25-09-2024

COURSE 1.3
POLITICAL SCIENCE – II
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION –
MAJOR 1.2

UNIT I – Public Administration – Meaning, Definition, Nature, Scope and

Importance. Public administration vs Private administration, New Public
administration. Organization – Meaning and importance. Principles – Hierarchy,
Span of Control, Unity of command, centralization and decentralization –
limitations.
UNIT II – Meaning, definitions, functions of line agencies (Department/ public
corporations/ companies/ IRC) features and functions. Staff agencies –
general, special, technical, auxiliary functions. Chief executive – types,
functions and role. Delegated legislation – Meaning, growth, forms, merits and
limitations. Administrative adjudications – importance, growth and functions.
UNIT III – Personnel Administration – Bureaucracy – meaning, merits and
demerits, functions, kinds of bureaucracies. Features – Neutrality, anonymity.
Problems : recruitment, training, promotion, retirement, morale, discipline –
merits and demerits. Recruitment agencies – UPSC, SPSC. Authority and
responsibility – meaning, relationship, limitations.

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UNIT IV – Management – meaning, principle, tests of good management,

values – POSDCORB. Leadership: Meaning, qualities, policy formulations,
decision makings – task and problems. Morale and discipline – meaning,
implications, relationship and conditions
UNIT V – Planning – need for and importance, principles, features, problems of
planning in India. Budget – meaning, importance, kinds and principles.
Communication – meaning, principles – what, when, who and how, necessary
conditions and limitations. Directions and supervision – meaning, importance
and limitations, reporting as a special instrument. Control – meaning, measures
and problems.

UNIT - 1

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Meaning and Definition of Public Administration

Before understanding the meaning of PA it is necessary to
understand the meaning of Administration. The word Administration is
derived from the Latin word ‘ad’ and ‘ministrare’ which means ‘to serve’ or
‘to manage’. Literally, the term “administration” means management of
affairs.
“Administration is the Organisation and use of men and materials to
accomplish the purpose”. -FELIX. A. NIGRO
“The art of administration is the direction, co-ordination and control of many
persons to achieve some common purpose or objective”. - L.D WHITE
“Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment
of defined objectives”. -LUTHER GULLIK

Thus, it is clear that administration has two essential elements; collective effort
and common purpose.

Public Administration is an ancient activity common to all countries and all

levels of government. It is an aspect of larger field of administration. In the
earlier period there was no separate branch of Public Administration in
government. It was merged with Executive branch of government. Now in
the modern period it has become an independent branch of government as
well as independent branch of study also. It is described as “Heart of modern
civilization”. The word Public has many meaning but in the context of
administration it means ‘governmental’. Hence Public Administration simply
means, ‘governmental administration’. OR When the term refers to the
activities of the state it is called Public Administration.
“Public Administration is a detailed and systematic execution of Public Law”.
- WOODROW WILSON
“Public Administration is concerned with administration of government”. -
E.N GLADDEN
“Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to
the affairs of state”. - WALDO

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Broader Sense: Public Administration includes the activities of all three branches
of government.
Narrow Sense: It includes the activities of only the executive branch.
Thus, we can summarise PA in the following way as put
forth by Nigro and Nigro;
 PA is cooperative group effort in a public setting
 It covers all three branches of government and their interrelationship
 It has an important role in formulation and implementation of public policy
 It works for welfare of people according to laws set up by State
 It is different from private administration.

NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

In Political Science the term “Public Administration” is
used in two sense. One is the broader sense (all three branches), and the other
is the narrow sense(only executive branch).Thus, the scholars of PA have
expressed two divergent views on the nature of PA namely;

1. Integral View: (LIST THE WORK OF MANAGER, SUPEVISOR AND CLERK)

According to this view PA is the sum total of all the activities
undertaken in the fulfilment of Public Policy. These activities include not only
managerial and technical but also manual and clerical. It comprises of all the
activities of whole hierarchy of employees in the executive department from
the Chief Executive at the top to the down to lowest ranking employee. All the
activities from manual to managerial and from technical to non technical
comes under this view.
This view is represented by L.D White, Woodrow Wilson, Marshal Dimock
and others.

