".
 The specialist or technical officer is also the incumbent of a
supervisory position, which calls for specialized skills and for which a
technical or professional qualification is laid down. The field positions
manned by specialist group are headed by members of the specialist
group.
 The generalist-specialist classification of civil servants is mainly
implemented mainly in those countries, which follow the British model
of civil service administration. It means the dichotomy of the civil
service into a "higher administrative class and subordinate technical
services", making subordination of the specialist to the generalist.
C) Integrity in public administration
 The problem of administrative corruption is perhaps as old as
administration itself, but the problem of public accountability is as
old as the theory and practice of democratic administration. The
enormous expansion of the government bureaucracy, touching all
aspects of the citizens' live, has brought the problem of effective
public checks and control on public administration to the forefront.
 Public authorities must behave appropriately in their dealing with
private citizens, businesses and other public authorities.
 Office holders and public servants must behave professionally and
ethically. they must not commit fraud, accept bribes or leak
confidential information.
 However, the expansion of governmental tasks results in the
multiplications of the volume of work where administrative power and
discretion are vested at different levels of the governmental hierarchy
which expose them to abuse their power and affect the life of the
people.

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 Executive discretion, delegated legislation, and administrative
adjudication are vitally connected with problem of public
accountability of administration.
 Recent trends in the world administrative system, including in
developing countries, have showed encouraging responses through
the establishment of institutional devices to fight against such
administrative excesses. The most common institutional devices are
the following:
 Administrative Courts or Tribunals- set up to deal with or to solve
disputes between civil servants and the organization, among workers
themselves and other.
 This method has been practiced in Ethiopia since 1962 with the
establishment of the "Central Personnel Agency-CPA", in its former
name
 The court also currently exists in the Federal Civil Service
Commission-FCSC", which was formerly known as CPA with in fact
reduced jurisdictional power as compared to what it had previously.
 The procurator- It is an important institutional mechanism for
redressing citizens' grievances and ensuring observance of legality at
all levels of the administration. The procurator is in charge of many
functions including prosecution of crimes, supervision over legality in
the activity of the investigating agencies, judicial sentences and
judgments, and legality of the execution of sentences. However, its
most significant function is that of "general supervision".
 The ombudsman- it is an officer appointed by the legislature to
handle complaints against administrative and judicial action. The
Ombudsman is established as an instrument of the parliament for the
supervision and control of the administration. In investigating of
complaints, the Ombudsman has free access to all the files of the
administration and can demand explanations from the officials or
authorities concerned. Ombudsman can investigate all cases of

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 administrative malpractices and improper use of authority, complaints
against administrative decisions or actions as well as complaints of
inefficiency and negligence.
 Informal agencies such as political parties, interest groups, press
and mass media, public opinion etc also play a decisive role in
controlling power administration.
4.3. Financial administration
4.3.1 Meaning of Financial administration
 Financial administration is the management of the finance of a state
or of a public authority endowed with taxing and spending powers.
Sound Financial administration is vital to the success of any
organization. Efficiency and economy are the two watchwords
(mottos) of public finance. Financial administration seeks to arise,
spend and account for the funds need for public expenditure.

 Financial administration involves the activities of four agencies: the

Executive, which needs and spends the funds; the Legislature, which
grants the funds and appropriates them to particular agencies; the
Finance Ministry, which controls the expenditure; and the Audit,
which sits in judgment over the way in which the funds have been
spent. All these agencies have their own role in financial
administration.

4.3.2 Sources of Public Finance

 The main sources of finance in most governments are taxes, print
money, and borrowing, sales of assets, user charges and fees
 Taxes are the main sources of public revenues. Taxes are defined as
involuntary or compulsory payments associated with certain activities
of physical or legal persons without explicit relationship. Taxes could
also be further divided as direct and indirect. The difference between
direct and indirect taxes is that the later is paid in connection to

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 production, consumption, imports or exports whereas, direct taxes are
levied on employed, self-employed and owners of partnerships.
4.3.3 Budget
 It is a balanced estimate of expenditures and receipts (revenues) for a
given period of time.
 For the administrator, the budget is a record of past performance, a
method of current control, and a projection of future requirements or
plans.
 A budget is a financial report of statement and proposals are
periodically placed before the legislature for its approval and/or
sanction
 So, it is an instrument of financial administration, and for the analysis
of a government policy in financial administration.
4.4. Development administration/development economics
 Development administration is primarily a post Second World War
phenomenon.
 It was coined in 1955 or 1956
 Is the term used to denote the complex of agencies, management
systems and processes a government establish to achieve its
development goals.
 It is the public mechanism set up to relate the several components of
development in order to articulate and accomplish the national economic
and social objectives.
 It is the adjustment of bureaucracy to the vastly increased number,
variety, and complexity of government functions required to respond to
public demands for development.
 It is xed by its purposes, its loyalties and its attitudes.
 Elements of development administration
 Change Orientation: Development administration believes in
countering inertia and redundancy by self-regulating/adaptive
mechanisms. The external environment is constantly in a state of flux

