What is Administration?
Administration is a universal process and must exist in any organization set up for a defined purpose or objective. Whether we think of the church, the army, a university, an industrial or business concern or a purely social organization, there has to be administration because each one consists of human beings brought together in a hierarchical set-up, making use of tools, equipment, human and material resources, all in the quest to attain the objective for which the organization is established.
Thus administration is seen as a process of
management which is practiced by all kinds of organizations from the household
to the most complex system of government. This is the reason why administration
is a generic term. Let us consider some definitions of administration as
conceived by some writers. Administration is the organization and direction of
human and material resources to achieve desired ends.
Administration is the organization and
direction of persons in order to accomplish a specified end
Administration is determined action taken in
pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering of affairs and
the calculated use of resources aimed at making those things happen which one
wants to happen – (Marx, 1964). Administration is the organization and use of
men and materials to accomplish a purpose.
The two features of administration are
(a) Cooperative efforts
(b) Pursuit of common objectives.
Administration is thus concerned with organization
of men and materials to achieve desired ends. Administration consists of ‘doing
the work’ or ‘getting the work done by the others’. There are three
commonalities for any comprehensive definition of administration; goals,
limited resources, and people goals -they give purposiveness of an organization.
Limited resources – economic resources are
scarce, so administrators have to allocate resources for efficient utilization
to achieve stated goals.
Administration involves cooperative efforts
to achieve the objectives of the organization. Administration may be private or
public. When it refers to the activities of a household, corporation or
company, it is private administration, but when it refers to the activities of
the state as being undertaken by the central, provincial or local government,
it is called public administration.
Definition of Public Administration
Public administration is the art and science
of management as applied to the affairs of state. Woodrow Wilson defined public
administration as “detailed systematic execution of public law, every
particular application of general law is an act of administration.
Public administration is the fulfillment or
enforcement of public policy as declared by the competent authorities. It deals
with the problem and powers, the organization and techniques of management
involved in carrying out the laws and policies formulated by the policy-making
agencies of government. Public administration is law in action. It is the
executive side of government.
Public administration is that part of the
science of administration which has to do with Government and thus concerns
itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the government is
done.
Public administration has come to signify
primarily the organization, personnel, practices and procedures essential for
effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive
branch of government.
More comprehensive meaning and definition of
public administration is as follows:
a. Public Administration is cooperative
group effort in a public setting.
b. Covers all three branches – executive,
legislative and judicial and their relationships
c. Has an important role in the formulation
of public policy and is thus a part of the political process.
d. Is more important than, and also
different in significant ways from private administration.
e. As a field of study and practice has been
much influenced in recent years by the human relations approach.
f. Is closely associated with numerous
private groups and individuals in providing services to the community.
Public administration is decision-making,
planning the work to be done, formulating objectives and goals, working with
the legislative and citizens organizations to gain public support and funds for
government programmes, establishing and revising organizations, directing and
supervising employees, providing leadership, communicating and receiving
communications, determining the work methods and procedures, appraising
performance, exercising controls, and other functions performed by government,
the means by which the purposes and goals of government are realized.
All of these definitions identify public
administration with:
• The formulation and implementation of
public policies.
• The executive branch of government.
• Organizational structures and machinery of
administration.
• Administrative processes.
• Bureaucracy and its activities.
• Coordination of group activity or social
relationship.
• Interaction between organization and their
environment.
Public administration is the contested
bureaucratic machinery of the government for implementing its laws and policies
in action, e.g. the collection of revenues, maintenance of law and order,
running the railways and postal services, are all acts of administration.
However, the objective of public
administration is the most efficient utilization of the resources at the
disposal of officials and employees (this includes material, equipment, human
resources).
In the study of public administration,
emphasis is on the notion of efficiency – focus on how to improve the machinery
of government for effective and efficient service delivery.
Basic Components of Public Administration
The basic components of public
administration include:
1. Public
policy
2. Ecology
3. Local
government administration
4. Human
resources and personnel management
Aim and Objectives of Public Administration
• A closer focus on results in terms of
efficiency and effectiveness and service quality.
