PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AS IT EVOLVES

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    PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AS IT EVOLVES

    MEETIKA SRIVASTAVA

    Research scholar,Department of Public Administration,University of Lucknow,Lucknow,India

    ABSTRACT

    Woodrow Wilson whose seminal work his essay on the Study of Administration published in the year 1887,

    contributed towards the scientific study of administration as a separate discipline and the paradigm of politics and

    administration dichotomy which first mooted the idea of studying administration separately. The evolution of Public

    administration has seen different paradigms and different ideologies have been advocated by different administrative

    theorists and thinkers. The theory of public administration consists of classical thinkers, human relationists, bureaucratic

    theorists and Behaviouralists.

    KEYWORDS:Public Administration, Administrative Theory, Evolution, Administrative Thinkers

    INTRODUCTION

    Even in Ancient civilizations administration was practiced. It existed from the time society came into being. But

    as a distinct discipline its history can be traced only since the later parts of the 19th

    century. With the rise in complexities in

    the nature of the state the activities and scope of administration has widened with the passage of time. Functions of the

    government have expanded innumerably. An individual is exposed to some sort of governmental activity at every stage of

    his life infact from the cradle to the grave or from womb to tomb; the state is always visible and hardly leaves a gap.

    Towards an independent study of the subject of public administration several scholars, thinkers and practitioners have laid

    down their views as theories, in-depth analysis which have contributed to its academic literature and its development as a

    discipline and practice. In the later paragraphs the evolution of public administration is discussed.

    The discipline of Public Administration owes a lot to Woodrow Wilson whose seminal work his essay on the

    Study of Administration published in the year 1887, contributed towards the scientific study of administration as a

    separate discipline and the paradigm of politics and administration dichotomy which first mooted the idea of studying

    administration separately different from Law or politics and its mother discipline political science. Wilson was of the view

    to make public organizations more businesslike and bring about more efficiency and effectiveness in its operations and also

    to bring about strict accountability. Frank J Goodnow, popularly known as the father of American Public administration

    too was a proponent of politics-administration dichotomy. He saidpolitics has to do with policies while administration has

    to do with execution of those policies. In the year 1926, LD White released Introduction to the study of Public

    Administration. This book is believed to be the first textbook on the subject of Public administration. According to him

    Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public

    policy.

    The evolution of Public administration has seen different paradigms and different ideologies have been advocated

    by different administrative theorists and thinkers. The theory of public administration consists of classical thinkers, human

    relationists, bureaucratic theorists and Behaviouralists. The classical thinkers like FW Taylor, Henry Fayol, Gullick,

    Urwick, Mooney and Reiley , stressed on the formal structures of organization, they propagated universal principles of

    administrative which can be applied to any organization to bring about administrative efficiency. They believed in

    International Journal of Economics, Commerce

    and Research (IJECR)

    ISSN 2250-0006

    Vol.2, Issue 4 Dec 2012 29-33

    TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

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    30 Meetika Srivastava

    impersonality and hierarchy. For them set of rules and regulations are utmost important and they must be strictly followed.

    They viewed organization as a closed system which neither influences its external environment nor gets influenced by it.

    Human beings are merely treated as cogs in the machine and they are supposed to be motivated only through monetary

    rewards. There was no place for the study of human relations and behavior of individuals amongst themselves and with the

    organizational as a whole. The classical thinkers had a very mechanistic approach towards administration, which viewed

    man as a machine and ignored the human and psychological aspects in administration because the administration is

    ultimately run by individuals who bring in their biases and opinions. It is not possible neither feasible to completely

    separate fact from values. The behavior and interrelationship between those working in the organization are no less

    important than the administrative structure where they work.

    Max Weber, the German sociologist proposed that the foundations of bureaucracy lies on legal-rational authority

    and in fact his model of bureaucracy is hailed as an ideal type which outlines certain characteristics for effective

    bureaucracies which promote organizational efficiency and employee welfare. The main elements of Weberian model of

    bureaucracy are: Impersonal order, rules, and sphere of competence, hierarchy, personal and public ends, written

    documents, monocratic.

