DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ELEMENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Public administration may be considered both as a field of action and a field of study. As a field of action, public administration refers to the mechanics and structures through which government policies are implemented. As a field of study or a discipline, public administration refers to the academic discipline which studies the mechanics and structures through which government implements its programs. This later sense, as a field of study, may also be referred to as a principle or a philosophy. The specific issues that will be examined in this unit include the definition of administration, administrative principles, administrative theories, and public administration.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

It is expected that by the end of this unit, students should endeavor to:

1.  Define and discuss the history of Administration
2.  Explain administrative principles 
3. Discuss administrative theories 
4. Define and list basic elements in public administration 

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Definition of Administration

Administration is a universal concept and is also of universal importance. According to Simon (1950), it is said to commence immediately two people agree to co-operate to undertake a task, for
instance, to move a stone which none of them can move alone. Also Nwosu (1985:3), noted that
Administration is inevitable in any given situation where a piece of work has to be done, and this piece of work requires the effort of more than one person to accomplish it. We are involved in administrative behavior when we co-operate with other people to accomplish such objectives as erecting a community town hall, constructing and managing schools, churches, hospitals,
vehicles, assembly plants.

Thus, Onuoha (1999) explains further that administration exists whenever people cooperate to achieve the goals of their groups, and such achievements require planning, organization, command,

cooperation and control. It involves the mobilization, deployment and direction of human and material resources to attain the specified objectives. When viewed from this perspective, certainly administration is rightly considered a very old and global phenomenon, which exists, even in the most basic human group.  We may therefore define administration as a capacity to coordinate and execute many and often conflicting social demands in a single organism so perfectly that they should all operate as a unit (Fayol, 1949). Increasingly, those definitions and explanations, amon

others, point to the fact that administration is both public and private. Administration has a long history which dates back to the beginning of the history of mankind, with research revealing administrative tasks and practices since recorded history. Researches carried out by archaeologists and translators have revealed that going back to the time of ancient Egyptian dynasties, the ancient Chinese Empire, the ancient Greek city – states and Roman Empire, there is abundant evidence of impressive analysis with contemporary administrative tasks, merely by way of illustration, also the early Christian Church also played a remarkable role in the emergence of administrative practices. A Chinese administrative expert writing in 500 BC remarked that:
Whoever pursues a business in this world must have a system. A business which has attained success without a system does not exist. From Ministers and Generals down to the hundreds of craftsmen, every one of them has a system. Now, if we govern the empire or a large state without a system, we are not even less intelligent than a common craft man (Adebayo, 2004).

In our modern societies, various groups of people from all walks of life are woven together in a complicated process to achieve the objectives of the organization. In both public and private
establishments, large numbers of employees have to be supervised, coordinated and controlled. Thousands of workers have to be brought together and distributed for work among the various

departments of which the various organizations are composed. Workers are graded in different levels of authority, from directors and managers at the top to messengers and laborers at the bottom. Everyone has to be assigned his specific function and the contribution of each must be towards the objectives of the whole.

3.2 Basic characteristic of administration

Administrative practice is based on some known characteristics
namely:
Hierarchy: Organization form a chain of superiors ranging from the highest ranking to the lowest – ranking manager
Unity of command: Employees receive orders from one superior
Chain of command: organizations are divided into various but functional sections, units, departments etc.
Span of Control: Employees are given authority and responsibility that commensurate with their offices, which should not be more or less.

Self – Assessment Exercise 3.2

Explain four basic principles of administration

3.3 Administrative Theories Administrative theories are postulated to establish how resources of organizations can best be managed. Administrative approaches are broadly divided into Administrative Management, Scientific

Management, Bureaucratic Management and Human Relations.

Administrative Management

This theory was first formulated by Henry Fayol, and later Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick. The theory concentrates on attempts to develop principles of administration which can be applied everywhere. According to them, any administrative principle once developed, should logically work in any kind of administrative institution. Gulick and Urwick gave the discipline of public administration, the acronym POSDCORD which means planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. According to Gulick and Urwick, POSDCORD
constitutes the key duties and functions of any administrator in an organization. The acronym is criticized of having over –simplified the work of an administrator. On their own part, still under
Administrative Management theory, James D. Mooney and Allan C. Reilay formulated the four principles of organization which are: the coordinative principle; the scalar principle (hierarchical structure); functional principle (division of labour); and the staff/line principle (Onuaha, 1999).