•The replacement of highly centralized
hierarchical organizational structures with decentralized management
environments, where decisions on resource allocation and service delivery are
taken closer to the point of delivery, and which provide scope for feedback
from clients and other interest groups.
• Flexibility to explore alternatives to direct public provision, which might provide more cost-effective policy outcomes.
• New personnel management policies to provide greater flexibility in
the deployment of staff (e.g. through multi-skilling).
• The use of mechanisms to improve
performance (such as performance contracting) and the creation of competitive
and market environment within and between public sector organizations.
• Incentives to improve performance (or at
least removing disincentives) through enabling organizations to retain a
portion of savings from improved performance
• The strengthening of strategic capacities
at the center to ‘steer” government to respond to external changes and diverse
interests quickly, flexibly and at least cost.
• Greater accountability and transparency
through requirements to report on results.
Characteristics of Public Administration
The main characteristics or features of
public administration include:
1. The primacy of ends, goals or objectives
2. The interlocking relationship between
policy and formulation and policy implementation roles
3. The integrative role of organization
4. The interposition of values and ethics
5. The intrusion of economic values
1. The primacy of ends, goals or objectives: The source and origin of administration are the ends which are meant to be served.
2.
The interlocking relationship between policy and formulation and policy
implementation roles: From the broad goals identified, policies
are formulated and then implemented. Although the political class sometimes
lays claim to exclusive control of the policy formulation process,
administrators have a vital role to play in the areas of policy analysis,
fact-gathering, and options identification, all of which will finally lead to
formulation of policy.
3.
The integrative role of organization: Even when policies are
conceived and formulated outside the framework of organizations, the
implementation generally takes place in bureaucratic organizations or in
‘programme’ or matrix organizations. It is in such organizations that human and
material resources are coordinated and deployed to achieve policy objectives.
4.
The interposition of values and ethics: Although administration
is a universal concept, its practice tends to be conditioned by values
prevailing at any particular time and place.
5.
The intrusion of economic values: If public administration
was originally concerned in the main with political values and objectives, it
now has to accommodate economic values in view of its intervention in economic spheres.
Any comprehensive definition and
consideration of public administration will need to highlight the above
characteristics.
Nature of Public Administration
There are two main divergent views regarding
the nature of public administration. Integral view – according to this view,
public administration is a sum total of all the activities undertaken in
pursuit of and in fulfillment of public policy. These activities include
managerial, technical, as well as manual and clerical. In this manner, the activities
of all persons from top to bottom constitute administration although they are
of varying significance to the running of administrative machinery was of the
view that administration is concerned with the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of
government. The ‘what’ is the subject-matter, the technical knowledge of a
field which enables the administrator to perform his tasks. The ‘how’ is the
technique of management, the principles according to which cooperative
programmes are carried to success.
Managerial view –according to this view, the
work of only those persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial
functions in an organization constitute administration. The job of this group
of people is to plan, programme and organize all the activities in an organization
so as to achieve the desired ends.
These two views differ from each other in
many ways. The integral view includes the activities of all persons engaged in
administration whereas the managerial view restricts itself only to the
activities of a few persons at the top.
The integral view postulates all types of
activities from manual to managerial; from non-technical to technical, but
managerial view takes into account only the managerial activities in an
organization. Some of these activities include: planning for the organization,
budgeting, staffing amongst others.
According to the integral view,
administration would differ from one person sphere to another depending upon
the subject matter, whereas the managerial view is identified with the
managerial techniques common to all fields of administration.
Scope of Public Administration
Several writers in the field of public
administration have defined the scope of public administration in varying
degree. The scope of public administration will include:
Planning-
which means the working out in broad outline the things to be done, the method
to be adopted to accomplish the purpose.
Organizing
–
It is the establishment of the formal structure of authority, through which the
work is sub-divided, arranged, defined and coordinated.
Staffing
-
means the recruitment and training of the personnel and their conditions of
work.
Directing
–
It is the making decision, issuing orders and instructions.
Coordinating –
means inter-relating the work of various divisions, sections and other parts of
the organization.