    The Hawthrone Experiments under the leadership of Elton Mayo highlighted the role of informal organizations

    which exists within the formal structures of organization and small social groups that influence the formal goals and

    objectives and thus laid emphasis on socio-psychological aspects for determining organizational efficiency much different

    from mechanistic classical thinkers and their concept of economic man. They viewed human behavior in an organization

    as a complex phenomenon different from the classical thinkers. Just like the Human relations thinkers like Mary Parker

    Follett, Roethlisberger, Robert Merton, Elton Mayo, etc there evolved a more systematized and more sophisticated version

    of human relations theory i.e the behavioural approach. Chester Barnard, was the full -fledged behaviouralist who viewed

    organization a s a cooperative system where people are able to communicate with each other and willing to co operate with

    each other towards accomplishment of common objectives. His seminal work The Functions of the Executive influencedthe ideas of Herbert Simon who proposed new concept of administration based on theories and methodology of logical

    positivism with the focus on decision-making. He was severely critical of the classical approach of universal

    applicability of principles of administration which to him were mere proverbs and they occur in pairs. He stressed on

    value- free approach to the study of administration and laid down the different stages to the decision-making process in an

    organization. Other prominent Behaviouralists were Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor, Rensis Likert, Bakke,Warren

    Bennis, Kurt Lewin, David Easton, Chris Argyris etc . It was more of a multidisciplinary approach which involved study

    of other disciplines like sociology, psychology, anthropology; economics, management, etc and hence the study of

    administrative as an interdisciplinary subject. The Behavioural approach is more descriptive and tries to establish a link

    between administrative theory and its actual implementation for practical problem solving. Maslow gave a need hierarchy

    theory of human motivation where he showed how an individual substitutes his lower order satisfied needs with unsatisfied

    needs of the highest order. Herzbergs two factor theory of motivation divided the people working in an organization into

    two categories hygiene seekers and motivation seekers. McGregor gave two sets of assumptions about human nature

    and its behavior in an organisation as his theory X and theory Y which can be employed as managerial strategy for

    organizational efficiency. Likert conceptualized various leadership styles for an organization, the most effective being the

    Participative System.

    In the post war era, Public administration saw a new paradigm of Camparative public administration which was

    cross cultural studies and cross national studies of public administration. Its aim was theory building and to attain more

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    Public Administration as it Evolves 31

    knowledge for the discipline and less stress was on the practical application of knowledge. It examines the relationship of

    the administration with its external environment and hence brought ecological approach to public administration. FW

    Riggs, Robert Dahl, J.M Gaus, Dwight Waldo etc were major proponents of this approach. Riggs gave two models viz,

    Agraria-Industria Model and the Fused-Prismatic-Diffracted Model, to depict the agrarian and industrial societies as well

    as the underdeveloped, developing and developing societies respectively.

    In the backdrop of turbulent times in America, the assassinations of American Presidents, the Vietnam War, urban

    riots and unrest etc, it was seen there existed huge gaps between the theory of administration and its applications on the

    ground. In fact this discipline lacked theory building. The Honey Report of 1967 on Higher education for Public service,

    Philadelphia conference on the theory and practice of Public administration, several other publications led to a New Public

    administration movement under the patronage of Dwight Waldo at the Minnowbrook Conference which brought public

    administration professionals and young radical thinking scholars together for confronting the traditional administrative

    theory. It laid emphasis on administration for social change and social equity. It wanted to bring in the role of values into

    administration action and stressed on relevance of public administration for society and its problems. The focus was on

    making administration more responsive and participative as well as client oriented and change oriented. In the 1960Development administration emerged as a sub-field of Public administration. Edward Weidner was the foremost thinker

    who severely criticized the traditional administrative theory for glorifying the means and forgetting the ends To him

    development administration is concerned with maximizing innovation for development.

    With the rise of the state versus market debate and growth of the public choice theory, propounded by Vincent

    Ostrom, brought the concept of institutional pluralism i.e plurality of public agencies for delivery of public goods and

    services as per consumers preferences and gave rise to another paradigm called New Public management (NPM) which

    aims at the three Es economy, efficiency and effectiveness. It advocated the change in the role of the government from the

    doer to an enabler and facilitator for public activities to meet the various challenges of Liberalisation, privatization

    and globalization. Ted Gaebler and David Osborne summarized the theme of NPM as We dont need more government;we need better government.