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“all the acts of the officials of government from the peon in a remote office to
the head of the State at the capital constitute Public Administration”. – M.
Ruthnaswamy

2. Managerial View:
According to this view PA deals with managerial activities of the
administration only. In this view only top officials namely the managerial staff
are responsible for efficient running of administration. To achieve the desired
goal their job is to plan, program, organise, coordinate etc. Luther Gullick has
summed up managerial activities in the word “POSDCORB”. According to this
clerical, manual and technical activities of non managerial staff are excluded
from the purview of PA.
This view is represented by Luther Gullick, Herbert Simon etc.

SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

Scope means the subject matter. Scope of PA means the contents of its
study. Regarding the scope of PA there is no unanimity or agreement among
the writers. When PA was defined we came across two views namely narrow
and broader view. This controversy is very unfortunate. PA is witnessed as a
“growing discipline”. We in India cannot accept the restricted view of PA as
there is mutual dependence and interaction between the three branches of
government as a result of which PA must be defined in broader term. The
scope of PA is thus wide enough.
Writers have defined the scope of PA in
different terms. Broadly there are two views regarding the scope:
1. The POSDCORB view
2. The Subject matter view

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1. POSDCORB VIEW:
A distinguished classical writer Luther Gulick sums up the various
aspects constituting the scope of PA in a word POSDCORB.
 Narrow view as it takes into account only the executive branch of
government
 Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, M.Queen,
 Urwick and Fayol- Planning, Organising, Command, Control, and Co-
Ordination (POCCCO).
 M Queen says, “the study of administration deals with Men, Materials and
Methods”.
But Luther Gulicks word POSDCORB Describes the scope of PA in the
following way;
 P- PLANNING – deciding in advance what has to be done to achieve desired
goals

 O- ORGANISING - establishment of formal authority through which work will

be divided, arranged, and coordinated
 S- STAFFING – recruitment and training of personnel's and their conditions of
work
 D- DIRECTING- making decisions and issuing orders and instructions for
guidance of staff
 CO- COORDINATION- inter relating the works of various departments/
divisions/ sections of the organisation so as to eliminate conflict
 R- REPORTING- keeping both the superiors and subordinates informed on
what is going
 B- BUDGETING- includes fiscal planning, accounting and control.
Thus POSDCORB activities are common to all organisations. But it
includes only managerial activities of top administration and excludes other
activities of public employees from the scope of PA. It also ignores Human
Relation approach as it stress more on structure and method of working and
does not take into account human beings who form the heart of PA.

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2. THE SUBJECT MATTER VIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

The various defects of POSDCORB view gave rise to the ‘Subject
matter view of PA’. According to this view the real core of administration is the
basic service provided or performed for the Public. It lays emphasis on various
services such as education, health, police and fire protection, public works,
social security etc. In short PA is nothing but the whole government in action.

WALKER DIVIDES THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION INTO TWO;

1. ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY
2. APPLIED ADMINISTRATION

1. Administrative theory;
It deals with theoretical aspect of administration. It includes study of
structure, organisation, functions and methods of all types of public authority
engaged in administration whether national, regional, or local.

2. Applied Administration;
It deals with practical aspect of administration. It is concerned with
application of theory by various fields of administrative activity such as
education, health, police and so on. Walker has made an attempt to classify
the main forms of applied administration on the basis of ten principle functions
namely;
Political, Legislative, Financial, Defensive, Educational
Social, Economic, Foreign, Imperial, and Local.
In this case it may be said that the scope of PA varies
with peoples expectations from the government. A century ago people
expected government to maintain law and order but now they expect
government to promote welfare, guarantee social security, peaceful living etc.