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 and administration has to adjust to maintain its relevance. Change
within and in relation to without is the guiding philosophy of
development administration.
 Goal Orientation: Development is goal -directed activity in that goals
are systematically planned and set and all activity geared towards
their realization. Progress towards goals is progressively
monitored/evaluated and on-course correctives applied to maintain
goal orientedness. Procedure is compromised upon if need be, for goal
attainment
 Client Orientation: The clientele to be serviced are at the focus of
concern. A strong welfare orientation informs development
administration ethic, which makes it basically/essentially people
centered. It is responsive to people’s needs and entails moral
responsibility in official functioning, so services are duly rendered. It
is not administration for administration’s sake, but administration for
services’ sake. Administration in the final analysis exists for people
and the ultimate test of its efficiency/effectiveness is the
extent/degree to which service delivery is made effective. Another
aspect of client orientation is giving voice to people’s opinions, needs
and desires. This is secured by means of peoples’ participation in
development programmes. This is done by means of grass roots
planning and councils/committees with representations from peoples’
groups.
 Effective Integration: Development administration launches an
ambitious scheme of programmes and projects. Agencies are set up
for the purpose that performs specialized tasks. These agencies need
to be brought into a meaningful pattern of integrations so
administration works in a coordinated pattern.
 Ecological Perspective: Development administration does not
function as an insulated/isolated system but as one fully cognizant of
the environment around and in a healthy state of interaction with

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 variables occurring in the environment likely to affect organizational
functioning. Ecology is a term borrowed from physical sciences and
implies the milieu (socio-cultural as also politico-economic) within
which administration functions. Culture provides an operative
framework for development administration and to that extent is an
important determinant of administrative performance.
4.5. Administrative law
 Meaning and scope of Administrative law
 There is no universally accepted definition of Administrative law.
 Administrative law is part of public law (constitutional law, Administrative law, tax law,
criminal law, procedural law) that deals with the structure, powers and functions of the
organs of administration, the limits of their powers, the methods and procedures followed
by administrative authorities in exercising their powers and functions, the methods by
which their powers are controlled including the legal remedies available to a person
against them when his rights are infringed by their operation.
 Administrative law, according to this definition, deals with four aspects.
 Firstly, it deals with composition and the powers of administrative authorities
 Secondly, it fixes the limits of the powers of those authorities.
 Thirdly, it prescribes the procedure to be followed by these authorities in exercising such
powers
 Fourthly, it controls these administrative authorities through judicial and other means.
 To fight and control abuse of administrative power, various institutional devices were
established, including; Administrative Courts or Tribunals, The procurator, The
ombudsman and other Informal agencies

Chapter five
5. Comparative public administration
5.1. Meaning of comparative public administration
 It refers to a comparative study of government administrative systems
functioning in different countries around the world.

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  Robert J. Jackson gave a broader, more acceptable definition of
comparative public administration when he defined it as “that fact of
the study of public administration, which is concerned with making
rigorous cross cultural comparisons of the structures and processes
involved in the activity of administering public affairs.”
5.2. Significance of comparative public administration
 There are two factors that make comparative studies significant.
 The first factor relates to the academic study of public administration
 It is believed that generalizations relating to administrative
structure and behavior emerging out of comparative studies in
different nations and cultures can help in formulating
theoretical constructs which can provide a scientific basis to the
study of public administration
 The study of comparative public administration also contributes
to a greater understanding of the individual characteristics of
administrative systems functioning in different nations and
cultures.
 Besides, comparative studies also help in explaining factors
responsive for cross-national and cross-cultural similarities as
well as difference in the administrative systems.
 The second important function of comparative public administration
relates to its relevance to the empirical world.
 Through a study of comparative public administration,
administrators, policy makers, and academicians can examine
causes for the success or failure of particular administrative
structure and patterns in different environment settings.
 Through comparative analysis as to which important
environmental factors help in the promotion of the
administrative effectiveness and successfully in what type of
environmental settings.

