INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMNINSTRATION

Course code : PAS111 Lecturers name: Prof Mustaffa K Hussein

THE CONCEPT, SCOPE AND ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMNINSTRATION

The term public as used in the study of public administration

•​ The term public has a special meaning in the study of public administration. Public refers to the collectivities or
institutions or organizations that are funded by tax payers money and they are responsible for the welfare of the public.

•​ Public is associated with the institutions of state/institutions of government apparatus/affairs.

•​ Public is referred to as the institutions or organizations that are concerned with the public affairs or interests eg
government departments, government agencies.

•​ Cohen defines public as collectivities with public purposes

•​ He also suggested that public is an expression of Union relating to a nation or community with something to do with
people.

•​ A public is an expression of a phenomenon

ADMINSTRATION

•​ It is derived from Latin word ministrare which means to serve/manage/to care for people.

•​ Administration is organizing and using human and material resources to achieve desired goals and objectives.

•​ GLAGGIN wrote in his book ‘introduction to public administration’ means to care or look after people

•​ He defined it as a determined action taken in order to achieve something

•​ Administration is a process which joins group efforts and people who cooperate and coordinate to achieve desired goals
and objectives.

•​ Administration refers to a process which is goal oriented, purposive, coordinative and cooperative which is undertaken
by a group of people to achieve common goals and objectives.

•​ SHARMA AND SADANAH defined public administration as a specialized vocation of managers who have special
skills of organizing people towards achievement of desired goals.

•​ Administration refers to a process which is goal orientated, purposive, coordinative and co-operative and it is
undertaken by a group of people in order to achieve some goals or objectives.

•​ Public administration is used in two senses;

•​ As an activity

•​ As a body of knowledge

(a) AS AN ACTIVITY
 •​ Public administration is a detailed and systematic application of law according to professor Woodrow Wilson

-Every particular application of the law is an act of administration. The means and the administering laws are declared
by legislature and interpreted by the judiciary (Wilson Woodrow 1953: 65-75)

- It is related to the operations of the government whether local or central (Percy Macqueen)

-It is concerned with the administration (getting things done); that part of science of administration which has to do
with government.

-It is primarily concerned with the executive branch where the work of the government is done (the management of
public affairs as distinguished from political function of the policy making) though there are obviously with problem in
connections ie the judiciary and the legislature (Gullick, 1973:91)

•​ Doing the work of government eg running x-ray machines or coining money in the mint

•​ Activities which may be highly technical or specialized and supervising the activities so that some order and efficiency
may result from their efforts(Pfiffner,1946:6)

•​ It denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of government affairs.

•​ It is the machinery of implementing government policy that involves large amounts of resources and of benefit or
relevance to many people/ for the greater good.

•​ It is also related to activities of the executive arm of the government by Simon

•​ It is a cooperative group effort in a public setting with an important role In the formulation of public policies and part
of the political process: it covers the three branches of the government, ie, the legislature, the executive and the
judiciary(Nigro, 1971:21)

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (Generic definition- not restricted to the state/government)

•​ A common process or activity that exists in an organizational set up or social groupings with hierarchical structure that
use resources to achieve objectives eg church, business, military, government etc. It involves decision making, planning
for the work to be done, formulation of objectivities and goals and working with the legislature and citizen organization
to gain public support.

•​ It is the art and science as applied to the affairs of the state(Waldo)

•​ It is concerned with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the government. The ‘what’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge
of field which enables the administrator to perform his legitimate duties. The ‘how’ is the technique of management,
the principles according to which cooperative programs are carried to success(the techniques and principles of
management that enables policies and programs to be implemented)

B) THE DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINSTRATION BOTH AS AN ACTIVITY AND SUBJECT

-It is the combination of theory and practice whose purpose is to promote a superior understanding of government and its
relationship with the society.

WOODROW WILSON defined it as detailed and systematic execution of public law.

-Every particular application of general law is an act of administration.

According to L.D White a system of public administration is the composite of all the laws, regulations, practices, relationships,
codes, and customs that prevails at any time in any jurisdiction for the fulfillment or execution of public policy

Mc Queen defined PA as the operation of the government either local or central.

LUTHER GULLICK; PA is the part of science of administration which has to do with government; it is primarily concerned
with the executive branches where the work of government Is done.

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC ADMINSTRATION

- It is part of administration which pertains to the administrative activities of the government (government administration)

- It is the whole government in action and more part of the executive of the government. It is the action part of the government
and instrument or means through which the process, goals and objectives of the government are fulfilled (chakraboty &
Bhattrachyra 2003)

-It is rooted in law and policy as well as the various functions necessary to implement them. It realizes the aspirations of the
citizenly as stipulated by the constitution

- It is both a profession and a field of study; practitioners act to achieve the desired goals

-It is the discipline that is concerned with the organization, formulation and implementation of public policies for the welfare of
the public

ART AND SCIENCE DEBATE

This arose from the argument between the theory and practice which is a concern of academics (students) and practitioners. In
short, there are some who argue that public administration is a science (body of knowledge/ theory) while practitioners think that
public administration is an art/practice/activity.

•​ PUBLIC ADMNINSTRATION AS AN ART

Those who argue that public administration is an art have the following arguments:

•​ Public administration does not fulfill the requirements of science eg controlled experiments, observation,
measurements and tests are not there

•​ It is dominated by human beings. It is about the activities by human beings carried out by public agencies to achieve
desired goals and objectives such as decision –making, direction to achieve ends determined by politicians.

•​ Human beings whose behavior is unpredictable and cannot be easily measured, therefore, it is an art or not a science.

In conclusion, as an art (public administration in this case) emphasizes the action/ activities/ application of skills to achieve
common goals/goals/purpose.

OR

-Public administration as an art is about practice. It is about carrying out variety of activities in public sector or society.

- Public administration covers a wide range of activities related to the management of government business which are there to
fulfill the goals desired (healthy, education, agriculture, water, security) at different levels eg central government

-it is practical profession and activities that are carried out or practiced in a particular segment of society termed ‘public sector’

-The art of public administration is as old as civilization or life itself. Elements of public administration have existed in early
ancient time as showed by Egyptians, the marabvi kingdom, Portuguese, the Greek and the roman. However, in the early times
public administration started off focusing on law and order. It was limited to managing revenue and very little attention was paid
to the socio-economic well-being of the people. Public administration started to increase in 1800s due to several factors
 FACTORS THAT LED TO THE GROWTH (RISE) OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ACTIVITIES

•​ Industrialization and the advancements in science and technology

-Since the advent of industrialization in the 19th century in the western world, there has been an expansion of public
administration activities.

-Production of industrial goods became complex and required a degree of specialization and a much greater degree of
organization effort and led to communities living in urban areas.

-The scope and volume of government activities increased and became complex due to advances in science and technology.

•​ Promotion of socio-economic development besides the usual promotion of law and order

-There was movement from maintenance of law and order termed night watchman state.

-The state assumed the role and responsibilities of promoting socio-economic development of social welfare services eg
education, healthy and actual manufacturing of goods and services such as education, health etc.

-The management of national wealth and provision of social welfare services such as health, education, regulatory activities and
actual manufacturing of goals and services.

•​ Increase in the number of public agencies and size of specific public organizations.

-The government /administrative systems were restructured and re-organized .The number of public agencies carrying out
government work increased.

-These include the central government (judiciary, legislature, executive), commission, army, police, civil service, local
government, statutory corporations, public enterprises and companies with majority ownership, including public utilities like
electricity, water, transport, energy, and financial institutions.

-This led to the expansion of the scope of public administration and government activity .The scope of public administration also
called governmental administration expended from law and order to other public administration activities.

•​ Increase in Population growth

-The increase in population growth translated into more demands and increase in government expenditures on service delivery.

-The nature of government and local provided the necessary infrastructure facilities for organizing production as well as for
facilitating living needs of the citizens in moving over long distances.

-For example, roads and railways were built to facilitate the transport of material to the site of production as well as to facilitate
the distribution of manufactured goods.

-Similarly, communication facilities like the telephones; microwave transmission, satellite communication etc .Had to be
provided to meet the needs of communities.

-All these required massive government investments in human material resources and a lot of public administration activities of
organization effort to meet these needs of the citizens efficiently.

-As population increase, demands of people increase therefore more activities of public administration and increase in
government expenditures on service delivery.

2. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AS A SCIENCE

-The scientific method involves determining facts through observation of events or things, verifying the accuracy through
continued observation and determining the causal relationships after classification and analysis of the facts concerned with the
theory and science /systematic thinking, research and investigation as applied to social sciences.

-involves explaining a phenomenon based on the idea the relationship can be found between two variables.

-Considering public administration as science or body of knowledge field of study has two implications I.e it could be a science
or it could be a social science. Science has two branches i.e pure science and social science

-The pure science is characterized by universal laws; exact results based on these laws and predictability of events.

-Social science, a systematic body of knowledge derived from day-to-day experience, observations and practice .An inexact
science which contains concepts, hypothesis, theories, experimentation and principles.

Public administration as a science refers to a particular sector of the broader field of administration ie directed towards the
understanding of government. This is the contrast of business/private administration. Public administration is about theory and
knowledge. The theory relates to knowledge discovered through systematic enquiry of relationship between two variables.
Theory involves thinking, research and application of scientific method.

The scientific methods involve determining facts based on observation of events or things. Public administration as a science has
two implications

•​ It could be a pure science

•​ It could be a social science; a systematic body of knowledge derived from day-to-day experience, observations and
experience. Public administration is a systematic body of knowledge and a branch of social science

Public administration has the following characteristics:

•​ It is a new undeveloped science where -conscious theorizing has gone on for only in the past 100 years

Hamilton was the first to define the meaning and the scope of public administration in the federalist. Public administration
appeared in the many works relating to politics although they did not specifically use the word public administration. Although
the study of public administration as a separate discipline is of recent origin, the subject has been studied foe quite a long time as
part of the discipline of political science. The study of public administration was marked by the Woodrow Wilson in 1887.

In summary, public administration as a subject is considered as multi-dimensional phenomenon involving interaction,

interdependency and collaboration of government, politics and economics. Public administration is considered interdisciplinary
because it borrows heavily from adjacent disciplines

•​ Public administration is an eclectic(inter-disciplinary) subject

The theory of public administration can be regarded as the convergence of history, organization theory, social theory, political
theory and related studies focused on the meaning, structures.