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IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

The importance of PA is steadily increasing with the expansion of
state activity in modern states. The importance can be studied under following
heads;
1. An instrument for providing services (LIST) (health, education, social security,
housing etc)
2. An instrument to implement the policies
3. Basis of government “Administration is the basis of govt. No government
can exist without it”. - PAUL H. APPLEBY
4. A stabilising force in the society
5. An instrument of social change and development
6. The concept of welfare state has further increased the importance of PA
(aims to provide more service to people).

7. Public Administration as a mechanism for promoting culture in society (ideals

and values of state may be high but their impact on life is gauged by the way it
is put into practise, the role of PA has greater importance in its implementation).
8. Public Administration as the fourth branch of government ( performs all 3
branches duty earlier maintaining law and order now welfare. W.F WILLOUGHBY
9. Public Administration as an agency of National Development (formulates
organises and implements the action program)
10. Importance of Public Administration as a subject.

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION V/S PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION:

Public Administration is an universal process. Generally speaking all the

activities performed by government is called PA and all the activities
performed by private agencies is called private administration. Public and
Private administration are also known as governmental and business
administration.

There are some thinkers like Henry Fayol, Mary P Follet, Max Weber and Urwick
who do not differentiate between the two and argue that all administration is
one and exhibits same characteristics. Few other thinkers like Paul H Appleby,
Herbert A Simon and Peter Drucker made distinction between the two.

1. Difference in political direction

2. Difference in motive (PA- Service, Privates- Profit making)
3. Difference in service and cost (Private- income exceeds expenditure; Public-
close relation between the two; cost charged from Public; Tax)
4. Difference in nature and function
5. Difference in monopoly (complete control over goods and services PA alone
runs railways, posts and telegraphs are maintained but no such thing in Private
Administration)
6. Difference in responsibility
7. Difference in Principle of Uniformity (Treating equally PA does it Prvt not. Ex;
post office n shop keeper selling sugar)
8. Difference in financial control (PA- legislature; Private- Proprietors)
9. Social Necessity (PA- Meets social needs of people; Private- marketable
consumer goods)

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10. Difference in efficiency (doing something without wasting money and time
Private is superior in this matter)
11. Anonymity (state of remaining unknown to most of the people- govt officials
remain unknown is discharging their duties they can never acts on his personal
capacities)
12. Difference in securing promptness and discipline (Quicker the decision
better the discipline).

SIMILARITIEES:
Even though Public and Private administration differ from each
other yet there are few similarities between them;
1. Both are based on law
2. Provides services to people
3. Both require common skill (office management, statistics, filing, stocking etc)
4. Administrative set up (Principle of Hierarchy)
5. Both face risks and difficulties (LIST)
6. Research and improvement

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NEW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

New Public Administration (NPA) emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a
response to the perceived shortcomings of traditional public administration,
particularly in addressing social equity and the dynamic needs of society. It was
heavily influenced by the social and political upheavals of the time, such as the
civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and demands for more effective and
socially responsive governance.

Key Features of New Public Administration:

1. Social Equity:
One of the most significant aspects of NPA is its emphasis on social equity. It
stresses that public administration should not only be about efficiency and
effectiveness but also about ensuring fairness and justice in the distribution of
public services and resources.

2. Relevance:
NPA advocates for public administration that is relevant to the needs of the
public, especially marginalized and underrepresented groups. It encourages
administrators to be aware of societal issues and to tailor policies and practices
to meet the evolving needs of society.
3. Values and Ethics:
Unlike traditional public administration, which focused more on technical
efficiency, NPA emphasizes the importance of values and ethics in
administration. Administrators are encouraged to be more proactive in
promoting social justice and addressing moral and ethical issues.
4. Change and Innovation:
NPA is characterized by a strong emphasis on change and innovation. It
encourages public administrators to be adaptable, open to new ideas, and
willing to experiment with new approaches to governance

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5. Client-Centered Administration:
NPA shifts the focus from the organization to the client, viewing citizens as clients
whose needs and expectations should guide the operations of public agencies.
This involves greater responsiveness and accountability to the public
6. Humanistic Approach:
It promotes a more humanistic approach to administration, recognizing the
importance of human relations, job satisfaction, and the well-being of
employees within public organizations.