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  Through comparative public administration, we learn about the
administrative practices followed in various nations and then
we can endeavor to adopt those practices which can fit in our
own nations and systems.
 The importance of comparative public administration lies in its
academic critics in terms of scientific and systematic study of
public administration and in improving the knowledge about
other administrative systems so that appropriate administrative
reforms and changes can be brought about in different nations.
5.3. Evolution of comparative public administration
 Comparative public administration is a relatively new field of study
which emerged only after the Second World War.
 Henderson argued that the intellectual roots of comparative public
administration lie in the American behavioral sciences.
 During this period, scholars of public administration felt a great deal
of dissatisfaction with the parochial nature of traditional approaches
to the discipline. Ethnocentric bias was only too evident as American
experiences were taken as the only bases of generalizations.
Administrative science which was sought to be erected thereby could
not be authentic/ satisfactory.
 Robert Dahl was only too emphatic and critical about/of the parochial
nature of public administration research. He was very explicit in
expressing the need for comparison as a prerequisite for the
development of a science of administration.
 Frederick Riggs identified three major trends which were
noticeable in the comparative study of public administration. These
were:
 Normative to Empirical
 Traditional studies of public administration were to a large extent
influenced by the classical approach. The emphasis was on proffering
certain ideal principles for good administration. Efficiency and

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 economy were considered to be the primary goals of all administrative
systems and there were certain principles of formal organization,
which were held to help in the achievement of these goals. Therefore
a few models of administration, primarily of the western democratic
world were considered to be useful for all other administrative
systems.
 But as a number of developing countries emerged on the scene along
with the success of the communist system in various parts of the
world it became clear that a limited, culture bound normative
approach to the study of public administration would not be adequate.
Since the behavioral movement highlighted the value of studying facts
or ‘reality’ in a significant manner, the comparative studies of public
administration after the Second World War started assigning greater
importance to the study of administrative ‘reality’ existing in different
countries and cultures. These studies were more interested in finding
out facts about structural patterns and behaviors of administrative
systems rather than in prescribing what was good for each system.
 In this context it may be mentioned that two important trends have
influenced the study of comparative studies during the past two
decades. The first is the concept of development administration which
focuses on the goal orientation of an administrative system and is
basically a normative concept. Though it considers reality as the basis
of such goal orientation, the emergence of development
administration as a focus of inquiry since early sixties comparative
public administration has evolved a synthesis between the normative
and the empirical elements of analysis. The second is the New Public
Administration Movement, which sought to bridge the gap between
‘is’ and ‘should’ aspects of public administration. In the late sixties,
the new public administration marked the post- behavioral trend and

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 its impact upon most administrative analyses has since been
profound.
 Ideographic to Nomothetic
 The words ideographic and nomothetic have been employed by Riggs
to explain specific contexts of administrative studies. An ideographic
approach concentrates on unique cases, e.g. a historical event, study
of a single agency, country or even a single cultural area. Earlier
studies of comparative public administration which were ideographic
in character were comparative only in name and did not help the
process of theory building or develop generalizations concerning the
functioning of administrative systems in different systems.
 Nomothetic approach on the other hand seeks to develop
generalizations and theories based on the analysis of regularities of
behavior exhibited by administrative systems/cultures existing in
different nations and cultures and attempts to draw certain
generalizations.
 Presently, a large number of comparative administrative studies are
ideographic in character.
 Non- Ecological to Ecological
 The traditional studies of comparative public administration were
mainly non- ecological in nature.
 Studies undertaken after the Second World War have specifically
looked at similarities and differences among environmental settings
prevailing in different nations and cultures and have attempted to
examine the impact of the environment on the administrative system
on the one hand and the influence of the administrative system on the
environment on the other.
5.4. What to Compare?
In comparative administration studies the unit of analysis is the
administrative system. The focus therefore, is either on the whole of an

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administrative system or on its various parts. The subject matter of
comparison would be one or all of the following phenomena:
 Environment of the administrative system.
 The whole administrative system.
 The formal structure i.e. hierarchy, division of work, specialization,
authority/ responsibility, network, decentralization, delegation, control
mechanisms, procedures etc.
 The informal patterns existing in an administrative set up including
the nature of human groups, relationships among individuals,
motivational system and state of morale, patterns of informal
communication and the nature of leadership.
 Roles of individuals making up the system.
 Interaction between personalities and the organizational system.
 The policy and decisional systems of the organization that link its
various parts.
 The communication system, which also involves the feedback
mechanism.
 Performance of administrative systems.
Levels of analytical analysis in Comparative Public Administration
Comparative administrative studies can be conducted at three analytical
levels:
Macro studies
 Focuses on the comparisons of whole administrative systems in their
proper ecological contexts, For instance:
o Comparison of the administrative systems of India and USA
o In this comparison, a detailed analysis of all importance aspects
and parts of the administrative systems of the two-nations
 The relationship between an administrative systems and external
environment are high lighting in the macro level studies.