Public administration is to some extent regarded as an offspring of political science and management scholars. This encompasses
theories of the following;

Max Weber (bureaucracy)

Gullick (POSDCORB)

Woodrow Wilson (the study of public administration)

SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The differences revolve around the following

 •​ Whether public administration is only about management activities of the government work or includes the entire
complex of the activities.

•​ Whether public administration cover the executive branch of the government only or it also includes the legislature and
the judiciary

•​ Whether public administration is about implementation or application of policy only or it is also about formulation of
laws.

PERSPECTIVES

The three important perspectives are:

•​ The managerial view/narrow view

•​ The broad perspective/view

•​ The prevailing view

1.0 The managerial view/narrow

It is also called narrow perspective or the POSDCORB view. Luther Gullick is the main author of this view. Managerial view is
that administration is about getting things done and not doing things. There is a difference between getting things done
(management) and doing things (operations). An administrator gets things done by directing and supervising their work; the
administrator manages the work. Public administration is made of managerial tasks in the public sector.

This is called the narrow perspective because public administration is narrowed down to getting things done to achieve the set
objectives and goals. It is narrowed or limited to functions, activities and techniques or use resources to achieve common
objectives of the executive branch of the government only. This branch is concerned with the implementation/execution of the
various policies. The seven types of the administrative techniques/functions are summarized by an acronym POSDCORB where
by:

P stands for planning: This is the preparation and working out the broad outline of the things that need to be done and how they
should be done.

O stands for organization: Arranging or establishment of the formal structure of authority within which the work is sub-divided.
It involves bringing together the organizations resources integrate resources to facilitate goal achievement

S stands for staffing: It means recruitment, training and development of the staff and maintenance of favorable conditions of
work for the staff; selection, placement of individuals in various jobs to attain the set goals

D stands for directing: Means continuous task of making decisions and general orders and institutions

Co stands for coordination: Interacting various parts of the organization such as branches, divisions, sections of the work and
elimination of overlapping. Establishing lines of effective leadership; unity of command; effective communication

R stands for reporting: Informing the authority to whom the executive is responsible to what’s going on.

B stands for budgeting: Accounting, fiscal planning and control

In conclusion, managerial or POSDCORB perspective is limited and narrow. Its shortfalls include that:

•​ It does not represent the whole of the administration (techniques nor the whole significant part of administration).
Different administrative agencies or services or functions face different problems and have their own specialized
techniques (not covered by POSDCORB) to deal with the problem eg. Education
 •​ It is a technique oriented perspective rather than subject oriented. It does not show the substance of administration but
stresses on the tools of public administration

2.0 Broad perspective

This is also called the subject-oriented perspective or the integral view. According to this, administration is broad and a complex
system.

Public administration activities covers the whole range of activities carried out by various public agencies to achieve a common
purpose or the objectives by all the officials from the top to the bottom not just the top officials as suggested by the narrow view.

It is the sum total or the whole complex of activities, operational-manual, and clerical, technical and managerial which are
undertaken to realize the objectives or the implementation of the policies. Prof. Wilson Woodrow and L.D white are the main
exponents of this view.

•​ Prevailing view/perspective

This divides the scope into two parts:

•​ Administrative theory

•​ Applied administration

The administrative theory

This is general and abstract and consists of the POSDCORB techniques common to all the administration and it also includes the
following aspects:

•​ Organizational theory

Organizing of functions and the methods of all types of public authority engaged in the administration into productive
relationship, setting up clear relationships vertically and horizontally whether national, regional or local and executive, legislature
and judicial

•​ Behavior and control

There must be a system of internal control to determine whether the program is attaining desired objectives according to the
schedule and maximum economy, efficiency and effectives. These are the various forms of control of administration. It also
involves coordination and delegation.

•​ Public personal administration( human resource management)

These are problems concerning personnel eg recruitment

Cooperation= there must be cooperation between and among lis and staff, headquarters and field administration

Public relations= interaction with public and clients

Accountability

Material and supply= covers public finance, budgeting, accounting, purchasing and supply

The applied theory

This involves the study of the concrete application of the common administrative theory to the various fields of the administrative
activity. It includes the following:

•​ Political functions
 •​ Legislative functions

•​ Financial functions

•​ Defense functions

•​ Education functions

•​ Social welfare functions

•​ Economic functions

•​ Foreign administration

•​ Local administration

In conclusion, POSDCORB and the subject matter are the two important components of the scope of public administration.
POSDCORB are the common techniques and the skeleton of the scope of public administration. The subject matter is the
substantive concern/ matter of administration.

ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINSTRATION

•​ PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IS THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNANCE AND THE BASIS OF THE

GOVERNMENT

- Public administration is the machinery through which government makes plans and programs.

-Public administration runs the various departments of government such as education, social welfare, food, agriculture, healthy,
sanitation, transport, communication etc (in a state, the institution machinery include the judiciary, the legislature, the executive).
It carries out activities of governance such as maintenance of law and order, regulatory functions, dispensation of justice,
collection of revenue and taxes ensure peace and security of the life and property of the citizenly.

- It serves the people from birth to death of an individual. It plays an important role in the life of people since every aspect of
human life come within the range of public administration. It is also an educator, manufacturer, distributor, helper and servant.

•​ INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOCIETY

-Public administration is an instrument through which social changes are achieved in a planned and orderly way( eg spreading
education, security, equality of status)

-It accelerates the process of development and carries out many tasks required for all round development eg implementation of a
number social welfare measures enact and enforce laws.

-It promotes national development and the economy through various means. These include macro-regulation, control of
state-owned enterprises and public services; support the private sector, small and medium sized enterprise.

•​ INSTRUMENT OF WELFARE OF STATE AND PROTECTOR OF CITIZENS

-Public administration provides various services to the welfare of its citizens e.g education, medical services, looking after the
orphans, elders.

-public administration protects its citizens from internal and external dangers e.g theft, violence through the service.

-public administration identifies problems and it comes up with solutions to conquer problems in the country.
 •​ INSTRUMENT OF NATIONAL NTERGRATION AND A STABILIZING FORCE IN THE SOCIETY

-public administration maintains and sustains government

-public administration is carried out by civil servants who are permanent officials unlike politicians who are changing. Because
the civil servants are permanent, they provide a stabilizing force

-public administration provides national (unity) integration such that there is institutional machinery eg judiciary, legislature, civil
service and public agencies which are cooperated and coordinated.

•​ PROVIDES BASIC KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF PUBLIC ADMNINSTRATION

-Public administration focuses on the science, philosophy and practice.

-Public administration focuses on the efficient and effective discharge functioning of public administration.

-Public administration provides knowledge necessary for the civic consciousness among the students and practitioners.

-Public administration equips administrators with knowledge.

-Public administration provides skills relating to POSDCORB.

-The success of the country depends on the wisdom of politicians and the capability of the administrator.

THE ECOLOGY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

-A study of interaction between public administration and its environment constitutes.

-What is known as ecological approach to the study of public administration.

-Ecology is the branch of biology dealing with living organism, habits, modes of life and relationship in their surroundings. It is
about the interdependence of public Bureaucracy and its environment.

-The ecological perspective of public administration was part of the comparative administration approach that was dominant in
the late 1950s .This was the study of public administration institution, systems, structures, functions of the newly independent
countries in comparison with those in developed countries.

-By 1961, Fred W. Riggs published his book called the ecology of public administration from comparative perspective, explored
the interaction between public administration and the environment.

Implication/roles/importance of the concept of ecology of Public Administration

1. It helps in the understanding the way public administration changes and gets informed and understanding of the close
interaction between administration and its environment.

2. Public agencies constantly interact with external environment’s forces that include events and people, social interest groups,
executive and economic organizations among other sub systems.

3. Public administration receives a feedback from the social system and responds to the demands put on it by the system; public
administration shapes the environment and gets affected by it in return.

4. It enhances the recognition that government organs do not operate in a vacuum, they are like an organization which constantly
adapts to new circumstances. Public administration cannot be contained forever for very long, public administration lives, dies,
changes, prospers or declines as a result of the interaction with the environment.
5. The ecology approach is significant in the sense that it raises the awareness that public administration is related to habits and
modes of life and surroundings .Therefore public administration differs from one country to another or even within a country.

6. Understanding or having knowledge of the ecological dimensions of public administration in various settings helps in the
scientific development of the study of public administration.

7. Public administration is understood as a sub-system or one of the several basic institutions in a society. Public administration
structures and functions are studied systematically in the context of inter-relationships with other institutions in its environment;
the economic, political and social cultural subsystems in a society’ (cited in Arora, 1984,p.71)

THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ENVIRONMENT

Public administration environment consist of complex internal and outside factors/forces that directly or indirectly influence
agencies. The major environment factors are:

1. Political –legal factors

2. Economic factors

3. Socio-cultural factors

4. Technological factors

•​ POLITICAL –LEGAL FORCES

These are closely related to public administration ecology since public administration interacts with the political system through
implementation and formulation of government programs and policies. The administrators provide different types of data,
information, expertise, suggestions, feed back to the political executive on the basis of which pragmatic programs and policies
are formulated. The major elements in the political environment are;

Public

Client groups

Media

Legislature

Judiciary

The executive/president

1. PUBLIC

-The term public assumes a special meaning in public administration and refers to a ‘collectivity’ with public purpose or interest
often articulated by elected officials.

-The public influences and interacts with public administration through:

Legitimizing government or rejection/opposition of elected representative public

Direct influence of government operations through demand for goods and services, requests and support e.g.
provision of human resources
 2. CLIENT GROUPS

-This part of the public which has special or specific concerns with the agencies on a particular program, project or service that
affect the group e.g. Farmers may have specific concern with the ministry of agriculture.

-The client group influences the operation of the government such as legislature, judiciary, and the executive which in turn
influence what public administration does.

3. MEDIA

This involves electronic and print or vehicle through which information is transferred. Electronic media may include cell phones,
computers etc and the print media involves the newspaper or magazine. Media is about how the information of public
administration reaches the general public, for example, public official having press briefings or announcements to provide
information about agencies activities. The media promotes relationship between public administration and the public including
the client group. It is an important element in the political environment since it influences public administration. It is an important
element in the ecology of public administration. Not only do the media influence the public but it is also influenced by the
government.