Scientific Management

This theory was propounded by Frederick Taylor. The key tenet of scientific management is that human beings are adjunct to the machine, thus the workers should be made as efficient as the
machine they operated in order to achieve optimum productivity and efficiency. But human beings as adjunct of the machine can only be applied to the lower echelon of the organization. The weakness of

the technique lies in the fact that human beings are not machine, and do not become activated like machines. Workers are human beings with values which require that they be differently treated in an
organization.

Bureaucratic Management

Bureaucratic theory was one of the earliest theories of organization. It was formulated by Max Weber, who is fondly referred to as the father of bureaucracy and bureaucratic theory. According to Weber, bureaucracy is hierarchical, and promotion based on professional merit and skill. Bureaucracy is characterized by career service,which relies on and adopts rules and regulations for its operations.
The career professionals are guided by impersonal relationship among them, and between them and their clientele. Weber is interested in learning how bureaucracy functions, why it functions the way it does, and its possible effect on the whole society. Max Weber’s thesis is that to understand organization one needs to understand the procedures and activities of the bureaucracy, since
bureaucracy gives meaning to organization.

Human Relations

Human relations theory is another method of studying organizations. The theory is reputed as being a reaction against person as machine concept of the scientific management school. The human relations theory of organization examines the informal work group at the assembly, that is, the line level. It tries to find out what makes these groups of workers work or refuse to work. The theory tries to establish what relationship exists between motivation and job satisfaction, and how these affect efficiency and productivity in the organization.

The formulation of the theory began with the efforts of Elton Mayo in 1927. The study focused on relationship between workers and managers, and among workers themselves. The development of the

theory continued with the efforts of Abraham H. Maslow, in what is today known as Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Maslow perceived human desire to be based first on psychological needs

which provide the foundation for the next greatest need, which is security. These are followed by love or belonginess, self esteem, and finally self actualization. According to him, all these human needs collectively determine productivity in any organization.

Self – Assessment Exercise 3.3

Discuss four different approaches to the study of Administration

3.4 Definition of Public Administration

Having understood the concept of administration, its characteristics, and theories, it can be noted that when the concept of administration is qualified with the word ‘public’ it simply means the practice of
administration in a particular segment of the society, that of the public sector. Public administration is therefore governmental administration and operates in the particular sphere of government.
It is the machinery for implementing government policy.  Public administration is concerned with the study of how a country’s administration is organized and how it functions. Since it is the machinery for implementing government policy, it follows that its

study must lead to the study of the most efficient ways of organizing the executive branch of government, its institutions and its procedures.

Public administration is the machinery, as well as the integral processes through which the government performs its functions. It is a network of human relationships and associated activities extending from the government to the lowest paid and powerless individual charged with keeping in daily touch with all resources, natural and human, and all other aspects of the life of the society with which the government is concerned. It is a system of roles and role relationships that defines in as clear and practicable terms as possible and in as much details as possible the intentions and programmes of government; the means available internally and externally to accomplish them; and finally, it is a system that causes these intentions and programs to be realized in real life. It is a

pattern of routinized activities, involving decision – making, planning, advising, coordination, negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, command and data gathering, through which the government carries out its responsibilities (Nnoli, 2003).

The significant elements in these definitions are:

1.  Cooperative group effort in public setting 
2. It involves all the branches of government 
3.  There must be defined goals and objectives 
4. There should be public policy 
5. It distinguishes public administration from the private administration 

Self Assessment Exercise 3.4

Define and list the basic elements of Public Administration.

4.0 CONCLUSION

We have explained that public administration is a governmental administration or machinery for implementing public policy. Some basic texts of renowned authorities are used as sources for the
exercise. These sources coupled with ideas of cerebrated administrative theorists have made our discussions much clearer.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, we have dealt with the meaning and theories of public administration by looking at the following aspects; definition, principles, theories, and structure of public administration. We  learned that public administration is the machinery as well as the internal process through which the government performs its functions.