Reporting–
Means informing the agency to whom the executive is responsible about what is
going on.
Budgeting
–
Means fixed planning, control and accounting.
The POSDCORB activities are common to all
organizations. They are the common problems of management which are found in
the different agencies regardless of the peculiar nature of the work they do.
Public administration is concerned with ‘the
what’ and ‘the how’ of government. The ‘what’ is the subject matter, the
technical knowledge of a field, that enables an administrator to perform
his/her tasks. The ‘how’ is the technique of management.
The major divisions of the subject matter
fall into four groupings:
1. What a government
does – determination of objectives, internal administrative policies and plans
and the range of governmental business.
2. How a government
organizes its staff, and finances its work - that is the structure of
government organization.
3. How
administration secures cooperation and teamwork – it involves the study of such
problems as administrative responsibility, leadership, direction, coordination,
delegation, headquarters – field relationship, supervision and public
relations.
4. How
administration is held accountable - This means study of internal controls, and
control of administrative activities by the legislature and the courts.
By consensus, the
essential components of administration are planning, organizing, staffing,
initiating, delegating, directing, overseeing, coordinating, and evaluating.
The various activities forming part of the scope of public administration are
indicated by POSDCORB which we have discussed above.
The
scope of public administration by dividing it into two parts:
(a) Administrative
theory
(b) Applied
administration
(a)
Administrative theory: This includes the study of structure,
organization, functions, and methods of all types of public authority engaged
in carrying out the administration at all levels, i.e. national, regional, and
local. It is a study of all problems connected with external control of
parliament and the cabinet over administration, internal control of
administrative machinery, judicial control over administration, administrative
tribunals; planning, programming and execution of public actions, recruitment
of personnel and problems connected therewith, research, information, public
relations. The emphasis here is to find out certain principles of
administrative actions which can be usefully applied in practical
administration.
(b)
Applied administration: It may be difficult to really state
what applied administration should include, however Walker made a
classification of the main forms of applied administration on the basis of ten
principal functions. These include:
• Political: It includes a study of
executive-legislative relationship, politico-administrative activities of the
cabinet minister-official relationships.
•
Legislative: It includes delegated legislation,
preparatory work done by the officials in drafting of bills for enactment.
•
Financial: It includes the whole of financial administration from
preparation to the enactment of budget, etc.
•
Defensive: It includes a study of military administration.
•
Social: All administration in the social field such as housing,
food, social security and employment etc.
•
Economic: It covers all administrative activities in the economic
field, i.e., industries, agriculture, foreign trade, commerce, public
enterprises, etc.
•
Foreign: It covers foreign administration which includes
international co-operation, international agencies for international peace and
prosperity, diplomacy, etc.
•
Imperial: It includes problems and techniques of imperial
domination over other nations, etc.
•
Local: It covers administration of local bodies.
Principles
of Public Administration
The follow are the principles
o Public Administration:
1. Principle of Political Direction
2. Principle of Authority
3. Principle of Public Responsibility
4. Principle of Social Necessity
5. Principle of Efficiency
6. Principle of Organization
7. Principles of Public Relations
1. Principle of Political Direction: Public administration is an agency of government. The subordinate machinery obeys the general directions as issued by the political authority. It is directed by the political laws and statues. The objectives of administrative actions are defined and authorized by the political authority in a state possessing to compel members of the society over which it presides to act in certain ways. Since the ends it pursues are not of its own devising, public administration serves the will of others. That will is formed and expressed by political, not administrative, machinery.
The administrative
only receives the orders from the above and has no initiative left in its own
hands. The only initiative, which an administrative body possesses, is with
regard to those activities or spheres which have not been touched by the
superior authority and are left to the administrative bodies in their
discretion.
2.
Principle of Authority: Public administration is carried by persons
who have certain powers or authority. Authority is the power or right of a
person commanding other people to do things and in general of getting work done
by them. The authority comes to an administrator from the nature of things. It
results from the position of superiority occupied by some people over others.
