Public Administration: Nature and Scope

Prepared and Discussed By: Lyndon L. Estocada AB PolSci MPA 1 S.Y 2022-2023

Discussed the following topic:

 What is Administration?
 What is Private Administration?
 What is Public Administration?
 Definition of Public Administration
 Nature of Public Administration
 Scope of Public Administration
 Significance of Public Administration
 Conclusion

Public Administration: Meaning, Nature, 2 Scope, And Significance (schoolofpoliticalscience.com)

Public administration refers to an activity with which the government is involved. So it can be said that the
word public administration has got more significance in the background of government functions.
This article will help you to understand the perfect meaning, nature, scope, and significance of public
administration. I have explained it in an easy way for a better understanding of you.

Public Administration is the combination of two words that is Public and Administration. Let’s begin with
Administration first.

What is Administration?
The administration is a very important part of our life. When you go to the highway, educational institutes, hospitals,
etc, you automatically enter the administrative systems.

The word Administration is derived from two Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means ‘to serve’, in simple
words administration means to look after people or to manage affairs.
L.D White rightly said that administration is a “process, common to all group efforts; public or private; civil or
military, large scale or small scale. It is a process of work in a departmental store, a bank, a school, a hotel or a
city.”
We all know that man is a social animal. So all the activities of man should be organized and managed. At first, men
need organization for achieving their needs and goals, then to manage that organization, it is needed for
administration.

So it can be said that Administration is the process of managing the proper coordination of the relevant elements to
achieve a specific goal.

Administration can be private or public. Now the questions are which administration is private and which one is
public?

What is Private Administration?

Private Administration is the administration which deals with the activities of a household, club, corporation, and
private companies. The purpose of private administration may be carried out by an individual or a group. The
ultimate goal of a private administration is the maximization of profit.
Private administration is a business or commercial activity of non-political nature and it involves various types of
activities and management processes like planning, production, marketing, financing, controlling, coordinating and
etc. Private administration is related with the management theories and processe

What is Public Administration?

Public refers to the government so, public administration means governmental administration. In simple language
public administration is the management of governmental affairs and activities.

Definition of Public Administration

In Political Science Quarterly, 1887, the famous line given by Woodrow Wilson is that public administration
as “detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every particular application of general law is an act of
administration”.
According to L.D White, Public administration is the activity required for the implementation of public policy.
Felix A. Nigro defines public administration as-
 Co-operative group efforts in a public setting,
 Covers all the three branches of the government that is executive,
 The legislative and judicial branch of the government,
 Public administration has an important role to make public policy and its implementation,
 It also associated with various private groups and providing public services to the people.
According to Luther Gullick “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do
with Government and thus concern itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the Government is
done.”
In a simple way we can say that public administration is the administration in which public policies are
implemented. It is the action part of the government.

From the above definitions you can find that there are two views to define public administration one is a broader
view and the second is Narrow view.
Broader View

Public administration refers to activities of all three branches (is executive, legislative and judicial) of the
government. That means in broader sense public administration deals with all the work process of the three branches
of the government.

The broader view has been taken by Woodrow Wilson, Pfiffner, Marshal Dimock, L.D White etc.

Narrow View

In the narrow view, Public administration refers to only activities of executive branches of the government. Gullick,
Simon, Willoughby, Fayol, Ordway Tead discusses public administration as only the activity of the executive
branch of the government.

With the predominance of the above views, it can be said that for the people, the implementation of bureaucratic
policy outside the party politics of the people’s government is called public administration.

Public Administration also includes such questions such as-

 How are the laws implemented?

 Is Law justifiable or not?
 How are efficient our administrations dealing with those laws?
 To whom public administration is accountable?
 What are the Roles of people in the process of administration?
Nature of Public Administration
In terms of nature there are also two divergent views in public administration. The first one is Integral view and the
second one is Managerial view.
Integral View

From this perspective, Public administration refers to all activities from clerical to managerial activity of the
administration. That means integral view proposes that administration is the sum totals all activities of manual,
clerical or managerial.

In simple we can say, all the work process done by the government official from peon to executive officers are the
part of public administration.

 L.D White and Woodrow Wilson, Marshal E. Dimock are the main supporters of this view.

Managerial View

In the managerial view, Public administration refers to only managerial activity of the administration. That means in
this view administration constitutes of the work of only those person who are performing managerial functions.
Activities of clerical, manual and also technical departments are excluded from the range of public administration.
Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, Herbert Simon are the main supporters of the managerial view.

There are two important views regarding to the Nature of Public Administration, that is, Integral and Managerial
views.
The integral View : Public Administration is the sum total of managerial, technical, clerical and manual activities.
Therefore it includes activities of all persons from top to bottom. L.D. White and Dimock Subscribed to this view.
The Managerial View : Administration comprises of the work of only those persons who are engaged in performing
managerial functions in an organization. Thus Administration constitutes the activities of only the top persons.
Luther Gulick,   Herbert Simon, Victor Thomson and Henry Fayol  adopt this view. 

Scope of Public Administration

When we concern about the scope of public administration, basically we want to know the major concerns and
areas of public administration.
Traditional writers restrict the scope of public administration to only one branch (executive) of the government. But
modern administrative thinker extends the scope of public administration to all branches (Executive, Legislature,
and Managerial) of the government.