In summary, New Public Administration represents a shift towards a more socially

conscious, ethically driven, and flexible approach to public administration,
emphasizing the need for public services to be fair, relevant, and responsive to
the needs of all citizens

ORGANIZATION:
MEANING:
 Public Administration is an organised activity which provides various
services to people.
 Public Administration requires organisation to keep administrative
process operating.
 Organisation consists of people who more or less share common
objectives or purpose to achieve desired goal.
 Organisation is the process of determining, arranging, grouping and
assigning the activities to be performed for the attainment of
objectives.
 Organisation means the act of putting things in working order.

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 “Organisation is a system of coordinating activities or forces of two or

more persons”. CHESTER BARNARD

 “Organisation is the form of every human association for the

attainment of common purpose”. MOONEY

 “Organisation is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be

performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority and
establishing relationship for the purpose of enabling people to work
most effectively together in accomplishing objectives”.
LOUISE A. ALLEN

“Organisation is the process of combining the work which individuals or

groups have to perform with the facilities necessary for its execution, that
the duties so performed provide the best channels for the efficient,
systematic, positive and coordinated application of the available effort”.
OLIVER SHELDON

IMPORTANCE:
 There can be no administration without organisation
 It helps for the smooth functioning of several parts of administration
 It increases managerial efficiency
 It facilitates coordination of activities
 Organisation is the basic and essential element of administration
 Use of human resources

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 Backbone of management
 Avoids delay and duplication of work
 Helps employees to perform job efficiently
 Facilitates adoption of new technology
 Prevents corruption and red tapism to greater extent.

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANISATION
Principle of Organisation is nothing but the organisation structure
and designing process. There are two views regarding the principles of
organisation;
1. Human Relations View- which rejects the concept of principles of
organisation. Herbert Simon, Mary Parker Follet
2. Functional Structural View- which accepts the principles of
organisation and says that these principles cannot be ignored. Henry
Fayol, Luther Gullick, Urwick.
However there is no unanimity among the writers regarding the exact
number and form of principles. Yet there are certain principles which are
more or less accepted by all writers. They are;
1. Principle of Hierarchy 2. Principle of Unity of Command
3. Principle of Span of Control 4.Principle of Centralisation and
Decentralisation.

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PRINCIPLE OF HIERARCHY:
Max Weber, Fayol, Gullick, Urwick etc as an important principle
of administration. Literally the term Hierarchy means, ‘control of higher
over the lower’. In administrative phraseology it means an organisation
structured in a pyramidical fashion with successive steps interlinked with
each other from top to bottom. Here the distribution of functions and
responsibilities is both horizontal and vertical.
“Hierarchy is the superior subordinate relationship through number of
levels of responsibility reaching from top to bottom of structure”. –
L.D WHITE
 Fayol- Scalar Chain
 Mooney and Railey- Scalar process
In an organisation jobs are divided into various
functional units. These units are further divided into sub units and sub
units gets multiplied until it reaches the bottom. The following diagram
illustrates the Principle of Hierarchy;

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In the above diagram A is the head of the organisation or the

Chief Executive. The immediate subordinate to A is B. B’s immediate
subordinate is C, C’s immediate subordinate is D and D’s immediate
subordinate id E.
The point to be noted here is that B has only one superior and
that is A. C has two superiors B and A. D has three superiors C, B and A
E has four superiors D, C, B and A.
If A has to pass any order to E then it has to pass through B, C
and D. Similarly in the reverse direction if E has to send any
communication to A it must go through D, C and B. Thus no level of
hierarchy can be ignored.
FAYOL’S GANGPLANK:
To speed up the flow of business and to avoid delay in
disposal of cases Fayol suggested alternative route called,
“Gangplank”. He illustrates it in the following way;

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Following the line of authority if E has to communicate to O it has to

go through D, C, B, A, L, M, N, O and back again. On the other hand it is
much simpler, quicker and easier to go directly from E to O by making
use of EO as a gangplank, if this procedure is agreeable to higher
officials i.e D-N. This is Fayol’s Gangplank theory.