The authority which a superior exercises is of three sorts, one legal or
statutory, second, which follows from the nature of the position he holds, and
the third, from his own personality. The legal authority is one which is given
to him by the rules and regulations of administration. But sometimes conditions
and circumstances may arise not contemplated in the rules and regulations which
may call for command on the one side and obedience on the other. Such command
or authority will be said to flow from the nature of the position the superior
holds. The third source of authority is the personality of the superior due to
his intelligence, knowledge, experience and the moral value of his personality.
Authority and his counterpart obedience keep administration in order.
3.
Principle of Public Responsibility: The third principle that
follows is the principle of public responsibility. Public administration is
responsible for all its acts to the political executive who in its turn is
responsible to the public through legislature and thus public administration,
if not directly; it is indirectly responsible to the people for its acts
through political chief. Public administration must be sure of the grounds on
which it acts since it can be questioned at anytime. It must be able to explain
its activities when required to do so. Adequate records of the grounds and
reasons for its actions as well as of the actions themselves must be
maintained. That is why that official business is not conducted orally but by
correspondence and by written minutes preserved in files. Since public
administration is ultimately responsible to the public, this responsibility as
a whole will tend to require uniformity in administrative action. Civil
servants cannot give special considerations to individuals of a particular
group. Their treatments should be uniform throughout. It will always be
difficult in public administration to justify giving special consideration and
treatments to individuals, which is not extended generally to all individual in
like circumstances.
4.
Principle of Social Necessity: From the above mentioned
principles it should not be inferred that administrative responsibility is
merely the responsibility of obeying others- as a squad of new recruits obeys a
drill sergeant on the parade ground. Public administration is much more than
mere being a faithful servant. It is the inevitable necessity and the absolute
indispensability. Social action is impossible without administrative action. In
the present age the social machinery cannot run without the aid of public
administration, it is the inevitable part of the social link something very
essential in the nature of society to set up one set of conditions into
another. So great are the complexities of all the requirements of social action
that political machinery alone is unable to plan their execution in all
details. Much has to be left to the administrative action if political ends are
to be achieved. It is, in other words, a necessary part of the government of a
country.
5.
Principle of Efficiency: No governmental machinery can be
successful unless civil service is efficient. Though efficiency is not of
special and exclusive application to public administration, since many other
humans’ activities also seek to be efficient, nevertheless the guidance of such
a principle cannot be omitted from a set of administrative principles because
without it the subject would lack a standard by which its performance could be
assessed. The principle of efficiency therefore holds an important place in the
realm of public administration.
6.
Principle of Organization: This principle draws attention to the
need for careful organization or structuring of the administrative machinery.
Upon this principle depends in large measure the value of the contribution
public administration can make to social well-being. Though the organization
must be economical, yet it should not be lacking the basic ingredients of a
perfect organization. “Co-ordination”, “correlation” and “integration” are
blessed words covering a multitude of administrative virtues. Every department
of public administration must be correlated with each other. There must not be
water-tight separation between the various departments. The government is a
unit and must be run as a unit. Important and independent activities should be
integrated at one place. Coordination of the work of all the parts of
administration is absolutely necessary to make the administrative system work.
7.
Principles of Public Relations: Public Administration is a
means and not an end in itself. It exists for the welfare of individuals and
since it affects their welfare, it is essential that it must understand the
needs and desires of the people. The principle of public relations enjoins
effective interaction between administration and the public affected by
administration and the public affected by administration. It points to the need
for an integration of democratic ‘experience’ and ‘will’ with the
administrative agencies designed for its expression. It is only when public
relations have been rightly established that there can be true democratic
system of public administration.
Approaches to the study of Public Administration
We shall consider the various approaches as
follows:
1.
Historical Approach: The historical approach is essentially
based on the belief that knowledge of history is absolutely essential for an
in-depth study of any subject. For a proper understanding of the subject the
study of public administration of the past in particular periods is necessary
to link up with the present administrative systems. If we take Nigeria for
example, in order to understand the evolution, the growth and development of
its 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 and how these developed into the
modern public administration.
With the present
administrative systems. If we take Nigeria for example, in order to understand
the evolution, the growth and development of its 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 and how these developed into the modern public administration.
2.
