NATURE AND SCOPE OF PUB AD

• Public administration consists of the activities

undertaken by a government to look after its
people, or to manage its affairs.
• The word ‘public’ stands for the people of a
definite territory or state. As the will of the
people of a state is represented by the
government of the state, the word ‘public’ also
has a specialised, governmental meaning.
Therefore, the acts of administration performed
by the government are called ‘public
administration’. Those acts which are undertaken
by individuals in their own capacity are termed
‘private administration’.
• ‘public administration’ simply means the activities undertaken by the
government to fulfil its desired ends. The difference, however, is only
regarding the ‘activities’ which are to be considered as administrative
activities. Some thinkers take a broad view and consider all
governmental activities aimed at fulfillment of public policy as
administrative activities, while others take a narrow view and include
only those activities that are concerned with the executive branch of
the government.
• L. D. White observes, ‘Public administration consists of all those
operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of
public policy.’
• Public Administration is a broad ranging and amorphous combination of
theory and practice meant to promote a superior understanding of
government and its relation to society which it governs as well as to
encourage public policies more responsive to social needs and to
institute managerial practices attuned to effectiveness, efficiency, and
deeper human requisites of the citizenry." -Nicholas Henry
• "the activities of the executive branches of the National, State and Local
Governments" - Herbert Simon
• D. Waldo who defines public administration as ‘the art and science of
management as applied to the affairs of state’
• Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), who became the
President of USA in his later years, was among
the earliest thinkers to outline the concept of
public administration as a separate discipline of
study.
• Woodrow Wilson integrated history, philosophy
and the concept of the good society (culture) in a
way to make order for students of public
administration.
• Wilson’s seminal essay “The Study of
Administration” published in the Political Science
Quarterly in 1887, laid foundation for a
systematic study of public administration.
• Public Administration is cooperative group effort
in a public setting; covers all three branches—
executive, legislative and judicial—and their inter-
relationships; has an important role in the
formulation of public policy and is thus a part of
the political process; is more important than, and
also different in significant ways from private
administration; as a field of study and practice has
been much influenced in recent years by the
human relations approach; is closely associated
with numerous private groups and individuals in
providing services to the community.
• In recent years, the discipline of public administration has been
undergoing rapid changes and has vastly expanded its frontiers. As a
discipline, it has evolved and is still evolving to respond to the challenges
of changing times.
• The onset of liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) has led to
significant changes in the roles of individuals and institutions, and public
administration is no exception. It represents a paradigm shift from the
traditional model of public administration to New Public Management
(NPM) model, which favours a dominant presence of market forces over
the State, for effective governance and efficient delivery of goods and
services. Concepts such as competition State, managerial orientation,
contracting out, debureaucratization and downsizing have started gaining
prominence in many countries.
• The new perspective has emerged as a management tool for achieving
developmental goals. It has brought in reforms, which have attempted to
create a new entrepreneurial, user-oriented culture in public
organizations, with focus on performance measurement and autonomy to
the organizations and individuals, in contrast to the traditional model.
• In fact, managerialism is a ‘determined effort to implement the “3Es” of
economy, efficiency and effectiveness at all levels of government
activities’. Public administration, in present times, has thus become
complex and is slowly moving towards enlightened public governance.
 NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• There are two broad views with regard to the nature of public
administration, namely,
• (a) the managerial view, and
• (b) the integral view.
• According to the managerial view, the work of only those
persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial
functions in an organisation constitutes administration. It is
these persons who shoulder the responsibility of keeping the
enterprise on even keels and to run it most efficiently.
• Their job is to plan, programme and organise all the activities in
an organisation so as to achieve the desired ends. Luther Gulick
subscribes to the managerial view.
• He defines the managerial techniques by the word POSDCORB,
each letter of which stands for a different management
technique i.e., Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing,
Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.
 INTEGRAL VIEW
• According to the integral view, public administration is a
sum-total of all the activities undertaken in pursuit of and in
fulfillment of public policy.
• These would include not only managerial and technical, but
also manual and clerical activities.
• Thus, the activities of all persons working in an organisation
from top to bottom constitute administration. In other
words, public administration is conceived in a
comprehensive sense to include all activities of the
government whether they are performed in the executive,
legislative or judicial branches of the government.
• L. D. White adopts this view of public administration.
