Public Administration- Meaning Nature and Scope PDF

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION- MEANING, NATURE & SCOPE

Introduction & Meaning 1. Public Administration is an ancient academic discipline common for all countries and all levels of government. In modern times, the activities of the government’s are managed and controlled by this system. 2. It is an instrument for protecting, promoting and fostering public interest. 3. The modern public administration has become the machinery for establishing plans, policy, schemes and programmes along with its implementation. 4. The term administration derived and originated from the Latin word administrāre, which means to serve or to manage. Definitions 1. Woodrow Wilson- “Public Administration is a detailed and systematic application of law.”

2. W. F. Willoughby-“Public Administration in broadest sense denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental affairs, and in narrowest sense denotes the operations of the administrative branch only.”  Broad Sense- All the operations of Public Policy carried out by the stateLegislative, Executive, Judiciary, and Bureaucracy.- Supported by Pfiffner, Willoughby, Wilson, L. D. White, etc. 

Narrow Sense- Only Executive and Administrative activities carried out by Executives and Bureaucrats. - Supported by Gulick, Urwick, H.Simon, Fayol, etc.

3. Marshall E. Dimock- “Administration is concerned with ‘What’ and ‘How’ of the government. The ‘What’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a

field which enables the administrator to perform his task. The ‘How’ is a technique of management according to which co-operative programmes are carried to success.” Nature of Public Administration 1. It is a specialized academic field which deals with the machinery and procedures of governmental activities. 2. It is a machinery which facilitates the implementation of public policies. 3. It is politically neutral, focuses on general interest and public goal. 4. It acts as a platform to transform aspirations of the public into reality. There are 2 major views regarding the nature of Public Administration: 1. Integral View a. According to the integral view, Public administration is a sum total of all activities undertaken in pursuit of and in fulfilment of public policy. b. It encompasses all activities which are undertaken to accomplish the given objective c. It includes activities of all persons from top to bottom, i.e., from higher authority to the lower most authority. d. The activities range from managerial, technical, clerical and manual activities. Opinion of L.D White – Public Administration consists of all those operations having their purpose and fulfilment or enforcement of public policy. 2. Managerial View a. The view focuses on the persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial functions in an administration rather than persons performing specific functions i.e. technical, clerical and manual functions. b. It postulates that administration is the organisation and use of men and resources for achieving common goals.

c. Opinion of Luther Gulick Administration has to do with getting things done, with the accomplishment of defined objectives. He defines the techniques and functions employed by the letter PODSCORB i.e. , planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. d. Opinion of H, Simon & Thompson The term administration is also used in a narrow sense to refer to those patterns of behaviour that are common to many kind of cooperating groups and that does not depend upon either the specific goals towards which they are cooperating or the specific technological methods used to attain these goals. Scope of Public Administration Two views to understand the scope of Public Administration 1. PODSCORB View Luther Gulick is the profounder of this view. He believed that administration consists of seven elements. These elements explain the functions of the executive branch of the government. a. Planning- Things that need to be done along with the methods to fulfil the purposes. b. Organising- Outlines a formal structure of authority through which the work divisions are arranged, defined and coordinated fulfilment of objectives. c. Staffing- Hiring and training the staff and maintaining favourable conditions of work for the improvement of efficiency. d. Directing – Outlines decision making and implementing them in a specific or general order.

e. Reporting- Maintenance of information by those executives who are responsible to their subordinates. f. Budgeting- Outlines financial planning, its accounting and budget control. Major Limitations 1. Does not take into account the varying nature and characters of various government agencies. 2. It fails to take into account an essential element involved in public administration, i.e. subject matter. According to P.M Queen, the scope of Public Administration simply consists of the study of 3 factors namely – men(public), material(resources) and methods ( tools and techniques)

2. Subject Matter View It is a reaction to the PODSCORB view. According to the subject matter view, public administration is concerned with various functions or services produced by the government for the people. View of Pfiffner: The scope of public administration is concerned with ‘the what; and ‘the how’ government functions. Here, ‘what includes, the functions to be performed by the officials and ‘how’ is concerned with techniques and management methods of performing functions. View of Walker: He divided the scope of public administration into two heads:a. Administrative Theory The theory focuses on the study of structure, organisation, functions and methods of all types of public authorities engaged in public administration.

b. Applied Public Administration It includes the study of scope of specific administrative systems and related problems. He made an attempt to classify main types of applied administrations on the basis of 10 principle functions: 1. Political 2. Financial 3. Legislative 4. Defence 5. Educational 6. Social 7. Economic 8. Foreign 9. Imperial 10.

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