•​ LEGISLATURE

It is a very important element in the political system such that public administration is largely influenced by it in terms of
policies, bills and laws. Public administration is passed by the legislature. The various operations by the public administration are
done by the legislature, for example, budgeting. Legislature controls over resources, appointments and it undertakes over-site
over it. Public administration influences the legislature through:

1. The provision of information

2. Stimulation of action against certain activities.

3. Stimulate demonstration protests and stimulation of laws passed by legislature.

•​ JUDICIARY

It interprets and applies the laws of the country. It is through the interpretation, application of the law and court orders that it
influences the public administration. It ensures that public administration abide by the law.

•​ EXECUTIVE/PRESIDENT

The president of the country, also called the chief executive officer exercises power and authority that directly affects the
activities of public administration for example through appointments of key personnel. Public administration also influence the
president because it gives information to the president

PA carries out the will of the president by implementing public policies, reorganizing agencies receiving orders .There is a direct
interaction between administration and the president.

•​ ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

The economic environment interacts with public administration and clearly economic forces affect the performance of public
administration. The survival of the public administration depends on the support provided by the economy. Where the resources
are limited, the administration is not in a better position to implement all its policies or its programs. Public administration
influences the economy because the economy has to be regulated by the policies made by the public administration. The major
elements of the economic environment include the intensity of competition, the buying power, the willingness to spend, spending
patterns and the general economic conditions.

The operations of the public administration change in relation to the general economic conditions. When the economy fluctuates,
it means less government activity. In the economy, there are four business cycles namely;
 Prosperity= it is characterized by high aggregate income and low unemployment

Resetion= high employment and low buying power

Depression= characterized by extreme unemployment and low salaries and wages

Recovery= situation characterized by the movement from resetion to prosperity. The unemployment begins to increase
and the income increases

The economic environment determines the extent and scope of public administration activities.

•​ SOCIO-CULTURAL FORCES

We look at the values, beliefs, language, culture, lifestyles, mindsets or any cultural element of the society. These factors affect or
they are affected by public administration in the sense that changes with the socio-cultural environment changes the scope of
public administration. Administrators operate in the same society which raises or influences administration. Administrators are
affected by values, customs etc, For example, in the society there is nepotism, corruption and favoritism. Administration will
reflect in such values.

Public administration reflects on the values that are in the society. It also influences the socio-cultural environment by
formulating policies that address the social evils, for example, policies against corruption, nepotism.

•​ TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES

Refers to the knowledge gained from scientific research on how to do things or to perform task and how to achieve goals and
objectives.

Technology influences the way public agencies satisfy peoples’ needs and wants desired for goods and services. It affects what
agencies produce, the type of education and health care received.

It also affects the distribution system, quality and speed of goals and services to be delivered.

Technology puts some agencies out of business, for example, Malawi postal service is out because people shift to using emails.

Public administration affects technology through policies that administrators implement which affects technology, economy and
resources.

THE CHANGING NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public administration has undergone changes in its scope, nature and even its roles. The study was started by Woodrow Wilson in
his article the study of public administration in 1887.

The nature of public administration as a field of study has been changing in terms of concept, framework, models, schools of
thought called paradigms. Paradigms are also a thought pattern or a way of thinking or a group of ideas that make sense.

Public administration has been changing in terms of locus and focus. (locus refers to the where of public administration. This
looks at the position of public administration in the fields of study)

Traditionally, the locus of public administration has been government or bureaucracy. However, this has not always been the case
because sometimes the locus gets blurred. It has been changed from public administration to private administration (business
administration).

The focus refers to the ‘what’ of public administration. This is about specialization of public administration as a field of study.
Traditionally, the focus of public administration has been principles of public administration. However this has not always been
the case because the focus of public administration has been changing with time.
In order to systematically explain the changing nature of public administration, there is a need of constitulizing the changes of
locus and focus.

The changing nature of public administration is represented by a succession of paradigms. There is a controversy regarding the
number of paradigms. Some of the well-known paradigms are explained below;

•​ POLITICS-ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY

This school of thought came into existence under the influence of Professor Wilson Woodrow in the years 1900-1927. His essay
the study of public administration made a clear distinction between political science and public administration. Other scholars
(Frank Goodnow, Lenard White among others) contributed in the foundation of politics-administration dichotomy. Lenard White
published his book titled politics and administration in 1900 whereas Frank Goodnow wrote a book the study of public
administration. The theory states that public administration and political science are two separate functions of the government.
Politics is to do with formulation of the will of the people while administration is about carrying out the will of the people.

Politics is concerned with the determination of the will of the state. It is centered on policy making, local politics among others.
Administration is to do with execution of the policies in a manner that is efficient, effective and politically neutral.
Administration simply carries out the directions of the politicians or the elected people. It centers on facts, scientific scrutiny of
the executive branch of the government, theory organization, budgeting, personnel management, or simply put, the execution of
the public policies. This distinction of politics and administration was founded on the concept of separation of government
powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary though they are interrelated. The public administration-politics
dichotomy encouraged research and contributions towards the field of public administration. It led to the discovery of scientific
approach of public administration, leading to emergence of organization theory popularly known as the principles of public
administration (1927-1937).

It is of a great significance to note that this paradigm of politics-administration is locus oriented, because the concern was the
institution of public administration as a field.

•​ PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION

During this period, scholars established the discipline of public administration as an independent science. They discovered
administrative principles to be applied in any organization or administrative setting. The major contributors during this period
include Luther Gullick(7 principles of administration known as POSDCoRB-1937 and published an article titled the science of
administration). There were also other contributors, for example, Fredrick Winslow Taylor. Public administration acquired a
separate status as a social science. It was considered as the science of administration. Theories and principles of administration
were developed. The principles of administration paradigms is a focus oriented one. It focuses on the subject matter of public
administration.

•​ THE ERA OF CHALLENGE

It is called the era of challenge because of the challenges in the nature of public administration (1938-1947). The challenges were
in two directions;

•​ The first direction enlightened that the politics-administration dichotomy was criticized.

•​ The principles of administration and the claim that public administration is a science were attacked too.

Regarding the refusal of politics-administration dichotomy, several scholars such as Chester Barnard who published his book
titled the functions of the executive in 1938, challenged the politics-administration dichotomy. He argued that ‘politics and
administration are so intermingled that it is very much difficult to separate the two’. Carl Fredrick (1940) criticized the
politics-administration dichotomy and insisted that politics and administration cannot be separated or dichotomized. He started
that the theory of politics is in fact the theory of administration. The general argument by most scholars was that public
administrators cannot avoid the policy formulation and politicians cannot avoid policy execution.

Regarding the criticizing of public administration as being an independent subject of study in its own rights was under the
influence of Herbert Symon, Robert Dahl, Dwite Wardo, and Chester Barnard. Herbert Symon (1947) in his article
administrative behavior questioned the managerial principles (POSDCORB). He argued that there was no such a thing as
principles of administration.

Similarly, Robert Dawl also criticized the administrative principles. Several aspects were brought in. Among other things, he
argued that principles of administration lacked scientific validity. He also argued that the principles lacked universal relevance.
They could not be applied universally. The principles cannot be applied everywhere because organizations are influenced by
human behavior (differences in personalities in people who run the organization). There is a need to take into account, human
behavior and sociological factors that make it impossible to have universal principles. The other challenge was considering the
inconsistence and contradiction of the principles of administration.

Dwite Wardo published a book (1948) the administrative state, the study of American public administration. Wardo attacked
the idea of universal idea of the principles. He argued that the principles were contradicting and inconsistent. Due to these critics,
there existed a phase of the crisis of identity.

•​ CRISIS OF IDENTITY

Scholars were not clear about the identity of public administration because on one hand, the credentials of public administration
as a science were questioned and this lead to the bonding of public administration with political science. On the other hand, other
scholars did not welcome public administration to political science because the status of public administration was unclear.

During this period, some scholars focused on environmental factors and advocated the ecological approach to the study of public
administration. Among other scholars who contributed to the ecological approach is Fredrick, Dwite. New concepts emerged,
that is, the emergence of comparative administration, development administration and the ecological approach to public
administration.

Public administration faced a crisis of identity leading to a shift in form of paradigm with twin development in public
administration.

. Public administration as political science

.Public administration as administration science

These paradigms were dominant between 1956-1970

•​ PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AS MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ADMNISTRATION AS POLITICAL SCIENCE

It established links between political science and administration science. Others advocated that we cannot separate politics from
administration. Those who regarded public administration as political science regarded public administration as politics. During
the same time, other scholars regarded public administration as an administrative science due to major research works in the
behavior science/psychology.

The study of organization theory received a greater attention such that in 1960, organization development (OD) became a
specialized field in the study of public administration. This was done by sociologists, psychologists. Public administration as an
administrative science emphasizes technique in organization design, importance of human behavior and management science.
However this idea was criticized because public administration and business administration seem to be one; the distinction was
blurred. Because of that, it led to sixth paradigm of public administration as public administration

•​ PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The major aspects during this phase were that scholars re-examined the link between political science and public administration
as well as the link between public administration and administrative studies (the previous paradigms were scrutinized). They
emphasized the need for an autonomous (independent) discipline from both politics and management. The independence was
from both business administration and political science. Public administration was to be viewed as an academic discipline in its
own right.
Scholars emphasized that public administration was to focus on government institutions, enhancement of opportunities of the
society, emphasize the functions and impacts of governmental institutions. Scholars therefore proposed that public administration
needed to focus on the subjects that were relevant to the emerging society like public policies, ethics, local governance,
technology among others.

Of greater significance was the emergency of an alternative perspective towards public administration known as the new public
administration (NPA). This perspective resulted from the 1968 Minnowbrook conference 1 and it emphasize on subjects
relevant to the emerging society. However, from 1970 to the 1990s, the seventh phase emerged which was a build-up on what
was agreed on Minnowbrook 1. It is called the public policy perspective.

•​ PUBLIC POLICY PERSPECTIVE(PUBLIC CHOICE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT)

This school of thought emerged from Minnowbrook conference 2 in 1988. It resulted to the concept of new public management
(NPM) approach. This is what is known as market driven administration which emphasizes on a public policy approach to
administration. It is the idea that government should be analyzing policies, social issues affecting the society, decision making
process, project and program evaluation, dependency of public administration on principles of efficiency, economy and
effectiveness which are generated from the private sector, government should adopt policies such as decentralization,
privatization, price controls and ensure transparency and accountability in government(fighting corruption).

