Public Administration: At

Whole.
“The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of the government”
By Barak Husain Obama

Public administration houses the implementation of government policies it studies the

public entities and their relationships with each other and with the larger world. Public
administration is liable for the development, coordination, implementation, and
acceleration of public services and the study of branches of government policy. The pursuits
of the public administration are to ensure well-run, fair, and effective public services.
Today public administration is responsible for determining the policies and programs of
governments. Specially, it works for the planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and
controlling of government operations. It is carried out by public servants who work in public
departments and agencies.

Meaning of Public Administration:

Public administration is a branch of the wider term “Administration”. To understand the
meaning of public administration we must, therefore, firstly try to understand what
administration means. The word administration is derived from the Latin
wordsadministrate which is the combination of ad+ministiare, which means to care for or
to look after people, to manage affairs. According to this wide definition almost every
human activity involves some kind of administration.

Definitions of Public Administration:

With the growing complexity of modern life the public administration has become more and
more complex. We would now consider some of the definitions of administration given by
prominent scholars:

1. Woodrow Wilson, “Public Administration is the detailed and systematic application of

Law”
[Ref: Woodrow Wilson, “The Study of Administration, Political Quarterly” in 1941 Page No- 481-566]

2. Leonard D. White, “Public Administration is concerned with action in particular

concrete situation, but in accordance with long range objectivity.”
[Ref: Leonard D. White, “Instruction to the study of Public Administration” page No- 01]

3. Luther Gullick, “Administration has to do with getting things done; with the
accomplishment of defined objectives”.
[Ref: Luther Gullick, “Papers on the Science of Administration” in 1937 Page No- 191]

4. Ali Ashraf, “Public Administration is a concerned with the organization and procedures
of the formulation and implementation of public policies.”
 [Ref: Ali Ashraf, “Public Administration: a new paradigm” in 1996 Page No- 01]

5. Pfiffner, “Public Administration is Organization and direction of human and material

resources to achieve desired ends.”
[Ref: Pfiffner, “Public Administration” in 1946 Page No- 04-06]

6. Marshall E. Dimock, “Public Administration is concerned with what and the How of the
Government.”
[Ref: Ali Ashraf, “The Study of Administration” in 1937 Page No-31-32]

7. Adams, “Public Administration is the composition of all laws, regulations, practice,

relationship, codes and customs that prevail at any time in any jurisdiction for the
fulfillment of execution of public policy.”
[Ref: Adams, “The theory of Social Revolution” in 1913 Page No- 207-208]

8. L.D. White, “Public administration consists of all those operations having for their
purpose the fulfillment of enforcement of public policies as declared by the competent
authority.”
[Ref: Leonard D. White, “Instruction to the study of Public Administration” page No- 01]

9. According to UNDP,
Public administration has two closely related meanings:

(a) The aggregate machinery (policies, rules, procedures, systems, organizational

structures, personnel and so forth) funded by the State budget and in charge of the
management and direction of the affairs of the executive government, and its interaction
with other stakeholders in the State, society and external environment.

(b) The management and implementation of the whole set of government activities
dealing with the implementation of laws, regulations and decisions of the Government and
the management related to the provision of public services.

[Ref: United Nations Development Program, Democratic Governance Group, Public administration
practice note, Bureau for Development Policy, 2003 Page No-05]

Scope of Public Administration:

There are two views of public administration namely, Integral and managerial views.
Public administration, being a part of the more general term administration, is subject to
these two views of administration also. The differences of opinion about the scope of study
of public administration thus centers around the crucial or vital points whether public
administration is only the managerial part of the government work or the entire complex of
the activities or only the executive branch of the government or of all branches and finally
whether administration is mere execution or application of policy or is a factor in the
formulation of policy also.