FEATURES OF HIERARCHY:
 Division of entire administration into units and sub units
 Commanding authority of superior over subordinates
 Structure of administrative organisation is in a pyramidical form where
no step can be ignored
 “Functioning through proper channel” is followed

 The principle of ‘Unity of Command’ is followed as each person has

only one immediate superior from where orders are received
 This principle operates both in small and large organisation
 A person will not receive orders from lower status person
MERITS:
 Powers and functions of each official is classified and defined as a
result there is elimination of confusion and clash
 It prevents congestion of work at top level
 Helps in coordination as a result organisation will have unity
 Division of labour and specialisation and work is found
 Promotes discipline and order in organisation
 Fixes responsibility at each level
 Facilitates decentralisation of decision making.

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DEMERITS:
 Due to the rule of ‘through proper channel’ it leads to red tapism and
inefficiency
 Time consuming
 Develops superiority complex among the superiors
 It is not suitable for the growth of dynamic human relations among the
members because if hierarchy becomes tall the Chief Executive and
members at the top will lose touch will members at bottom.

PRINCIPLE OF SPAN OF CONTROL

Span of control means the number of subordinates that an
administrator can supervise or control effectively. It is also known as
“Span of Supervision” or “Span of Management”. One individual cannot
properly supervise too many subordinates as there is limit to human
capacity and attention thus the Principle of Span of Control is needed.
Views on limit:
The principle of Span of Control in Public Administration is
related to the concept of “Span of Attention” described in psychology.
This concept says that there is a limit to the number of things one can
attend at same time. However the opinion of various writers differ;
 Hamilton- 3 to 4 subordinates
 Urwick- 5 to 6 at higher level and 8 to 12 at lower level
 Lord Graham- 10 to 12 subordinates
 American Management Association- 9 subordinates

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Factors that influence Span of Control:

Span of Control depends on several factors that can be
described as follows:
1. Nature of work:
The Span of Control is more when the work to be supervised is routine and
repetitive in character. On the other hand Span of Control is less if the work is
complex.
2. Time or the age of organisation:
The span of control is more in old organisations as the work will be well
established. But in a newly established organisations new problems arise as a
result span of control will be less.
3. Space:
Space refers to place of work. The span of control is more when superiors
and subordinates work under same roof than the subordinates working at
distance.

4. Personality:
The span of control is more when the superior is intelligent, energetic
and tactful in his work than when he is weak dull and incompetent.
Similarly the span of control is more when the subordinates are trained
and experienced than untrained and incompetent.
5. Communication:
The span of control will increase if the purpose, plan and work
program of the organisation is clearly informed to all employees of the
organisation. If the communication system is bad it will result in employees
waste of time and energy and thus the san of control will be poor one.

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PRINCIPLE OF UNITY OF COMMAND

Unity of Command means that every employee should
receive orders from one superior only. It is based on the old proverb,
“No man can serve two masters”. If an employee receives order from
more than one superior than it will be very difficult for him to perform his
duties. This principle is faithfully followed in Military Organisation.

 “For any action whatsoever an employee should receive orders from

one superior only”. - HENRY FAYOL

 “The concept of Unity of Command requires that every member of an

organisation should report to one and only one leader”. -PRESTHUS

According to Henry Fayol three things must be noted in this principle;

1. The person who issues the order or command
2. The employee who carries the command
3. Whether the organisation is being managed according to the orders issued.
Significance:
In an organisation multiple command/ direction creates confusion and
conflicts and in order to avoid this Unity of Command is significant.
Arguments for:
Duality of command keeps an employee under confusion as whom to
follow and what to follow so unity of command is very essential to avoid
confusion. Luther Gullick and Urwick who supported this were of the view that,
“an administration can be well managed only if it is headed by single
administrator”.