• According to him, public administration ‘consists of all those
operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or
enforcement of public policy’
 SCOPE
• Following are the three important perspectives
about the scope of Public Administration.
• 1. Narrow perspective or posdcord perspective.
• 2. Broad perspective or subject matter view.
• 3. Prevailing view.
 Narrow perspective or posdcorb
perspective -
• Luther Gullick is the main exponent of this perspective.
According to him the scope of public administration is
narrow or limited. It is also regarded as posdcorb view.
• It insist that the Public Adminstration is concerned only
with those aspects of administration which are related
with the executive branch and its seven types of
administrative functions.
• POSDCORB Perspective about the Scope of Public
Adminstration is limited and narrow.
• It stressed on the tools of Public Adminstration. It does not
show the substance of administration. It is a technique
oriented perspective, not a subject oriented.
• Planning means working out in broad outline the things that
need to be done, and the method to be adopted to accomplish
the purpose set for the enterprise.
• Organising means building up the structure of authority through
which the entire work to be done is properly arranged and
defined in order to achieve the desired goals.
• Staffing means appointing suitable persons to the various posts
under the organisation. It comprises the whole of personnel
management.
• Directing involves making decisions, issuing orders and
instructions, and embodying them for the guidance of the staff.
• Coordinating means interrelating the various parts of
organisational work and, thus, eliminating overlaps and conflict
in different activities of an organisation.
• Reporting means keeping both the supervisors and subordinates
informed of what is going on and arranging for the collection of
such information through inspection, research and records.
• Budgeting means fiscal planning, accounting and control, i.e., all
activities relating to financial management.
 Broad perspective or subject -
oriented perspective
• Prof. Woodrow Wilson, L D While are main exponent of this
perspective
• They have taken a very broad approach about the scope of
Public Adminstration.
• Though the POSDCORB view of scope of public
administration was acceptable for quite a long time, there
arose a reaction, in the course of time, against this view. It
was then realized that the POSDCORB activities (techniques)
can neither be the whole of public administration nor even
the significant part of it. This view advocates that the
problems of administration are same in all the agencies
regardless of the peculiar nature of the functions they
perform. Thus, it overlooks the fact that different
administrative agencies are faced with different problems
• Therefore, the study of public administration
should deal with both the processes (that is
POSDCORB techniques and the substantive
concerns).
• Thus the scope of public administration
according to Lewis Meriam: “Public
administration is an instrument with two blades
like a pair of scissors. One blade may be
knowledge of the field covered by POSDCORB,
the other blade is knowledge of the subject
matter in which these techniques are applied.
Both blades must be good to make an effective
tool”.
 Important characteristics of Public
Administration
• 1. It is part of executive branch of government.
• 2. It is related with the activities of the state.
• 3. It carries out the public policies.
• 4. It realise the aspirations of the people as
formulated and expressed in the laws.
• 5. Waldo and other thinkers insist on the
commitment and dedication to the well being of the
people. Otherwise Public Administration behaves in
a mechanical, impersonal and inhuman way.
• 6. Public Administration is politically neutral.
• It may be observed here that public
administration is only a means to the attainment
of the objects of the state itself—‘the
maintenance of peace and order, the progressive
achievement of justice, the instruction of the
young, protection against disease and insecurity,
the adjustment and compromise of conflicting
groups and interests—in short, the attainment
of a good life’.
• The scope of public administration varies with
people’s expectations of what they should get
from the government.
 Public and Private Administration
• There are two different views on the relationship
between public and private administration.
• One group of thinkers, like Urwick, Follett and
Fayol, are of the view that administration is an
indivisible entity, and its basic principles are
applicable equally to all organisations whether
public or private.
• This view is obviously based on certain clearly
observable similarities in the practice of public
and private administration.
• There is difference of opinion regarding the
relationship between public and private
administration. There are some thinkers who
consider that there is no difference between the
two and that the administrative activities and
techniques are similar in all organisations, private
or public.
• Urwick, Mary Parker Follet and Henri Fayol
subscribe to this view. According to Fayol, ‘We are
no longer confronted with several administrative
sciences but with one which can be applied
equally well to public and private affairs’
• These thinkers suggest various points of
similarities between the two. First, many skills,
techniques and procedures adopted in private
and public administration are the same, for
example, accounting, office procedure and
management, etc. This view holds true also
because of the fact that there is occasional
interchange of personnel between public and
private administration. It would not have been
possible, had there been difference in the
working of the private and public administrative
organisations.