Here is now an attempt to discuss the nature & scope of the discipline of Public
Administration. The nature and scope can be described bellow under two heads:
 Integral Views:
All of the difficulties and problems which are commonly related in achieving the
common purposes are concerned with the integral views of the Public Administration.
According to this view, public administration is a sum total of all activities manual,
technical, managerial and secretarial which is undertaken in pursuit of and in fulfillment of
public policy. Therefore, it can be said that the activities of all the persons from top to
bottom constitute administration although they are of varying significance to the running
of administration machinery. Thus all the acts of the officials of the government from the
peon to the secretaries and head of the state constitute public administration. Leonardo D.
White supports this integral view, according to him; “Public administration consists of all
those operations, having for their purpose of fulfillment or enforcement of public policy.”
[Ref: Leonard D. White, “Instruction to the study of Public Administration” page No- 01-05]

Managerial Views:
Luther Gullick is an important champion of the managerial view of administration.
He writes, “Administration has to do with getting things done with the accomplishment of
defined objectives”.
[Ref: Luther Gullick, “Papers on the Science of Administration” in 1937 Page No- 191]

The managerial view gives unity to administration. It lays emphasis on managerial

techniques, which are common to all types of administration. This view regards public
administration as consisting of the managerial functions of top public administrators who
are engaged in getting the work of government done. Thus, the managerial view denotes the
work of the chief executive as a general manager. It, therefore, emphasizes the basic
POSDCORB functions of managers, namely: planning, organizing, staffing, directing,
coordinating, reporting and budgeting.

1. P Stands for Planning: Working out in broad outline the things that need to be done
and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose which is set for the enterprise.
2. O Stands for Organization: The establishment of the formal structure of authority
through which work subdivisions are arranged, defined and co ordinate for the defined
objective of the organization.
3. S Stands for Staffing: The whole personnel function of bringing in and training
the staff and maintaining favorable conditions of work both in qualitative and quantitative.
4. D Stands for Directing: The continuous task of making decisions and embodying
them in specific and general orders and instructions and serving as the leader of the
enterprise.
5. CO Stands for Coordinating. Interrelating the various entities and processes of the
work.
6. R Reporting: Keeping those to whom the executive is responsible as well
as subordinates informed through records, research and inspections.
7. B Stands for Budgeting: Fiscal planning, accounting and control.

Subject Matter View of Public Administration:

Public administration deals not only with administrative techniques but also with the
substantive fields of administration such as defense, education, public health, social welfare,
agriculture, police, fire protection, and so on. These substantive services are provided for
 the people by the various governmental agencies. The nature of the various governmental
agencies and the services they perform are not similar. They differ, for instance, the work
involved in the administration of the education department differs from the work involved
in the administration of police department or public works department. They have their
respective specific administrative problems and specialized techniques of their own. Hence,
the knowledge of the subject matter with which an administration agency is concerned is
very essential for the effective administration of that agency.

The Importance of Public Administration

The benefits or the advantages of the study of public administration may be briefly stated as
follows.
1. The study of public administration helps the student learn the basic concepts, principles
and theories of public administration.
2. The study of public administration helps to explain the purposes, functions, and
continuation of government bureaucracy.
3. The study of public administration provides knowledge of public organizations and the
context in which and the methods by which they operate.
4. The study of public administration promotes a superior understanding of government
and its relationship with the society it governs and thus it enables us to learn more about
how our country is governed.
5. The study of public administration is useful as training for citizenship and for preparing
citizens for an active participation in the process of democratic governance.
6. The study of public administration makes us learn how to promote the public interest
more effectively.
7. The study of public administration promotes among the people an awareness of the
importance of the administrative activities in their lives.
8. The study of public administration is useful to make public policies, which are more
responsive to public needs.
9. As an applied discipline, the study of public administration provides knowledge which
is helpful to the policy makers to implement policies, and Prepares students for employment
in the government services and makes them aware of the opportunities and challenges of
the public service.
10. The study of public administration is useful as a self- serving investment.
Conclusion: The above analyses show that the study of public administration as a field of
activity and an area of intellectual inquiry have both utilitarian objectives. The original
purpose of the study of public administration was not to cultivate knowledge for its own
sake. The study of public administration was directed at the twin pursuits of reforming
governmental institution and training civil servants. Thus, administrative theory grew in
the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century with the primary objective of
making government more effective and economical in its working. This goal is still
important. However, gradually, the study of public administration has also acquired certain
intellectual objectives.