There are also two views in the scope of public administration. These are the

 POSDCORB view and

 Subject Matter view.

POSDCORB View

The POSDCORB view in the scope of public administration is given by the prominent administrative
scholar Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick.
According to them every administration has should seven elements. These seven elements are acronym as
POSDCORB. Each letter of this acronym implies one element of administration.
They explain these seven elements of administration in the following way-

P- Planning– It is the task of managers of every administration to plan everything that needs to be done and the
methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise.
O- Organizing- Every organization needs to be well organized. Managers should allocate the task to their employee
and others subordinates by the proper techniques.
S- Staffing- Staffing refers to the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining
favorable condition for work.
D- Directing- It refers to the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and general order
and instructions and also serving as a leader to the enterprise.
CO- Coordinating- It is the important duty of the manager to coordinate between coworkers and executives.
R-Reporting- It is referred to inform every report of the work to the executives.
B- Budgeting- All that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control.
Subject Matter View

Subject matter view in scope of public administration simply refers to the subject matter of public administration.

M.E Dimock said that “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
the technique of management, the principles according to which the co-operative programs are carried to success.
Each is indispensable; together they form the synthesis called administration.”   
Public Administration as a discipline consists of several branches or subject matters such as-

 Organizational, Administrative Theories and Behavior

 Public Personnel Administration
 New Public Administration
 Comparative Public Administration
 Development Administration
 Public Policy
 Governance
 Good Governance
 E-Governance
 Corporate Governance
 Social Welfare Administration
 New Public Management
Significance of Public Administration
after the knowing meaning nature and scope of public administration, its time for the significance of public
administration. we are influenced by public administration from birth to death.

Public administration plays its role in many ways which makes the public administration more significant to us. It
plays an important role-

1. As an Instrument for Providing Service

2. As an Instrument for Implementing the Laws and Policies of the Government
3. As an Instrument for Development and socio-economic change
4. As an Instrument for the Sustainable Development
5. As an Instrument for National Integration
6. As an Instrument for Community Development
7. As an Instrument for Public Safety
8. As a Separate Academic Discipline 
1. As an Instrument for Providing Service

It provides several services to citizens such as education, health, housing, social security, and a lot more. All these
services affect every moment of human life. Without public administration, the services provided by the government
can never reach to the people.

2. As an Instrument for Implementing the Laws and Policies of the Government

It plays a crucial role in the implementation of laws, public policies, and programs made by the government. The
government make laws and policies for the interest of the people. Public administration puts them into reality. 

3. As an Instrument for Development and socio-economic Change

It is also responsible for the nation’s development and it’s socio-economic change. After the second world war, there
was a lot of nations emerged. After independence, public administration played a crucial role for their socio-
economic development.
For example in India, it played a very important role by implementing the poverty alleviation programs,
employment assurance schemes, community development programs, electrification of remote villages, road
construction, etc. which has been more conducive to the overall improvement of India.

4. As an Instrument for the Sustainable Development 

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs is called sustainable development.

That means economic development without harming the environment. Administrators are playing a significant role
for the protection of environment. All the environmental issues are solved through public administration.  

5. As an Instrument for National Integration

During the time of crisis, it helps to maintain the national integration. For example, after the partition in India, there
was a crisis of national integration, and pubic administration played a very important role to overcome this situation.
It helped in rehabilitation process of the refugees and integrate the princely states with Indian territory. 

6. As an Instrument for Community Development

Different races and religions live in every country. Therefore, a common policy for all does not apply effectively.
Public administration gathers neutral information about each community in the society and based on that
information the government makes policies and the public administration applies those policies to that particular
community. So public administration also has a leading role in community development.

7. As an Instrument for Public Safety

Above all, it has to admit that it provides us with social security. We can never be safe without public
administration. It provides a lot of services that make citizens secure such as fire, police and medical services, and
more.

8. As a Separate Academic Discipline 

As time goes by, the importance of public administration to the people is increasing. Now it has become essential to
study the administrative system of the government. Therefore for better understanding and its development, public
administration as an academic discipline has emerged. Nowadays a lot of universities have been prioritized this
subject.

Conclusion
In light of the discussion of the meaning nature and scope of public administration, it can be concluded that
today, public administration is a very important part of our life. It provides us all the essential services that we need.
The goal of public administration is to protect the public interest and to move forward with it in mind. So public
administration is a kind of people-oriented administration and its nature is democratic.

Let me share your experience with what you have learned in “Meaning Nature and Scope of Public Administration”.
Share this with the needful students as much as you can.

References
1. Wilson, Woodrow. The Study of Administration. Academy of Political Science (U.S.), 1987.
2. Chakrabarty, Bidyut, and Bhattacharya, Mohit. Public Administration: a Reader. Oxford University Press,
2007.
3. Nigro, Felix A. Modern Public Administration. Cambridge: Harper Collins Publ, 1989.
4. Chakrabarty, Bidyut. Prakash Chand. Public Administration In A Globalizing World: Theories and
Practices. SAGE INDIA, 2012.