StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

What is Public administration - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Public administration is the synthesis of several disciplines like political science, administration and public finance.This subject has several definitions though the general understanding signifies some kind of policy making and implementation which, is for public good…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91% of users find it useful
What is Public administration
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "What is Public administration"

What is Public administration Public administration (PA) is the synthesis of several disciplines like political science, administration and public finance. This subject has several definitions though the general understanding signifies some kind of policy making and implementation which, is for public good. Both Public and private entity administrations are included in this discipline in recent times. This is considered as much as a science as per Fayol's principles as an art. In an organizational perspective Public administration is the co-operation of several individuals to achieve a common goal.

Though administration in regular life is mostly involuntary, it is possible to control and co-ordinate such activities for common good. Hence the administration aspect is combined with management to optimize its benefits. Inclusion of management has given an ethical and social angle to the PA portfolio. In the traceable beginnings of this complex discipline the areas of politics and administration were separated vaguely. As times passed by, the political nature of administration made it complex to keep the two disciplines associated.

Hence in recent times, political scientists study the organizational behavior of governments at all levels and provide inputs to the administration wing to act on the suggestions. This process evolution has removed the political influence on administration aspects to a large extent. In the symbolic front bureaucracy is still a synonym for public administration, reflecting the initial influence of politics on PA. The face of public administration has changed drastically over centuries. The rudiments of this discipline can be found in different parts of the world in different cultures aiming to achieve similar public interest objectives.

In the earlier set up, public administrators were considered only as implementers of law. This idea ignored the human element involved in administration. Later as the industrial revolutions took place in different parts of the world and organizational structures changed, PA started taking the shape of an integral solution influenced by various interdisciplinary fields. Public administrator was always regarded as one of the most powerful positions. Recent developments have added various other functionalities like change manager, public relations officer, negotiator, strategist etc.

to a public administrators portfolio. All these changes have enriched the content of PA and have left it nothing similar to, what it was a few decades ago. The diversity in responsibilities in PA has created a need for professionals from all the leading walks of life. Conversely the PA matters that proliferate in private sectors like environment management, compliance issues etc have necessitated the reverse movement of professionals. With such manpower and knowledge exchange in industry circles, both public and private sectors can aim at the benefits of learning from each other.

The understanding of PA is not complete if the pain areas involved in this field are not discussed. PA is a vast area working towards stabilizing social values and improving the quality of life for public in general. In such an organizational stature, the dilemma between social objectives and economic objectives always prevails. It has been proven time and again in history that social objectives rule the decisions of public administrators when the dilemma arises. As things have changed, in recent times all the organizations are run as profit/cost centers.

Maximizing efficiency is the only acceptable way of work, if PA offices have to compete with private firms/sectors of their own or any other country. One of the offshoots of this efficiency argument is the accountability factor for public resources which, until recently laid in the hands of bureaucrats. This drawback has been rectified by several forward thinking countries by implementing the New Public Management (NPM) models of accountability (Vigoda, 1999). This differs from the traditional PA models as the accountability for results is included.

The focus of public administrators in this model lies equally on process accountability as well as result achievement. Conclusively Public administration is a continuously evolving field. Innovation is constant in this field as it is related to the well being of the society. The scope of PA cannot be clad in an iron box as its offshoots proliferate to other disciplines as a characteristic of human involvement/ intervention. Achieving common good is the vetoed end, but the means for doing so, comprises of a gamut of possibilities.

References:Vigoda Eran (1999), Accountability in New Public Management An elusive phenomenon. In Public Administration An interdisciplinary critical analysis, (Ch. 4) Retrieved April 03, 2007, from http://books.google.com/booksid=ljLv8qQc5kwC&dq=Public+administration&pg=PP1&ots=1bc7HniwKX&sig=P0_DH08lDRP5V4-bb0Sv0QmKB1Q&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fsourceid %3Dnavclient%26ie%3DUTF-8%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2005-52,RNWE:en%26q%3DPublic %2Badministration&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=3

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“What is Public administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1523514-what-is-public-administration
(What Is Public Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1523514-what-is-public-administration.
“What Is Public Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1523514-what-is-public-administration.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF What is Public administration

Roles of Administrators in Public Management

It discusses the similarities and differences between public administration and private administration.... Change management, on the other hand, is not easy to handle regarding policy shifts in public administration.... Coming to preferences, budget is very critical in public administration.... Compare and Contrast the Roles of Administrators in the Public and Private Sectors Definition of public administration The core elements of public administration are policy management, resource management, and program management....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Hierarchical Structure in a Modern Organization

The study will include the counter arguments with respect to the relevance of the hierarchy within the organizations.... The existence of the flatten organization is quite unmanageable at times.... The existence of the rhizomes structure within the organization also forms an objective of this study....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Public Administration

College: public administration Introduction The shift itarian decision making from domestic to global, presents aprofound confront to the systems of administrative law that the United States and other nations rely upon to secure the responsibility of the administrative state.... The Craft of public administration.... In response to the growth of global economic and other interdependency, the past twenty-five years have witnessed a dramatic shift of regulatory authority from the nation state to a dizzying variety of global regulatory regimes including international organizations, transnational networks of national regulatory officials, and private or hybrid private public regulatory bodies....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Public Administration and Democratic Governance

The aim of the paper “public administration and Democratic Governance” is to analyze public administration from time immemorial, which has been a centralized autocratic system known to citizens as policymakers and enforcers.... Citizen awareness has been another driving force enabling changes in the functioning of the public administration.... he drivers mentioned above lay the stepping stone for "New public administration" (NPM)....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Public Administration

Debates on privatization, corruption, and government values have been raised over the years but the boundaries between what is public and what is private are never identified.... The Next Steps Initiative that was launched by the British government in 1988 aims at splitting the delivery of services from This change in the public administration in the British government has created various criticisms and incited other nations to study this strategy and modify the delivery of public service in their own government....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Public Administration

This normally places public administration officials in a dilemma since they do not know whether to serve the interests of… There are several theories that have been used to describe public administration practices (Farmer 49). The Hamiltonian tradition of public administration is made up of four pillars, namely: politics, The Hamiltonian School of thought holds that power rests with the executive.... A perfect public administration according to Hamilton was one that was developed under a dynamic centralized executive control system....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Public Work and Admnistration

In the paper “Public Work and administration” the author takes a closer look at the various job descriptions, which revealed that the jobs needed the holders of the jobs to have similar as well as varying traits, skills, and knowledge.... There seem to be some common traits for all the jobs....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

The Future of Public Administration

In his attempt to bring the concept of new public administration, he starts by describing public administration in according to classical political… Readers of his book therefore are able to follow what proponents Frederickson adds to his understanding.... The other theorists, for instance, Landau, concentrate in trying to achieve operational efficiency by eliminating Future of public administration Future of public administration Frederickson, in his text Toward a New public administration best describes features of new public administration systems....
2 Pages (500 words) Admission/Application Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us