Legal Approach: The legal approach concentrates on the
formal legal structure and organization of public bodies. The approach stresses
the formal organization of offices, official duties, and limitations of power
and discretionary authority of administrators. Its main sources are
constitutions, codes of law, office manuals of rules and regulations and
judicial decisions. The legal approach is valuable for the understanding of the
legal framework within which administrative system has to operate, but by
neglecting the informal forces operating in the organisation (the sociological
and psychological variables); it remains to a great extent an incomplete
approach to the study of public administration.
3.
Institutional Approach: The Institutional approach tries to
establish the linkages between the study of public administration and the
institutions of government. Its focus is on the study of the structure and
functioning of separate institutions and organizations of the state such as the
executive, the legislature, the departments, government corporations, boards
and commissions. The Institutional approach considers the study of organizations,
their principles, 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.
4.
Behavioural Approach: Modern behaviorism developed in the late
1940s and 1950s and concerned itself with the scientific study of human
behavior in diverse social environments. It started as a protest against
traditional, historical, normative and largely descriptive approaches in the
social sciences.
The behavioral
approach in administrative studies has the following important features:
Its literature is
descriptive, rather than prescriptive, with the studies on motivation being an
exception.
• Increased
attention is paid to the individual based on more realistic research-concerning
motivation, decision-making processes and the nature of authority. Stress is
laid on informal relationships and communication patterns among members of an organization.
• It emphasizes
operational definition of terms and empirical study based on rigorous methods,
such as field study, laboratory experiments or use of other statistical
methods.
• It is chiefly,
though not exclusively, concerned with quantification, and formal theory
construction.
• It is
interdisciplinary in character, and makes considerable use of propositions
drawn from other social sciences.
In a nutshell, the behaviorists
sought to adopt an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. According to the behaviorists
all human actions are motivated by social, economic, political, or
psychological environment from which they come. The behavioral approach has
been criticized for being of limited utility in the analysis of all types of
administrative phenomena. The argument is that the complexity and variability
of human nature, motivations and behavior preclude the attainment of precision
that is so characteristic of the physical sciences. Again, value oriented or
normative problems and issues of organization cannot really be explained or
interpreted in terms of the behavioral approach.
5.
Structural-Functional Approach: The two concepts basic to
this approach are structure and function. All social structures exist to
perform certain functions. While functions concern the consequences of patterns
of action, structures refer to the patterns of actions and the resultant
institutions of the systems themselves. The structural-functional framework
provides an important mechanism for the analysis of different social processes.
In structural functionalism, social structure is viewed as ‘any pattern of
behavior which has become a standard feature of a social system’. All social
structures perform some ‘functions’. In structural-functional terms, a
‘function’ involves ‘a pattern of interdependence’ between two or more
structures, a relationship between variables. It refers to any consequences of
a structure in so far as they affect other structures or the total system of
which they are a part. We should note that all similar structures do not
necessarily perform similar functions. A social structure may perform multiple
functions and similarly one function may be performed by more than one
structure.
6.
Ecological Approach: Various scholars and administrative theorists
have often referred to the need to relate public administration to the
environment in which it functions. The ecological perspective in the study of
public administration was introduced primarily through the writing of John
Gaus, who first elaborated this approach in his reflections of public administration
1945. The concept of relating government functions to the environment which
included such factors as people, situation, culture, technology amongst others.
These factors must
be included in the ‘ecological’ study of public administration. The ecological
approach assumes that administrative behavior is peculiarly molded by the
values of the administrative culture in which it functions, the administrative
culture in being an outgrowth of the interaction of values and traits of the
administrative system with the social system as a whole. An administrative
system may not act as an independent variable in all circumstances. It acts and
reacts under the influence of various subsystems surrounding it. There is a
degree of interdependence between all social organizations and their ecological
settings (environment). Organizations, structures, procedures and goals are
largely created and changed as a result of the interaction between an organization
and its environment. Thus, if an organization is to survive it must adapt
itself to the changing needs and conditions of its external environment. The
merit of ecological approach lies in the value and relevance of studying people
in relation to their environment, taking into consideration their peculiar
characteristics and problems.
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