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Arguments against:
The concept of Unity of Command has been opposed by many writers
such as, Seckler Hudson, J.D Millet, Herbert Simon, F.W Taylor and others.
J.D Millet advocates, “DUAL SUPERVISION” in place of Unity of
Command. He says that there must be Dual supervision one for
technical and other for administrative.
Herbert Simon says, the Principle of Unity of Command conflicts with the
principle of specialisation. He says in an organisation each and every
decision must be taken by person who is expert in his own field, so in
such a circumstances Unity of Command doesn’t work. For ex; If an
accountant of a school is subordinate to the educator then the finance
dept cannot issue orders to him regarding the accounting aspects.

CENTRALISATION
Centralisation means the concentration of authority,
responsibility and decision making power at the top level of
organisation. In centralised system the field agencies are merely
executing or implementing agencies without any power to act on their
own initiative. They have to look upward for direction advise and
clarification. They cannot take independent decisions without the
permission of central authority.
“The process of transfer of administrative authority from lower level to
higher level of government is called Centralisation”. -L.D WHITE
According to Dr. B.L Fadia, centralisation of authority implies three
things;
1. Reservation of decision making at top level
2. Reservation of executing authority at middle level
3. Operating at lower levels controlled by the higher authority.

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Merits:
o Uniformity in functioning
o Clarity about source of decision
o Effectiveness of top administration
o Broader perspective (effective control and no scope for dilution of
goals, duplication of efforts and resources)
o Economical (as duplication is avoided)

Demerits:
o Rigid bureaucratic structure (lead to abuse of power, discourages initiatives
and enthusiasm among subordinates)
o Heavy work load at the top
o Frustration among top officials
o No popular participation
o Impediment to organisational goals

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5. DECENTRALISATION
Decentralisation means dispersal of decision making power to
the lower levels of organisation. Here the field agencies are given
sufficient authority to take decisions in specified matters.

“The process of transfer of administrative power from a higher to lower

level of government is called decentralisation”. L.D WHITE

“Everything that goes to increase the importance of subordinates role is

decentralisation”. - HENRY FAYOL

Types:
1. Political Decentralisation
2. Administrative Decentralisation a. Functional and b. Territorial

1.Political Decentralisation:
It refers to setting up of or establishing new levels of government. Ex;
Panchayat Raj Institutions
2.Administrative Decentralisation
a. Functional decentralisation:
In functional decentralisation system the decision making power in
respect of technical or professional matters is given to technical or
professional bodies of the organisation. For instance; All India Medical
Council deals with medical problems, University Grant Commission (UGC)
deals with educational matters.
b. Territorial decentralisation;
It refers to giving authority to administrative units. Few administrative
units in India are divisions, districts, taluks and villages. These units have
decision making powers and functions within prescribed limits. These units
are created to meet the special needs of respective areas.

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Merits:
o Close to people
o Relieves higher executive
o Quick decision
o Strengthens democracy as people participate in administration from
grass root level
o By evaluating the performance of decentralised units efficiency of
organisation can be easily judged

Demerits:
o Difficult in coordination
o Anarchy (Absence of rule complete decentralisation is not possible in
planning and budgeting).
o Lack of uniformity
o Reduces effectiveness
o Increases administrative abuses (like corruption, mal administration etc).

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CENTRALISATION DECENTRALISATION
 Vertical Communication  Open tree communication

 Proper coordination and leadership  Lack of coordination

 Decision making power lies in top management  Multiple authorities have decision making power

 It is best suited for small sized organisation  Best suited for large sized organisation
 Central planning
 Local participatory planning
 Decision making power is slow
 Comparatively fast
 Uniformity in functioning
 Lack of uniformity
 Clarity about the source of decision is found
 No clarity as each unit takes their own decision
 Top management has heavy work load
 Work load is divided
 No popular participation
 Peoples participation is found to a greater extent

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