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Middle- range studies
 Are in certain important parts of an administrative system that are
sufficiently large in size and scope of functioning. For instance: A
comparison of the structure of higher bureaucracy of two or more
nations or a comparison of local government in different countries will
form part of middle range studies
Micro studies
 Relate to comparisons of an individual organization with its
counterpart in other countries
 It might relate to an analysis of a small part of an administrative
system such as the recruitment or training systems in two or more
administrative organizations
 Are more feasible to be undertaken and a large number of such
studies have been conducted by scholars of public administration

In the contemporary comparative public administration, all the three types

of studies co-exist.
Range of Comparative Studies

Inter-institutional analysis: It involves a comparison of two or more

administrative systems. For example, a comparison of the structure and
working of the Home Ministry of the Government of India with the Defense
Ministry will be a case of inter-institutional analysis. Such comparisons
could involve either the whole of an administrative organization or its
various parts.
Intra-national analysis: When an analysis in the comparative perspective
is taken up among various administrative systems functioning within a
country, it would be an intra-national analysis. Comparison of district
administration in Bihar and Punjab would be an example of such analysis.

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Cross-national analysis: When two or more administrative systems (or
their parts) are compared inter-nation, it forms a case of cross-national
analysis. For example, comparing the recruitment of higher civil services of
China, Thailand and Tanzania would be cross national in nature.
Cross-cultural analysis: A cross- national analysis of administrative
system involving countries from different “cultures” is called, a cross-
cultural analysis. For instance, comparing the administrative system of the
U.S.S.R (a socialist state) with the U.S (a capitalistic system) or comparison
between developed and a developing country would be cross-cultural in
nature.
Cross-temporal analysis: Such a comparison involves different time
frames for analyses. For instance, a comparison between the administrative
system prevailing during Asoka’s reign and Akbar’s, would be a cross-
temporal analysis. A cross-temporal analysis may be inter-institutional,
intra-national, cross -national or cross –cultural.

5.5. Approaches to Comparative Public Administration

There are a number of approaches, models and theories presently
characterizing the subject-area of comparative public administration.
Particularly after Second World War, a number of approaches have been
based on an adaptation of the developments in comparative anthropology;
comparative sociology and comparative politics.

o The most influential of the approaches is Max Weber’s ideal type of

bureaucratic model. This has structural characteristics of hierarchy,
specialization, role-specificity, and recruitment by merit, promotion by
seniority-cum-merit, career development, training, discipline,
separation between personal and official means, etc.

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o Behavioral approach emphasizes ‘facts’, rigorous scientific analysis
etc. It focuses on the analysis of human behavior in administrative
settings

o Systems approach views the public administration as a sub system

of society. It looks at various parts of an administrative system (formal
organization, informal organization, roles, and individuals) and
examines the inter-linkages among various parts. Besides, the
approach analyses the dynamic interactions between the
administrative system and its external environment.

o Ecological approach has been stressed by Fred Riggs. This

approach examines the interactions between an administrative
system, economic system and its external environment. Thus the
impact of the political system, economic system, social system and the
cultural system on the structure and behavior of the administrative
system on these environmental structures is highlighted in the
ecological approach.

o Structural -functional approach is mainly drawn from

anthropology and sociology. A structure according to this approach is
a pattern of behavior that has become a standard feature of a social
system. Further a function denotes the impact of a structure on
another structure and the inert relationships among the various
structures. Fred Riggs applied the ecological and structural-functional
approaches in his analysis of societies and their administrative
systems. His typology of “agrarian-transitia-industria” system
developed in 1957, was superseded by the typology of “functional
prismatic –diffracted” societies that was constructed in 159. for the
past thirty years or so, Riggs model

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o Information-energy model of John Dorsey and decision-making
model of Martin Landau. Never the less, other models have not been
able to match the comprehensiveness and acceptability of Weber’s
bureaucratic model, Riggs’s prismatic model and of course the
construct of development administration.

o Development Approach: There is a lot in common between

comparative public administration and development administration.
There is an apprehension however that comparative public
administration may ultimately be overwhelmed by the tide of
development administration. It should therefore concentrate also on
questions other than those connected with development
administration. Development administration is only a facet of
comparative administration and should be seen as such. Its role
should neither be exaggerated nor underplayed.

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