•​ GOOD GOVERNANCE

From 1990 to present, the eighth paradigm emerged. It resulted from Minnowbrook conference 3 which was held in the year
2008. It emphasizes on the re-construction of the functions of government. Minnowbrook conference 3 was organized in two
phases on the theme of the future of public administration, public management and public service around the world. Out
of the conference, the eighth phase of the good governance agenda was born and it emphasized the reconstruction of public
administration. The emphasis was on collaborating governance, democratic performance, financial management, comparative
public administrative and most significantly, globalization. Scholars emphasized good governance and its elements for example,
the aspects of citizen participation, human rights, accountability, rule of law, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness among
others. Governance consists of three major players, the government, non-state actors and the private sectors.

There is however, a great controversy regarding the number of paradigms, that is, other scholars suggest five paradigms. The era
of challenge, the crisis of identity and good governance are regarded to have been mere developments in public administration as
public administration

APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Since the birth of the study of public administration, it has been growing and today, it involves complex issues and functions.

Scholars explain aspects of public administration including structures and functions from different perspectives. The distinct
perspectives have grown out of the different perspectives. Approaches in the study of public administration refer to the ways
adopted to study public administration.

There are a number of approaches (a diversity of approaches) to the study of public administration due to a variety of activities
encompassed under the term government administration. The broad approaches to the study of public administration are
categorized into the following;

•​ Tradition approaches

•​ Modern approaches

•​ Contemporary

TRADITIONAL APPROACHES
•​ They involve a survey approach (also called orientations) to the study of public administration. It involves tapping
insights in varying degrees from any discipline relevant to public administration (derived from any aspects of
governmental administration).

•​ A survey approach is based on the view that public administration is an eclectic subject meaning that it is composed of
elements drawn from various sources, that is, a subject that is multidisciplinary. The approaches that emerge from some
of the relevant disciplines include legal, historical, case study, political, economic, sociological, ethical and institutional

1. LEGAL APPROACH

•​ It is based on the view that administration is closely related to the law. Administrative and constitutional law provides
the foundation for legal approach to the study of public administration.

•​ Its main sources are the constitutions, codes of law, office manuals of rules and regulations and judicial decisions
(Malawi Public Service Regulation-MPSR, penal code, code of ethics). It concentrates on the formal legal structure and
organization of public bodies, official duties, and limitation of powers and discretionary authority of administrators.

•​ The legal approach started in Australia/Prussia in the 17th century to achieve efficient management of public affairs. It
was further developed in post French revolution in the 1789 with codification of laws relating to the will of the state
and the loyalty to the state administrative law.

•​ Until 1945, administrative law and public administration were synonymous, study of public administration was
dominated by jurists particularly in France

2. HISTORICAL APPROACH

•​ This approach to the study of public administration involves probing and understanding what happened in the past,
description of events related to public administration. It is based on the view that public administration, past events in
particular periods must be studied to link up with the present administrative systems. For example, in order to
understand the evolution, the growth and development of Malawi’s administration, a historical perspective is essential.
This may involve knowing the nature of public administration in the pre-colonial period(traditional society), during
colonial period(Nyasaland) and how they developed into the modern public administration.

•​ In Malawi, for example, the origin of civil service is traced to the domain of Sir Harry Johnstone who was the
governor-general and head of administration.

3. CASE STUDY

•​ It is a method and approach which undertakes an in-depth study of a single historical incident relating to public
administration.

•​ The case study approach is a micro-level historical approach. The term case study is borrowed from administrative
law which involves study of cases decided by courts of law as an essential process towards understanding the
applicability of legal principles to the actual situations.

4.POLITICAL SCIENCE

•​ Public administration is very closely related to the study of political science. It still continues to be a part of the study
of political science as an understanding of politics is the key to an understanding of public administration.

•​ It is difficult to make a distinction between politics and administration. Politics and public administration are the two
sides of a single coin; both involve study of political theory or philosophy and political institutions eg the legislature,
executive and the public service/administrative machinery and judiciary.

•​ P Fiffner has rightly said that in some cases, politics and administration are so intermingled and confused that a clear
distinction is difficult.
•​ However, although some earlier writers on the subject made a sharp distinction between politics and administration,
that is, politics-administration dichotomy(Woodrow Wilson), most current emphasize the closeness eg Paul Appleby
argues that policy making cannot be separated from policy execution; Peter self-argues for the synthesis of politics and
administration/ administrative theories and politics published in 1977, comparative political and behavior in the 1950s

5.ECONOMICS

•​ Public administration has much in common with economics and as such, those entering government services must have
a background of economics

•​ While during the 18th century, the scope of public administration was confirmed only to the maintenance of law and
order and the administration of justice, the industrial revolution and the numerous problems that followed an account of
it, compelled government to enter the economic and commerce, revenue producing.

•​ Public administration has adopted theories, topics, techniques and technologies and terminologies from economics eg
public choice and principal-agent theories, topics such as budgeting, execution of the budget, accounts and audit, bank
and insurance, currency and coinage, trade and commerce, revenue producing.

•​ The extensive involvement of government in economic activities led to the application of aspects of quantification and
econometrics, mathematical form and statistical techniques to the study of public administration; although public
administrators became more involved in qualitative judgment.

•​ Herbert Simon, a noble prize winner developed the concept of administration by adapting the economists approach
economic man (who seeks to maximize wages and profit while minimizing costs) in his book titled administrative
behavior which was published in 1976

6. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIOLOGY

•​ Sociology is the study of the human behavior in various types of groups and how they influence human instincts and
activity, interaction of human beings. Sociology is the mother of all social sciences and it deals with society in its
fundamental forms and their off-hoots. It studies different kinds of groups existing in a society.

•​ Public administration deals with the administrative aspects of the society, and thus, both are closely related.
Administration is a co-operative endeavor in which large number of people get together to achieve certain objectives

•​ It provides administration with very useful information about human groups, how they function and how they influence
social life.

•​ Sociological concepts of interests to public administration include status, class, occupation, family, ethnicity, social
structure, social group, environmental context, ecology of administration (Herbert Simon).

•​ Among the writings of contemporary sociologists which have significant relevance for public administration studies
are;

•​ Max Weber’s essay on bureaucracy in his book, the study of public administration( power-relationships in an
organization)

•​ Robert k Merton’s social theory and social structure,

•​ Peter Blaius, Bureaucracy in modern in modern society

•​ Philip Selznicks, T.V.A and the Grassroots

•​ Brian Crosier, the bureaucratic phenomenon, and

•​ Monroe Berger’s bureaucracy and the society in modern Egypt.

 7. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PYSCHOLOGY

•​ Social and industrial psychology made contribution to the study of public administration. Administrator must have an
understanding of psychological behavior of the persons/Human behavior as s/he deals with and in dealing with people
as humans and not with bricks and mortar.

•​ Psychology has also made major contributions to government services through the development of administrative
techniques including staff training techniques, public relations and publicity systems of the government.

•​ Social and industrial psychology emphasize the importance of informal contacts between heads and the subordinates on
the one hand and between the administration and the administrator and the other as it produces a great influence upon
the efficiency of administration than the formal routine and official commands.

8. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND ETHICS

•​ Public administration is also related to ethics in as they both set standards of integrity and honesty for human actions.

•​ Ethics has to do with the moral values of the public administration which they must take into account when enforcing
public policy.

•​ Public and professional morality now constitutes an integral part of the study of public administration. In other words
of Dr Appleby, moral performance begins in individual self-discipline on the part of officials involving all that is meant
by the world character.

•​ Public responsibility, honesty and devotion are concerns of the administrator individually and organizationally

9. INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH

•​ The oldest approach also known as the formal structural approach. This approach is largely based on the legal rights
and obligations of the government.

•​ The generalizations of this approach were often based upon formal analysis of organizational structure and the
constitutional delegation of authority and responsibility to the three branches of the government.

•​ The focus is upon the ways and means of keeping public administration responsible to the elected branches of
government and to the average citizen(Presthus 1975, 7)

•​ It focuses on the study of the structure and functioning of separate institutions and organizations of the state- such as
the executive, legislature, the departments, government co-operations, boards and commissions.

•​ It establishes the linkages between the study of public administration and the institutions of government. It emphasizes
formal relationships and the separation of powers among three branches of government.

•​ It considers the study of organizations, their principles of administration, goals and structures as primary to the study of
administration.

•​ But just like the legal approach, the institutional approach has its own limitations. The approach completely neglects
the environmental and informal factors on administration.

MODERN APPROACHES
Structural-functional approach

Scientific approach

Behavior approach
 Systems approach

Ecological approach

•​ STRUCTURAL- FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

•​ The structural-functional approach is an offshoot of the systems approach. It was also influenced by scientific
management which focused on organizational structure and personnel management.

•​ Basic to this approach are the twin concepts of structure and function.

•​ Structures refer to the patterns of actions and the resultant institutions of the systems themselves.

•​ Social structures are viewed as any pattern of action or institutionalize behavior. A social structure exists to perform
certain functions.

•​ A function- the consequences of pattern of action, ie structure in so far as they affect other structures or the total system
of which they are a part; involves a pattern of interdependence between two or more structures, a relationship between
variables. The approach is based on the perspective ;

•​ That to understand public administration, there is need to locate the structures first and then analyze the
functions they perform.

•​ That an administrative system requires organizational structures in order to provide services to individuals
and groups and achieve the desired ends. Therefore emphasis must be on the study of formal administrative
structures, their functions, and the limitations imposed on their activities.

•​ Administrative systems are always changing in terms of their structure or the functions they perform.

•​ Similar structures do not necessarily perform similar functions; one structure may perform multiple
functions; one function may be performed by more than one structure.

•​ The major contributors to this approach include Gabriel Almond, David Apter, Talcott Parsons and Fred Riggs

b).THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

•​ This approach is referred to as scientific because it is based on investigation of hypothesis and development of theory.
Hypothesis is a proposal of relationship between two or more variables.

•​ For example, the essence of administration is decision making (ie, there is a relationship between administration and
decision) and this can be investigated.

•​ Theory refers to the collection of hypothesis linked in a logical framework and attempts to explain or predict a set of
events, for example, the decision theory, political theory or organizational theory.

•​ Experiments and research were conducted and developed theories in early 1900s. The major orientations of scientific
approach include classical approach/theories(scientific management, administrative theory, and bureaucracy).