• Nigro points out four basic elements of similarity between the public and private
administration:
• (a) First is the cooperative element. According to him, administration is
cooperative group effort in a public or private setting. In every human
organisation, be it private or public, the key to successful.
• operations is the effective utilisation of human and physical resources. Though
the purposes or goals of these organisations may vary, the element of
cooperation is present in both.
• (b) Second point of similarity is the large size of organisations which he calls the
bureaucratic element. In all large organisations where the number of employees
is substantially high, the bureaucratic element is present. As it become difficult
for one person to look after all the employees, intermediate levels of supervisors
are required. In other words, various levels of hierarchy evolve and the
organisation grows in complexity. Thus, bureaucracy is another major element of
similarity between the two.
• (c) Third aspect of similarity between the public and private administration is the
concepts and techniques of scientific management which are applicable to both
industry and government.
• According to Nigro, ‘Scientific analysis involves breaking down each task into its
component parts, studying the movement of the workers, the use made of
materials and equipment, experimenting with different work methods and
procedures and finally adopting those which proved most efficient’. This scientific
technique is increasingly used in both public as well as private administration.
• (d) Lastly, the human relations approach is again the main focus of similarity
between the two
• According to Simon, the distinction between
public and private administration relates mainly
to three points:
• (a) public administration is bureaucratic whereas
private administration is business- like;
• (b) public administration is political whereas
private administration is non-political; and
• (c) public administration is characterised by red-
tape whereas private administration is free from
it.
• Though there are certain points of similarity between the public and
private administration yet no private organisation can ever be exactly
the same as a public one. The following are some points of difference
between the two types of administration:
• (a) Political direction: The primary distinction between public and
private administration lies in the fact that unlike public administration,
private administration is not subjected to political direction, save in
times of emergency. The ends it pursues are of its own device. Its
objectives generally do not depend upon political decisions. But the
administrators under public administration have to carry on the orders
which they get from the political executive with little option of their
own.
• (b) Profit motive: Public administration is conducted with the motive of
service while the motive of private administration is profit-making. If the
establishment of a textile mill brings more profit to the capitalist than
the establishment of a sugar mill, the former will be preferred by the
capitalist, howsoever urgent the need of the latter may be for the
people. If private administration is useful to the public, its services to the
public are a by-product of profit-making. For example, a capitalist will
not establish a factory if it brings in more loss and less profit. However,
in the realm of public administration, several functions performed by the
state are money consuming rather than money generating, for example,
running of a government school or hospital.
• (c) Service and cost: In the matter of public
administration only such amount of money is raised
by taxation which is necessary for the rendering of the
service.
• (d) Nature of functions: Public administration is more
comprehensive than private administration. It deals
with various types of needs of people, for example, in
most countries, the public administration maintains
railways to facilitate movement of goods and
passengers, provides posts and telegraphs to facilitate
communication, and maintains hospitals and
dispensaries to protect public health. Private
administration does not usually cover that wide a
scope of social activities. It is mostly concerned with
the economic needs of life.
• Public responsibility: Public administration has
responsibility to the public. In the words of P. H.
Appleby, ‘Government administration differs from all
other administrative work by virtue of its public
nature, the way in which it is subject to public scrutiny
and outcry.’ On the other hand, private administration
is only responsible to the people indirectly and that
too usually to secure its own ends and not for welfare
of people.
• Uniform treatment: Again, public administration
should be consistent in procedure and uniform in
dealings with the public. An official cannot show
favour to some people and disfavour to others. A
private administration on the other hand need not
worry about uniformity in treatment. A shopkeeper
selling cloth may give cloth on credit, but a clerk in a
post office will not sell stamps on credit.
• Efficiency: It is felt that private administration is
superior in efficiency to public administration.
Private administration indeed enjoys certain
advantages, such as differential wage payment as
an incentive to increase production and to attract
staff of superior ability from rival firms, etc., over
public administration which is marked by red tape,
extravagance, corruption and inefficiency.
• Organisation: Though the principle of organisation
is relevant to both public and private
administrations, it has greater social consequences
in the former sphere. A defect in organisation in
public administration will do more harm to the
public than a lacuna in private administration.