The Concept of Administration and Organization

Josefino “Penn” T. Larena AB, CPS, MPA

A: WHAT IS ADMINISTRATIONFirst definition: “Administration can be defined as the activities of groups cooperating to accomplish common goals”.There are particular key elements of administration.Cooperative: the word cooperative is the first key element in this definition. Human activity is cooperative if it has the effects that would be absent if the cooperation did not take place.

• It seems that a new element is introduced, that is the concept of means.

Means: The means are the ways by which something is done or obtained

• A division of labor is necessary among the members of the group to accomplish a common goal.

• There is also a need for an authority structure to control and coordinate the activities of the individuals involved.

** division of labor and authority structure are means (among others) for carrying out prescribed ends.

• Cooperation and any other method is also a means used in the administration.

C: Characteristics of Formal Organization•The most prominent characteristic of organizations is the conscious deliberate human effort to establish and operate them for the accomplishment of pre-determined goals.-- In other words, organizations are deliberately created by human decisions for the purpose of accomplishing predetermined goals.-- the goal may change from one organization to another.

• Another important feature of formal organizations is the structured relations among its members.

• -- Organizations are established for accomplishing specific objectives and these objectives are accomplished through the efforts and contributions of a number of people who are members of that organization.

• -- The relations among the individuals have to be structured or planned in a way which will facilitate goal accomplishment.

you need an organization to accomplish desired goals because you have to relate the individuals to each other and coordinate their activities.

Without relating the members of the group to each other, without planning their activities it is not possible to accomplish the common objectives.

without organization there will be chaos.

In this sense, in formal organizations, the relations among the members are structured, their activities as members of the organization are ordered.

In other words, the relations among the members are orderly and members of the organization perform specific roles within the organization according to pre-determined rules and regulations.

• Another important characteristic of formal organization is that their members are selected on the basis of their individual qualifications.

-- Since each organization has predetermined, specific goals to accomplish and accomplishment of goals requires a variety of activities, the individuals who contribute their physical and mental activities have to be selected by taking into consideration the activities necessary for goal accomplishment.

The formal organization will use money and other material resources to accomplish their objectives. Therefore another characteristic of formal organization is the use of money and other material resources in accordance with the goals of the organization.

A final characteristic of formal organization is that the interactions of the organization with its environment is regulated to the extend required by the nature of its goals.

D. ORGANIZATION AS SYSTEM•In its broadest sense, the concept of “organization” is almost synonymous with that of “system”. •in this understanding, the concept of organization refers to any situation where there are a number of elements which are bound together and stand in some relation to one another.

* Organization as a system has the following characteristics:

1. there are a number of elements 2. these elements of a system are interrelated among themselves in an orderly or ordered manner.-- this means that their relationship is not chaotic or completely random.-- there is some kind of pattern in these relationships so that a change in one element of the system leads to predictable changes in other elements.3. A system may be related to some other systems or be a part of some larger systems.

-- If organization is regarded as structure then administration becomes a process.-- If organization is concerned with the formal aspects of administration, administration is the directing process carried on within the organizational setting.

** The terms “administration” and “management”, are generally used synonymously meaning the same thing.

--But the term “management” is generally identified with private sector organizations.

-- the term”administration”, on the other hand, is used with reference to public organizations.

-- Managing a private organization is completely different from administering a public organization.

-- Public or private organizations are social units established for accomplishing predetermined objectives.

-- in accomplishing their objectives organizations both employ the very same techniques and processes. In this sense administration is a universal phenomenon.

-- But this does not necessarily mean that there are no differences between public and private organizations with regard to their administration.

Thank you & God bless