•​ There are many ways in which theories of management are classified. Argawal (1982) identifies six schools of
management thought

1.​ The classical school

2.​ The human relations school( behavioral science)
3.​ The decision theory school
4.​ The management school
 5.​ The systems theory school
6.​ The contingency theory school

The classical approach to organizations

•​ The first to emerge from the scientific approach are the classical theories or approaches (classical meaning of historic
importance). These were outputs of various movements also known as schools of thought or orientations during
1900s-1930s. Broadly, practicing managers sought to replace the rule of thumb(try and error) ,personal intuition &
ad hoc approach with a consistent and systematic approach to improve organizational design and management
performance, enhance competitiveness and ensure managerial authority.

•​ Theories were developed relating to how to structure, manage and change(design and redesign) organizations that were
emerging during the industrial revolution(19th century)

The major schools of the classical approach are:

The scientific management approach by Fredrick Winslow Taylor ( 1856-1915)

Administrative theory by Henry Fayol(1841-1925); and

Bureaucracy by Max Weber (1864-1920)

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT APPROACH BY FREDRICK WINSLOW TAYLOR(1856-1915)

•​ Regarded as the father of scientific approach (machine approach) to the study of public administration. He is the major
contributor to the scientific management of thought.

•​ He started with a manual job in 1874 in engineering company despite passing entrance exam for the Harvard University
(law school).

•​ Later Taylor joined Midvale Steel Company in 1878 as a laborer and rose to the rank of foreman to a chief engineer and
later a consultant.

•​ He proposed the need for introducing science into managing organizations in order to bring objectivity, precision, order
and predictability.

•​ The scientific management was the reaction to the ad hoc, fire fighting and crisis-ridden management style that was
characterized the earliest phase of industrial revolution.

•​ Workers were been treated harshly

•​ They were supposed to work like machines as to increase productivity.

•​ This is why Fredrick winslow taylor made a significant contribution by advocating the use of science in managing
organisations.

•​ His vision was to develop public administration into a science from the principles of engineering and management
sciences, and to the study scientific methods in management in the field of business and industry.

•​ However, Taylor believed that there is only- one best method which should be the scientific management principle.
•​ He identified three major reasons for poor production;

- Workers systematically soldiered because faster work would put them out of job

- Hourly and daily wages destroyed individual initiative

-The manner and mode of doing work was never studied for possible improvements.

•​ Therefore, Taylor called for mental revolution in order to fuse the interests of labor and management for a mutually
rewarding whole. The mental revolution should be based on the following principles.

THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

1.​ Determination of standards of performance

2.​ Functional foreman
3.​ Responsibilities of management
4.​ Differential piecework system of wage payment
5.​ Mental revolution

PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

•​ The development of a true science of work: replace the rule of thumb by application of scientific methods; that is,
observe and analyze the work assigned to a worker with respect to each element and the time involved in it; discover a
true science and the one best way to perform almost any task.

•​ The scientific selection and progressive development of the workman; engage in scientific selection and proper
grooming of the workforce. It is the managements’ responsibility to implement appropriate selection and training
systems and to see to it that the worker’s intellectual, psychological, and physical traits match the requirements of these
jobs.

•​ Close coordination between the science of work and the scientifically selected and trained men; there must be
effective coordination between the science of work and trained workforces for smooth functioning of an organization.
The exclusive responsibility of the management is to get the best results by bringing the science and workmen together.

•​ The division of work and responsibility between the management and workers; the scientific management theory
puts responsibility of industrial productivity equally on the management and workers. That is, industrial productivity
equally on the management and workers. That is, industrial well-being is a joint responsibility, which needs to be
shouldered by both of them.

Collectively, these principles contribute as scientific management.

CRITICISM OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT MOVEMENT

Separation of planning from doing results into multiplicity of command and violates one fundamental principle of
management whereby one person should receive instructions from one boss only.

Mental revolution never materialized

•​ The theory lacked scientific rigor since it adopted a one-dimensional view of human motivation- economic man, driven
solely by monetary and material incentives. It portrayed human beings as greedy robots, indifferent to fatigue,
boredom, loneliness and pain.

•​ The scientific management was preoccupied with productivity that is, it was mechanistic. The concern was with
mechanical aspects and not human aspects of production and this has negative consequences which include the
following;

Detailed division of work and too much specialization leads to:

 •​ Depersonalization, that is, workers are viewed as mere cogs in the machines;

•​ Creation of jobs which have little intrinsic satisfaction and leads to poor morale, low motivation and
allenation.

•​ Deskilling of work which takes away pride of people

Despite limitations on understanding of human psychology, sociology and anatomy of work, Taylor laid foundations of modern
scientific management, operations research, time and motion studies, systems analysis, and human resource management.

His contributions had major influence on growing reform and economy movements and public administration. The scientific
management principles were included in curriculum of education and training of engineers in the western world.

ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY

•​ This refers to the principles of organization developed by Henry Fayol(1841-1925)

•​ Fayol was born in 1841 and educated at the national school of mines at St Etiene. He began as a mining engineer in
1860 and was later appointed managing director.

•​ Upon retirement, he established a centre for Administration and was concerned with the development of a universal
approach to management/administration which was applicable to all organizations. In 1916, he published a monogram
titled administration et general in French and translated into English and his approach came to be known as classical
organizational theory

The two major contributions highlighted in classical organization theory;

•​ He outlined the common activities in an industrial undertaking. He also elaborated the meaning of manager.

•​ He presented 14 principles of organizations.

COMMON ACTIVITIES OF ORGANISATION

•​ Henry Fayol identified six common activities of industrial undertaking

•​ The technical activity: this is to do with production, manufacturing or adapting things.

•​ Commercial activity: to do with buying, selling, exchange or sharing market information

•​ Financial activity: to do with issues of capital, money, use of funds

•​ Security activity: safeguarding property and people

•​ Accounting: balance sheets, or information of economic activity of the organization, stock taking etc

•​ Management activity: to manage is to focus and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control.
//Focus is about foreseeing and examining future while-//planning is about deciding what to be achieved in
advance. //To organize is to provide materials or human resources to build organizational structure. //To
command is about maintaining activities among employees acting the best out of the employee through
instruction, supervision, leadership, motivation and communication. // coordination is about bringing
harmony or unifying all the activities to ensure that workers effort are made to achieve the desired goals. //
to control is about ensuring that everything in an organization is done according to plan
 •​ The fourteen principles of management

Principle Meaning
1 Division of work It emphasis on subdividing work into smaller manageable bits and
allocating each bit to different individuals rather than one person
handling the whole.
2 Authority Right to give orders
3 Discipline
4 Unity of command Orders should come from one person
5 Unity of direction Organization should produce the same objective
6 Subordination of
individual interest to the
general interest
7 Remuneration Pay should be fair to the employee and the organization
8 Centralization Power should finally be at the top for purpose of giving instructions
9 Scalar chain Line of authority from top to bottom of the organization
10 Order There must be order in the organization
11 Equity It is about kindness and gender equity
12 Stability of tenure Employees must be given time to settle in their jobs
13 Initiative Freedom
14 Espirit de corps This is all about team work

CRITICISMS ON PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION

The principles of administration were challenged. Others argued that they were contradictory statements while others said they
were not principles but mere statements, lacked scientific validity and consequently, their assumptions were questioned.

BUREAUCRACY (By Max Weber, 1864-1920)

•​ He was a sociologist and later became a professor in economics at Fidelberg University.

•​ He recommended an ideal type organizational structure to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the set goals
and objectives. He called this ideal structure a bureaucracy. The word bureaucracy comes from bureau which means
public office.

•​ The structure must have the following features;

•​ There must be a clear authority hierarchy of officials. Offices should be arranged from the highest to the
lowest. Each office must be under the control and supervision of the higher one.

•​ There must be division of labor. There must be clear specification of areas of specification (sphere of
competence).

•​ Appointments must be based on merit. Officials/employees must be appointed on the basis of qualification,
training, experience, skills and knowledge

•​ Remuneration; a bureaucracy should provide salary and pensions according to the position in the hierarchy.

•​ Career development. Bureaucracy should provide full time of preparation to administrators. Promotion should be
based on merit and skills.
 •​ Impersonality; means the relationships within the bureaucracy should be derived from the duties of the offices.
Loyalty and obedience should be to the office and not to the person. Relationships should be based on the status
which is in the office and not that particular person.

•​ Reliance on the use of rules and regulations. This means that the organizations must have norms to regulate how
business is being conducted, the relationships, the performance of the actors in the organization and the behavior
of the employees

•​ Written documents. In a bureaucracy, administrative acts, decisions or activities must be recorded in written
documents even in cases of oral discussion. The argument that administration is conducted on the basis of written
document aimed at making the administration accountable to the people and provision of future references.

•​ Separation between public and personal property. He argued that in bureaucracy, ownership of resources must
be separated between personal and public resources to avoid misuse.

•​ Based on these, it was argued that bureaucracy was the most appropriate in the modern organization. It ensures
effectiveness and efficiency.

•​ However, it was questioned to be mechanistic. Some of the features were contradictory. Emphasis on rules and
regulations resulted in rigidity, division of powers led to dehumanization.

The classical theories were challenged because they emphasized production at the expense human elements. It was seen
inefficient because of failure to incorporate behavior approach.

C). BEHAVIORAL APPROACH

•​ It argued that no one can understand the functioning of an organization (public administration) without understanding
how and why people act the way they do (human behavior). It argued that there was need for the application of
knowledge of anthropology, social psychology, psychology among other disciplines so as to understand the human
behavior in the organization.

•​ Several scholars contributed; however the human relations approach was pioneered by Elton George Mayol.

•​ He was a professor in industrial psychology based at Harvard Graduate School of business administration and he
undertook various researches at a place called Hawthorne plant in Chicago. He lived between 1880s to 1949 and the
period of his research works is 1927 to 1932.

•​ George Elton Mayol; his first experiment was done in 1924-1927, called the Hawthorne Illumination Test(HIT). It was
an experiment conducted to study the effect of light on output/production. The second research was in between
1927-1929, known as Relay Assembly Test Room Experiment aimed at studying the effect of differing physical
conditions on productivity.

•​ The third research was an exercise where employees were interviewed about leadership, supervision, working
conditions, their jobs among other things to determine their altitude towards work.

