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ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY Credits: 4

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ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY Credits: 4 Subject: ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY Credits: 4 SYLLABUS The Nature of Public Administration Public Administration: Meaning and Scope, Importance of Public Administration, Public Administration and Other Social Sciences, Evolution of Public Administration, Comparative Public Administration Development Administration, Public Administration Public Organizations: The Paradigms Classical Approach Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick, Scientific Management—F.W. Taylor, Human Relations Approach—Elton Mayo, Systems Approach — Chester Barnard, Behavioural Approach — Herbert Simon, Social Psychological Approach—Douglas Mc Gregor and Abraham Maslow Ecological Approach— Fred W. Riggs Bureaucracy Meaning of Bureaucracy, Max Weber, Karl Marx, Representative Bureaucracy, Issues in Bureaucracy Concepts in Organization-I Formal and Informal Organizations, Hierarchy, Span of Control, Unity of Command, Centralization and Decentralization Concepts in Organization-II Delegation, Supervision, Communication, Administrative Planning, Authority and Responsibility, Leadership Concepts in Organization-III Chief Executive, Line Agencies, Staff and Auxiliary Agencies, Budgeting, Accountability, Citizen and Administration, Organizational Effectiveness, Administrative Theory— An Evaluation Suggested Readings: 1. Andrzej Huczynski, Stephen P. Robbins, David Buchanan, Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text: And Organisational Theory, Selected Readings, 2. Archana Singh, Organisational Behaviour ; Theory and Practice, Mohit Publications 3. James D. Thompson, Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory, Transaction Publishers CHAPTER 1 THE NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION STRUCTURE Learning objectives Public administration: meaning and scope Importance of public administration Public administration and other social sciences Evolution of pubic administration Comparative public administration Development administration New public administration Review questions LEARNING OBJECTIVES After you have read this unit, you should be able to: Describe Public Administration and state its features; Describe how Public Administration responds efficiently to diverse public needs and plays pragmatic problem solving role; Describe the integrated nature of knowledge; Appreciate and summarize the importance of the revise of the development of Public Administration Explain the significance of Comparative Public Administration; Explain the meaning and elements of Development Administration; and Explain the significance of New Public Administration. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: MEANING AND SCOPE It conditions of activity, Public Administration is a characteristic of a more generic concept - administration. Administration has been defined as a cooperative effort towards achieving some common goals. Therefore defined, administration can be found in several institutional settings such as a business firm, a hospital, a university, a government department, etc... As a characteristic of this more generic concept Public Administration is that species of administration which operates within a specific political setting? It is an instrument for translating political decisions into reality; it is "the action part of government, the means through which the purposes and goals of government are realized". Nigro and Nigro (1980) have recognized the following five significant features of Public Administration. It is a cooperative group effort in a public setting. It covers all three branches — legislative, executive and judicial—and their inter relationships. It has a significant role in the formulation of public policy, and is therefore a part of the political procedure. It is dissimilar in important ways from private administration. It is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DEFINED Public Administration is a dedicated academic field. It essentially deals with the machinery and procedures of government activities. Administration has been defined as a cooperative human effort towards achieving some common goats. Therefore defined, administration can be found in several institutional settings such as a business firm, a hospital, a university, a government department and soon. As a characteristic of this more generic concept, Public Administration is that species of administration which operates within a specific political setting. It is a means through which the policy decisions made through the political decision makers are accepted out. Public Administration is decision creation, planning the work to be done, formulating objectives and goals, working with the legislature and citizen organisations to gain public support and funds for government programmes, establishing and revising organisation, directing and supervising employees, providing leadership, communicating and getting communications, determining work methods and procedures, appraising performance, exercising controls and other functions performed through government executives and supervisors. It is the action part of the government, the means through which the purposes and goals of the government are realized. Some well recognized definitions of Public Administration are: "Public Administration is detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every scrupulous application of law is an act of administration"— L.D. White. Public Administration is "the art and science of management applied to the affairs of the State" — D. Waldo. "Through Public Administration is meant in common usage the activities of the executive branches of the National, State and Local Governments" — H. Simon. The Public' characteristic of Public Administration gives the discipline a special character. It can be looked at formally to mean government'. So, Public Administration is government administration, the focus being specifically on public bureaucracy. This is the meaning commonly used in discussing Public Administration. Public Administration, in a wider sense, has sought to expand its ambit through including any administration that has considerable impact on the public. From this standpoint, a private electricity undertaking like the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation can be measured a fit subject of discussion under Public Administration. It is, though, in the first sense that Public Administration is usually measured. SCOPE AND DOMAIN OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION We shall now attempt to discuss the scope of the discipline of Public Administration. The scope can be studied under two heads: The Domain Public Administration is the complex of governmental activities that are undertaken in public interest at dissimilar stages such as the central, state or provincial (in a federal set-up) and local stages. The discipline of Public Administration aims at a systematic revise of these activities. Government, as political authority, is the major regulator of social life. With the emergence of democracy and the concept of welfare state, the governmental activities have increased through leaps and bounds. The historical movement has therefore been from regulation to service and welfare. The police state has slowly given place to popular governance in the interest of widest possible public welfare in secure association with the people themselves. Expanding governmental activities have resulted in expansion of the bureaucracy, creation of dissimilar forms of public and semipublic organisations, raising public expenditure, and overall control over public life. Since government has come to have such widespread influence and control over public life, its organisation, basis of authority, functions, finances, and impact on society have been subjected to intellectual examination. The area chosen through Public Administration has usually been "executive action" or the activities of the executive organ of the government. This means really a revise of the bureaucracy: its structure, functions, and behaviour. But, the other organs of government such as the Legislature and the Judiciary have' also been found useful in Public Administration analysis. The policy-forming impetus comes from the legislature, and the legislative committees very often undertake significant vigilance and control function. The Estimates Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, Committee on Public Undertakings etc. could be mentioned as examples of such Committees. Likewise, the judiciary often adjudicates on quasi-judicial issues and passes significant judgments affecting executive operations. Judicial administration itself forms a major component of Public Administration. Therefore, the revise of Public Administration is basically focused on the ‗executive' no doubt; but an adequate understanding of Public Administration is not possible without taking into account the legislative and the judicial administration as well. The Scope It is widely acknowledged that the scope of the discipline of Public Administration has to be wide enough to respond to the complex social realities of today. Major concerns of the discipline are: Promoting (publicans': In a democratic society, Public Administration has to be explicitly 'public' in conditions of democratic values, power- sharing and openness. This calls for a new climate in the bureaucracy. Public Administration, in practice, has to absorb the principles of democracy as an overarching form of the government. Policy Sensitivity: As governments are described upon to play increasingly active roles in times of rapid changes and social crisis, innovative
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