    The focus of Public administration has been continuously evolving; it is being viewed as a profession as well as a

    discipline of study. Although it is often stated that the political executives lay down the policies which are implemented by

    the administrative machinery but there are no clear-cut roles defined for each of them. In fact the civil servants at the

    higher levels often help the political authorities in the process formulation considering they have specialized knowledge

    and much more skilled and trained, likewise the political executives take keen interest in implementation of policies

    wherever required. Hence the Public administration plays its role in public policy making. It helps the political executive in

    identification of major policy areas, preparation of policy proposals, analysis of societal problems and measures to solve

    them, suggesting alternative course of action etc, thus this approach of public policy aims at improvement in overalldecision making process and better, effective policies aimed at maximizing public welfare and add a scientific temper to

    administration.

    Different paradigms and different theories have contributed towards the literature and application of Public

    administration, in contemporary societies whether agricultural or industrial or the developed , developing and undeveloped

    economies, everywhere the application of public administration is of utmost importance and numerous challenges are

    confronting its paths to maximum public welfare and efficient public service delivery. To match up to growing

    complexities, socio-economic problems, regional disparities and rising consumer preferences and expectations, concept

    likes good governance and responsive administration has become part of administration. To curb the ubiquitous corruption

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    32 Meetika Srivastava

    menace has made ethics and morals part of administrative culture with greater emphasis on integrity in administration.

    With the advent of science and technology more and more governments are integrating communications and information

    technology with governance giving rise to E-Governance, which is the application of ICT in the affairs of public

    administration in order to make provision and delivery of public utilities simpler and make the government more

    accountable, transparent and responsible.

    CONCLUSIONS

    Thus the discipline of Public administration is continuously evolving since its first independent study in the year

    1887. The concept of state has evolved from the police state to welfare state and so does its work has undergone a sea

    change and therefore the instrument of administration (through which the government operates) i.e. the visible part of the

    government is in a continuous dynamic state of nature. As a discipline it is harder to find any consensus on a general

    theory of administration because of its varied scope and nature. At various phases of administrative history some of the

    other paradigms/themes have dominated the administrative discourse and hence we have politics and administrative

    dichotomy phase when the political acts were differentiated from the administrative acts. Politics was concerned with

    policy making whereas the public executives were involved with the implementation of those policies. The importance of

    structures of organization was emphasized by the classical thinkers who aimed at arriving at general principles of

    administration which can make its working efficient and are universally applicable. Facts were separated from values. It

    was assumed that monetary rewards motivate people at work and there was no place for their values and biases in the

    implementation of policies assigned to them. But with growth the growth of human relations movement and the

    behaviouralists the focus was shifted to the human and psychological aspects of administration. New public administration

    tried to break free from the traditional status-quo oriented administration to change- oriented, client oriented and

    participatory and responsive administration promoting social justice. New public management transformed government

    into entrepreneurial government and reinvented government in the sense it gave a new role to the government of being

    a facilitator and enabler and regulator of public utilities. The field of public administration has become multidisciplinary

    and it has developed linkages with other social sciences like psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics etc. With the

    advancement of science and technology the tools of information and communication technology are being used for better,

    improved and smooth governance. The necessity of ethics in administration has received momentum with the promotion

    and adoption of good governance practices in the state administrative machinery.

    REFERENCES

    1. Wilson, Woodrow. June, 1887. The Study of Administration, Political Science Quarterly 22. An Introduction to the study of Public Administration-L.D White.3. Public Administration: Administrative theories and concepts- Dr. B.L.Fadia, Dr. Kuldeep Fadia4. O.P. Minocha, Good Governance: New Public Management Perspective, The Indian Journal of Public

    Administration.

    5. Public Administration Robert B. Denhardt6. Adminstrative thinkers- Prasad and Prasad.7. New Horizons of Public Administration by Mohit Bhattacharya8. Public Administration by Herbert Alexander Simon, Donald W. Smithburg, Victor Alexander Thompson

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    Public Administration as it Evolves 33

    9. Public Administration Theory and concepts - Rumki Basu10. Public Administration and Public Affairs - Nicholas Henry.11. Modern Public Administration - Nigro and Nigro.12. Public Administration (Manual) (TATA MC Graw Hill) - Laxmikanth.13. Public Administration - Avasti & Maheswari.14. Handbook of Public Administration: edited by Jon Pierre, B Guy Peters15. An Introduction to Public Administration by Haroon A. Khan16. Value and Virtue in Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective edited by Professor Michiel S. S. De De

    Vries, Professor Pan Suk Kim