•​ The fourth involve a study of fourteen men who were put in a bank wiring observation room where except for a few
differences, their works were the same with the others in the company. The reason was for the researchers to observe
people working under normal conditions for six months.
 •​ In the year 1926, the researchers undertook personnel counseling and it involved discussions with the employees about
their work, expectations, improvements and what should be done to improve productivity in the organization.

•​ Out of these experiments emerged the human relations approach which carried the following features;

•​ Human behavior is an important aspect which affects organizational performance and not the structure
or the mechanistic techniques as opposed by the classical approaches.

•​ Informal groups are just as important as the formal structures of the organization. The research
showed that work is a cooperative activity and individuals cannot be treated in isolation; they should
be treated as members of the group. The informal group developed their own norms, values and
attitudes that affect performance in an organization.

•​ Human need for recognition, security and sense of belonging. Human relations approach emphasizes
the need of recognizing human needs. Worker are not in an organization for money only, they also
want to satisfy other social needs. Human relations approach argues that the economic man theory of
the classical approach should be replaced by social man theory.

•​ People/workers are emotional rather economic beings. Their emotions and social influence their
behavior at work other than financial incentives. It was also concluded that in an organizational set up,
the desired objectives are two; economic effectiveness/increased productivity and employee
satisfaction.

•​ Administrators used to be aware of the social needs and provide them in order to make workers collaborate and work
hard in the organization. Administrators must emphasize human aspects and employee motivation since they are
important factors affecting organizational and managerial effectiveness rather that rules and regulations.

•​ They were attacked because of their emphasis on human behavior. Human relations approach is said to have failed to
look into the entire organization, it did not explain organization in management of the entire entity and therefore, a new
approach, the systems approach emerged.

d) THE SYSTEMS APROACH

The systems approach was a reaction to the problems in the human relations approach. The human relations approach was
criticized because it overemphasized the human aspect. It emphasized that the human behavior was the most important an
organization but the systems approach emphasized looking at the organization as a whole. Scholars distinguished between
closed and open systems. A system is an entity composed of various parts (interdependent/various sub-systems) which work
towards a common goal. A system is either open or closed. A closed system is a self sufficient entity that does not rely much
on the external environment for its survival while an open system is dependent on the external environment for its survival.
However, how much closed or open a system is depends largely on the degree of interaction between the system and the
environment. Most organizations are regarded as open systems because they rely on the external environment for their
survival. They import inputs from the environment and export outputs into the environment in order to sustain themselves in
a permanent state of equilibrium (state of stability). The features of a system therefore include:

•​ Environment

Refers to the forces around the entity from where inputs are drawn and outputs are deposited.

•​ Inputs

These are resources that are drawn from the environment into the conversion process (into the entity for conversion). It includes
people, labor, money, information, raw materials, and factors of production among others.

•​ Conversion process
Refers to the transformation or combination of inputs through managerial(administrative/technical) processes that result into
finished outputs. It is the conversion of inputs into outputs to be discharged into the environment. It features may include
administrative mechanisms, control procedures, structures that work harmoniously to transform inputs into outputs.

•​ Output

These are the results or products in form of goods or services, ideas, events and many others.

•​ Feedback

Reaction/response by the environment to the outputs provided to the system.

Within a system, there are subsystems. An organization of interrelated subsystems, for example University of Malawi has
faculties and departments as subsystems. Catz and Cahn identified several major subsystems of organization including:

Production/technical subsystems: concerned with the accomplishment of basic tasks of an organization.

Supportive subsystems: they procure the input and dispose the outputs of the production subsystems

Institutional subsystems:;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Maintenance subsystems: concerned with the stability and practicability of the organization. They provide roles, rules and
regulations for people working in an organization.

Adaptive subsystems: concerned with what the organization might become. They deal with issues of change in the environment-
marketing, research, development and so on.

Administrative subsystems: deals with the managerial functions such as planning, coordination and control of the total system.

The systems theory was an attempt to integrate an organization with its task and a wider environment. Katz and Kahn maintain
that an organization be looked at as an open system which continuously interacts and depends on its environment. The social,
political, cultural, economic, and technological environment includes shareholders, banks, suppliers, trade unions, competitors
and customers. This environment influences and affects the way an organization performs. The organization receives support and
raw materials from the environment. In turn, the environment buys or consumes the organization’s goods and services (output).
The environment of an organization consists of human, financial, technological and physical resources.

The open system’s theory emphasized on the openness, interaction, exchange of inputs and outputs between organizations and
their environment and how the environment impacts on the organizational functioning. The systems theory views as an organic
and an open system, which is composed of interacting and interdependent parts. Organizations are not closed systems, sealed off
from their environment, but are open to and dependent on the flow of personnel, other resources and information from outside.
From an open system perspective, environments shape, support and infiltrate organizations. Connections with external elements
can be more than those with internal components.

The various subsystems or parts of an organization are linked with each other through their communication network, decisions,
authority-responsibility relationships, objectives, policies, procedures, and other coordinating mechanisms in an organization.

Organizations have a variety of goals the chiefs’ ones being survival, integration and adaption with the environment as well as
growth. All sections and department of university of Malawi and the University of Botswana, for example could be viewed as
subsystems that form the system, thus UNIMA and university of Botswana. They continuously interact and depend on each other.
Hence a change in technology, financial, social or human forces may trigger off related changes in other sections.

A problem of finance in an organization may force the company to withdraw bonuses or salary increments and the purchase of
modern equipment. This might create dissatisfaction among employees who may decide to go on strike. Consequently, this will
affect production, marketing and revenue levels of the organization. By failing to look at issues from a wider systems perspective,
managers underestimate the ramification of a problem.
 CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

There are several approaches under contemporary approach; they include the public choice approach, the comparative approach
and the contingency approach.

PUBLIC CHOICE APPROACH

The public choice approach embraces the political economy perspective and public policy perspectives. Broadly, it is the study of
public administration that emerged in the 1960s and it was a contribution of many scholars,

James Buchanan

Goldon Tullock

William Mitchell

It is about a study of decision making process for allocation of scarce resources in society. It emphasizes the element of choice
among citizens or consumers/clients.

Political economy refers to the interdisciplinary study drawing from economics, political science, law etcetera and explain how
political institutions, environment and the economy influence each other.

Public policy is a systematic study of public policies. It is about decision making processes beginning from formulation of the
will of the people to implementation of the will of the people. The idea is that public administration must emphasize the cause
and the effects of government activities.

THE COMPARATIVE APPROACH

It is also called comparative public administration and owes to comparative politics in method and approach. It is the study of
public administration on a comparative approach observe the differences in form and processes within varying contexts and
identifies the range across which administrative phenomena vary. Hence it is also called cross cultural public administration. Its
emphasis is on how similar structures perform different functions, and how similar functions are performed by different
structures. The comparison is on function across societies and emerged due to concerns of public administration scholars with the
search for a science of public administration motivated by Dahl’s argument that as long as the study of public administration is
not comparative, claims for a science of public administration is rather hollow. The major contributor was Fred Riggs who
provided a systematic explanation for the differences that exist between public administration systems of non-industrialized
countries and those of industrialized countries despite similarities in structures and functions

THE CONTINGENCY APPROACH

The contingency approach emerged from real life experience of managers, researchers and consultants. It emerged in the 1960s
out of a number of studies of organization structure and management. The main contributors are Tom Burn and George
McPherson Stalker, Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorch and Jame Thompson.

It is rejected of the one best way approach and its view is that the structure and operation of organization is dependent or
contingent on situational variables it sales. Organizations do not exactly on the same contingencies and therefore situations,
structure and operations are different. Contingency theory is based on the premise that organizations are open systems whose
internal operations and effectiveness depends particular situational variables which vary from organization to organization. The
effectiveness of various approaches, managerial practices, styles, techniques and functions will vary according to particular
circumstances of the situation. However, it is generally agreed that the three main contingences are the environment, technology
and size.

•​ The environment ( Tom Burns & George McPherson Stalker (1961)

These carried the first major study that established the relationship between the organizations environment and its structure and
assessed 20 firms on how their structure responded to the environment in which they operated. Management of organization takes
place in an environment characterized by uncertainty and dependence both of which change over time. Managers are not able to
fully control and understand events especially actions of forces outside or inside the organization, that is, external and internal
factors or actions.

The dependence of management on support (input) within and outside the organization make it vulnerable and even threatens the
existence of the organization. When designing the organization structures and procedures, the managers should take into account
uncertainty and dependence.

They identified different types of environment based on the level of uncertainty that was present ranging from stable environment
to the least predictable environment.

They identified two basic forms of structures namely; mechanistic structure and organic structure. ​ Mechanistic structures are
similar to the classical approach, that is, organizations are characterized by specialization of tasks, clear hierarchy structure of
authority, clear defined duties, loyalty to organization and superiors’ technical methods and responsibilities. These structures
suited for stable environments.

Organic structures are similar to the human relations approach, which is characterized by much greater flexibility and redefinition
of tasks, network of structure authority communication, lateral communication, a commitment to work in a group and prestige
arising from individual contribution than positions. These are suited for the less stable and predictable environment.

•​ Technology (Joan Woodward & Charles Perrow)

This is the major contingency in the organization environment. Joan Woodward (1960) established that organization forms varied
according to their main production technology, and organization structure varied due to their technology organization used.

•​ Size [The Aston group(University of Aston in Birmingham) in 1960 ]

Size was the most powerful predictor of specialization, use of procedures and reliance on paper work. The view is that the
structure and practices necessary for effective and efficient operations of small organizations are not suitable for large ones. Small
organizations require decentralized and personalized forms of control while large ones require decentralized impersonal structure.

The larger the organization, the more likely they adopted mechanistic or bureaucratic structure. The smaller the organization, the
more likely they adopt organic or flexible structure.

CRITICISMS

•​ It is not separate but simply a patchwork of existing approaches. It is more of theory with little practicability.

•​ It ignores the complexity of organizations life and views an organization as social, political and cultural system.

•​ Contingency theory fails to provide convincing explanation of the way in which organizations operate and should
operate.

•​ There are difficulties to show linkages between structures and situational variables.

•​ The major lesson is that the traditional approaches to management are not necessarily wrong but they cannot
adequately deal with current challenges managerial problems.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION

There are two views first

 •​ That administration is one whether found in public or private organizations, both are designed to help those who wish
to achieve organizational goals.

•​ Generic meaning of public administration implies that there is only one administration science which is applicable to
both public administration and private administration.

•​ There are neither sharp nor irreconcilable points of divergence; practices, procedures and philosophy are similar and/or
identical between the forms of administrative management. Blurred differences-no clear distinction.

•​ Second: that there are differences as public affairs are different from those in private business.

DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION

Paul H. Appleby, Sir Josia Stamp, Herbert A. Simon and Peter Drucker are of the view that public and private administrations are
two different things. The two types of administration can be differentiated on the following grounds:

1. POLITICAL CONTROL

​ PA and private administration are different when it comes to political control

​ PA is subjected to the principles of external political control

​ PA is controlled by largely the legislature when it comes to finances

​ Private administration there is no direct political control, the private sector is subjected to the market test of demand
and supply

2. TEST OF EFFECIENCY

​ Argues that private administration has superior efficiency as compared to that of PA

​ PA is associated with extravagance wastage of resources , corruption, strict adherence to rules and regulationswhich
result in efficiency
​ Pvt administration is associated with attractive, high production, motivated stuffs, superior abilities, most confident
personnel reading to high efficiency

3. EMESUARABILITY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

- It is argued that public service are intangible not easy to measure, to quantify, to evaluate

-Private administration is associated with measurability, evaluable, quantifiable output and input

4. OWNERSHIP

-Public administration the ownership is complex unlike private administration is owned by known number of persons.

5​ . ACCOUNTABILITY

PA accountability is complex while private administration it is done by the owners who make it clear
 6.​ ORGANISATION AND EMPLOYEMENT PRACTISE

-PA tend to be bureaucratic while private tend to be flexible or organic

-Government practices are dictated by riles and regulations while private its flexible

• Public administration is public in nature. Hence the main aim of public administration is to serve the public and to promote
community welfare. It is characterized by a service motive. Private administration, in contrast, is characterized by a profit motive,
not social service. Its objective is to maximize profit. All their efforts are directed to this end. In addition, public administration
carries a greater social prestige than private administration because of its social role.

• Public administration operates strictly according to laws, rules and regulations. The administrators cannot do anything contrary
to, or in excess of legal power. In private administration, there are general laws, which regulate the business. Individual business
firms have considerable flexibility.

• Public administration is subjected to political direction in most policy matters. It is the minister who lays down the broad policy
outlines under which the bureaucrats have to implement the policy. In private administration, there is no such political direction.
Any such political direction can be exercised only in emergency situations. The ends that it pursues are its own and its objectives
do not depend upon political decisions.

• Public administration has to be consistent in its treatment. In other words, the principle of consistency of treatment is the watch
word of public administration. Its acts and decisions are regulated by uniform laws, rules and regulations. It means that in public
administration any show of discrimination, bias or partiality will evoke public censure or legislative commotion. Administrators
have to be very consistent and impartial while dealing with the public. They must treat all the citizens equally, without any favor
or prejudice. Private administration, on the other hand, can practice preferential treatment. In private administration, it is common
to discriminate with regard to choice of products, selling of products and in fixing product prices.

• Being public in nature, public administration is open to constant public scrutiny. The actions of the administrators are much
more exposed to the public gaze. The achievements of administrators rarely get publicity but a minute fault makes newspaper
headlines in no time. A public administrator is accountable for all the acts and the decisions through legislative oversight and
judicial review. In other words, the moral and ethical standards in public administration are much higher as compared with
private administration. Public gaze is absent in private administration and it is not so closely watched by the public and publicity
media.

• The tenure of the administrators is quite secure as compared with the private sector employees. Apart from this, they enjoy
many benefits and privileges while in job and even after retirement. This kind of privilege is not available to the private sector
employees.
• In public administration there is monopoly of government and it does not allow private parties to compete. Services such as post
and telegraph, railways, currency and coinage are exclusively provided by the government. Monopoly in private sector is
missing. Several organizations compete with each other to supply the same commodity and service in the private sector domain.

• Public administration is subjected to external financial control. It means that finances of public administration are controlled by
the legislature. In other words, legislature authorizes the income and expenditure of the executive branch. The executive cannot
collect or spend money out of its own will. Thus, we see that the administration and finance are separated in public
administration. Private administration, on the other hand, is not subject to the principle of external financial control. It is free to
manage its finances as it likes.

• The nature of functions performed by public and private administration is also different. Public administration is more
comprehensive. It deals with the various types of needs of the people. It carries out functions, which are more urgent and vital for
the very existence of the society; for example, defense and maintenance of law and order. Private administration, on the other
hand, carries out less vital functions, such as manufacture of cloth, supply of sugar, etc.

• Public administrators function anonymously. In other words, the functioning of civil service in government is characterized by
the doctrine of anonymity which is the counterpart of the principle of ministerial responsibility. Thus, the minister assumes
responsibility for the actions of the civil servants working under him or her. This is not so in private administration.

• Public administration differs from private administration in the measurement of efficiency as well. Private administration
functions on a level of efficiency superior to that of public administration. Since the motive is to make profit, individuals are
wholeheartedly devoted to their work and business. In other words, the resource use or profit earning (i.e. input–output
relationship) is the criterion of measuring efficiency in private administration. However, the same criterion cannot be applied
while measuring efficiency in public administration. Thus, public administration has acquired certain distinctive features which
distinguish it from private administration. Public accountability is its hallmark; consistency of treatment its watchword; and
consciousness of community service, its ideal.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION

Similarities between Public and Private Administration Even though, they differ in certain respects, there are many similarities
between public and private administration. In fact, a group of administrative thinkers such as Henry Fayol, M.P. Follet, Luther
Gulick and Lyndall Urwick do not make a distinction between public and private administration. They are of the view that
administration, whether public or private, is one and possess the same basic features and it is undesirable to separate public from
private administration. There is much in common between the two and the difference is only of degree, not of kind. The specific
similarities between public and private administration are as follows:

• The managerial techniques and skills of planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling and so on are same in both.

• Both are organized on the basis of the principles of hierarchy.

• Both have uniformity in accounting, office management and procedures, purchases, disposals, statistics, stocking and so on.

• Both are being influenced by the practices and standards of each other. Thus, Pfeiffer and Presthus have described the
emergence of public corporation as ‘a halfway house between its commercial prototype and the traditional governmental
department’ (Pfiffner and Presthus, 1953, p. 4).

• Both have similarities so far as the problems of organization, personnel and finance are concerned. The similarity between
them is demonstrated by the fact that there is a mutual exchange and rotation of personnel between the two. In India, we have
seen that the Administrative Staff College of India located at Hyderabad organizes common training programs for the personnel
of both public and private sectors.

PUBLIC ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC SERVICE

●​ Ethic comes from a Greek world Ethos which means values and correct behavior.
 ●​ Ethics are codes of conduct that govern individuals or group of people.
●​ Ethics is about morals
●​ It is expected the public servants behave a manner that reflect codes of conduct and the rules of public service
●​ It is important for public servants to pay attention to ethics because they play important rule in regulation of behavior of
public servants and relationship between public servants and clients.
●​ Ethics provide guidelines the ensure harmony and professionalism
●​ Ethical principles for public servants are derived from the constitution, acts of parliament, official documents i.e
Malawi Public service Regulation (MPSR) and Malawi codes of conduct.
●​ Public servants often face ethical dilemma.
●​ Ethical dilemma, these are competing ethical values that functions as obstacles to effective service delivery.
●​ These include difficult value choices among person, profession, organization and society values.

PUBLIC SERVANT/ PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR ETHICAL DILEMMA

1. Public interest

2. Political neutrality

3. Conflict of interest

4. Accountability

5. Confidentiality

PUBLIC INTEREST

●​ A public administrator is expected to serve public interest.

●​ Expected to common good and act responsibly by avoiding self interest in favor of the public interest.
●​ However, public administrators often seek for their selfish interests and pursue personal objectives.
●​ Public interest is often known to be interest of politicians

POLITICAL NEUTRALITY

Public administrators are expected to avoid activities which are likely to compromise political neutrality.

Public administrators are expected to promote merit, fairness and equality

However, public servants are involved in politics and they seek favors from politicians.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

●​ It is a situation in which an administrator has a personal interest which is sufficient to influence the exercise of his or
her duties.
●​ It is a situation where there is a conflict between personal interest and official duties.
●​ There are many variations of interest, for example, accepting gifts which may be corrupt, awarding contracts to friends,
moonlighting(stealing official time) and improper use of public property among others.
●​ Due to variations in forms of conflict of interests, there is a dilemma in the sense of proving in relation to interference
with official duties.

ACCOUNTABILITY

●​ The principle of accountability also poses a dilemma to administrators.

●​ It is about answerability to the public or the stakeholders by those who execute power or hold positions.
●​ When we are elected to a certain position, you have to remain accountable to the electing authorities.
 ●​ The dilemma is that it is not very clear for whom administrators should be accountable to and mechanisms to e
followed, for example, they are accountable to politicians, citizens, to their profession and administrators and which
mechanisms should they follow.

CONFIDENTIALITY/ PRIVACY

●​ Administrators are required to keep certain pieces of information confidential.

●​ They are not supposed to obtain personal gains by releasing confidential information.
●​ This poses a dilemma because it clashes with the principles of openness and transparency.
●​ It is difficult at times to determine what to disclose and what to keep secrete.
●​ It is often difficult to balance the volume of openness and privacy.
●​ There are however techniques or mechanisms that are put in place to enhance ethical behavior among administrators.

MECHANISMS AND TECHNIQUES THAT ENHANCE ETHICAL BEHAVIOR AMONG ADMINISTRATORS

Traditional approaches of enhancing ethical behavior among administrators

This approach emphasizes the formulation and enforcement of laws, regulations and procedures foe example, in Malawi, there
are laws that seek to enhance ethical behavior among administrators. They include corrupt practices acts, the ombudsman act,
MPSR, Malawi code of ethics, public procurement procedure and regulations, policy manuals. These contain norms that
administrators are expected to follow.

Administrative mechanisms for the enhancement of ethical behavior among administrators

The administrative measures seek to create a hospitable organization that is conducive to the promotion of ethical behavior. The
elements/components of adminidtrative measures include leadership that is providing examlary leadership, role modeling and
declaring war against unethical behavior.

Another element is training and education. Administrators are provided with sound training and education regarding ethical
behavior. The assumption is that the two are key too in behavior modification.

Another elementis performance appraisal which involves the process of evaluating how well a person does his job. This is in a
sense that feedback is given to administrators and standards of behavior are clarified during the appraisal process.

Another element is reward system; the improvement of the pay. It is assumed that high pay prevents administrators from
supplementing their salary through unethical means like stealing.

BASIC STRUCTURE AND CONTROL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

●​ General view of what government is all about the institutions and their personel which administer roles and manage
public affairs entrusted to their care(Johnstone). It is also referred to as machinery or central institution published to
exercise prime political authority in a given state.
●​ A system of policy and decision making process, institutional structures and rules for atticulating, resolving and acting
upon issues of public concern.
●​ A more braod definition is that these are organs at different levels, central government, regional and local government.

The traditional functions of the government include the following;

1.​ Settle disputes

2.​ Providing security
3.​ Issuing money/currency
4.​ Revenue collection
5.​ Economic development
6.​ Provision of social services
 7.​ Social political development.
●​ Broadly, the government provides services, provides general administration, ensures law and order, defends the country
and develops the social infrastructure of the economic education, heath and many others.

THE STRUCTURE OF MINISTRIES

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES OR GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS

A ministry is the main instrument which gives effects to government policy when parliament passes the necessary regulations. It
is a policy holder.

Important features of ministries

I.​ It is under the overall leadership of a political leader.

The office bearer is called a minister / secretary/commissioner. It is under ministerial control.

II.​ It is of a considerable size and hierarchy

It is structured with distinct office arranged in order with the political heads at the top. The channels of communications are
expected to be upwards, downwards and lateral.

III.​ Ministries conduct activities under the general oversight and control by the legislature. The control is often exercised
through parliamentary committees.
IV.​ Ministries work beyond the central government headquarters and reaches out to the regional and district levels.
Ministries are associated with field administration.
V.​ Ministries are also run based on rules and their offices are considered impersonal.

PRINCIPLES OF ALLOCATING FUNCTIONS AMONG MINISTRIES

The number of ministries is determined by the political executive or the decision of the president and the cabinet. However,
there are principles which most governments follow in deciding the structure and functions of the civil service.

a)​ The functional principle

Refers to the allocation of functions or activities to a particular ministry or wants based on specializations, for example,
education, health, sports, defence, agriculture etc

b)​ Process principle

This involve giving activities, functions, responsibilities to a ministry on the basis that they will be carried out as a process to
serve the needs of other ministries eg ministry of fnance and associated departments, accountant general, auditor general.

c)​ Area principle

This involves giving responsibilities, activities, functions on the basis of area.

d)​ Client principle

This is adopted when a government gives responsibility to a ministry based on chance or particular group based on clients eg
women, youth, children.

It is given functions based on the type of clients it serves.

e)​ The nature of government systems and political judgment

There are two major government systems namely; the parliamentary and the presidential systems. Parliamentary system is the
type of government in where parliamentarians are being ministers. Parliamentarians like in Britain must e of the ministers and
functions are allocated to them by favor. Presidential system is when they allocate functions by campaign.

f)​ Political judgments/Convinience

Ministries are created and they are allocated functions and activities without reference to any principles/criteria. Political
judgments mean ministries are created by the head of the government simply by deciding.

CONTROL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

▪​ Branches of central government are legislature, judiciary and the executive. These b ranches are guided by the principle
of separation of powers, thus the functions of these branches are separate therefore should work no undue interference.
A.​ Legislative control

The legislature is a representative body of people/citizens and it has an important role in controlling of public
administration. Its forms of control include

I.​ The presidents speech(SoNA)

Members of parliament have the opportunity to criticize or raise issues against the outlined points in the speech during the
debate of the president’s speech.

Every session of the parliament opens with the president’s speech which outlines policies and activities relating to administration.

II.​ Discussion on budget

The budget is presented by the minister of finance to the parliament for approval therefore, legislators discuss on the budget and
provides an opportunity to suggest control measures over resources and the entire administration.

III.​ Question hour

Every parliament session has a question hour where MPs submit written questions to government; to draw public attention to the
failures and abuse of authority by administration and to also address public grievances. This allows the legislature to exercise
some form of control over administration.

IV.​ Adjournment motions

To adjourn means to stop/suspend normal business for a while. By adjourning, the MPs put pressure on government to attend to
critical issues that are of urgent nature.

V.​ Debate on legislation

Involves MPs discussing and criticizing any policy/bill that is brought to the house/parliament through various stages. MPs
subject public administration to control because it prescribes what is to be done, what procedures must be followed etc. MPs are
at liberty to revise/reject the policies, thus controlling public administration.

VI.​ Parliamentary committees

They ensure that procedures and accountability of public administration are adhered to. They include public accounts committee

VII.​ Legislative oversight

The legislature collects information about administration and pays attention to the performance of the government. It calls for
reports periodically and has powers to call for public hearing or institute an investigation on any government.

B.​ EXECUTIVE CONTROL

The president as the head of executive branch has power and authority to direct administration. However, the executive branch
exercises executive control over public administration. This is very complex in the sense that there are some agencies that are
directly controlled while others are exampled.

Forms of executive control

Budgeting

The executive has control over financial matters relating to pub administration. It prepares the budget. It determines sources of
income and the expenditures. Although the final approvial of the the budget is with the legislature, the executive also exercises
some form of control through the budgeting.

Deligated legislation

It involves the executive providing details regarding rules and regulations of the administrative actions when parliament is not in
session.

Parliament usually passes the law in the skeleton form and it’s the executive that fills up that skeleton, ie, providing more details
of the law passed.

The executive doesn’t have complete control over public administration because of two major factors:

▪​ The size of public administration(bureaucracy)

It is too big such that it limits executive control over administrative agencies
there are many institutions in the government machinery and is difficult to give closer attention to the administrative
agencies.
▪​ The divided loyalty of public servants
Some are political appointees while others are not. The political appointees ted to have more power than others making
control complex.
C.​ JUDICIAL CONTROL

It refers to the power of the courts to examine legibility of public officials acts particulary in safeguarding the rights of citizens;
ensuring that public administration does not abuse its power and that citizens are treated fairy and justly. In so doing the courts
have the power to declare actions by public administrators as unconstitutional. Generally, the courts intervention are in the
following:

Matters of jurisdiction

The judiciary intervenes when the administrator acts beyond his authority. Such an act is declared ultravires.

Error of law

The courts will intervene when the administrator misapplies something which is absent in the law.

Error of fact

When administrators act on wrong assumptions.

Error of procedure

When administrators take actions without following procedures.

Absence of authority

FORMS OF JUDICIAL CONTROL

 1.​ JUDICIAL REVIEW

The courts have powers to examne the legality and constitutionalism of administrative acts of individuals.

Statutory appeals

The courts have the powers to attend to appeals regarding the various acts or statues by an aggrieval party in relation to any type
of administrative action.

Extraordinary remedies

Court orders that are issued by courts and are called writs. Writs enforce compliers on the part of those whom the writ is issued.
Writs are in different forms.

Habeas corpus: court orders issued against a person who has defied another person to produce the person before the courts.

Mandamus: court order that command a public administrator to perform an act that is part of his duties.

Prohibition: court order issued to prevent a public official from doing something.

Quowarranto: writ issued questioning a public official about his entitlement.

certiorari: writ offered by a superior court for transferring records from an inferior court to the superior court.

The effectiveness of the judicial control is limited by several factors as follows:

a.​ The volume of work

The courts fail to cope with the volume of work. There is work overload.

b.​ Judicial intervention comes after damages have already occurred.

c.​ Judicial processes are costly and cumbersome.
d.​ Lack of awareness about judicial remedies.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN MALAWI

STRUCTURES, ROLES AND FUNCTIONS

The constitution of the republic of Malawi establishes three main ranches of the government, the judiciary, executive and the
legislature. The principle of separation of powers are provided in the sections 6,7&8 of the constitution of the republic of Malawi.

THE LEGISLATURE

1. law making

2. Providing oversight over government activities.

3. Representing the interest of people .

4.In Malawi, the parliament is a unicameral legislature. The current configuration is that it has a total of 193 seats out of which 87
are from the south, 73 are from the central region and 33 are from the northern region of Malawi.
 THE EXECUTIVE

The executive on the other hand is composed of the president, first vice president, second vice president, cabinet ministers and
deputy ministers. Its decision making structures include the president, cabinet, cabinet committees, Office of President and
Cabinet, central agencies and line ministries in that order. For the president, section 89(3) highlights his functions which include
accenting to acts (bills), defending the constitution, controlling armed forces pardoning prisoners among others. The cabinet
makes policies or decisions about the country as provided for by section 92(1). Office of President and Cabinet serves as the
secretariat of the cabinet. It arranged cabinet business, makes arrangements on development of public policies and it is the apex
of public services. The leader of the OPC is called the secretary to the president to the president and cabinet. The central agencies
are government institutions which include ministries that provide services to the other government institutions, they support the
executive decision making process. Examples include the ministry of finance, ministry of justice, ministry of finance and
economic planning and development and the department of human resource management and development. The central agencies
mainly are involved in coordination, monitoring and evaluation, regulating, providing oversight functions. The line ministries
operate at national and district levels. They are responsible for carrying out government policies and development goals. They
implement the locus of administration. Some executive functions are delegated to some institutions like boards or commissions
and mostly work is delegated to parastatals (public enterprises/statutory organizations). These operate under the supervision of
government. Public enterprises are a kind of statutory authority which produces goods and services to the republic for financial
returns. They often operate with substantial independence and its examples may include public utilities (ESCOM,BWB
&telecommunication), financial companies and regulatory authorities.

There are also some governance institutions that are provided in the constitution which include watchdog institutions and
monitors of policies in the country like the Malawi Human Rights Commission, Malawi Law Commission, Malawi Electoral
Commission, Anti corruption Bureau among others.

The judiciary is also another important branch of the government. It is mandated to interpret the laws, protect the constitution.
Courts range from the supreme court, high court to subordinate courts (magistrate, industrial relations court). The judiciary is
headed by the chief justice.

The governmental functions are also carried out through the second level of government called local government. There are 35
councils in Malawi; 4 city councils, 2 municipal councils, 1 town council and 28 district councils. The two major structures of the
district council include the district executive committee and area executive committee. There are also two important
developmental committees, the area development committee and village development committee that are involved in designing
projects and developing them. Concepts that guide the operations of local government called decentralization (transferring
powers from the top to the bottom).

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FACING THE DECENTRALIZATION SINCE ITS ADOPTION IN 1998