Public Administration : The
Principles of Administration
Upul Abeyrathne,
Senior Lecturer
Department of Economics,
University of Ruhuna,
Matara.
• 1927, W. F. Willoughby published his book
“Principles of Public Administration
• The main trust of the book is that there exist
certain scientific principles of administration
• They could be discovered
• Administrators would become expert in their
work if they learned how to apply these
principles.
• L. Urwick had observed
‘’ It is the general thesis of this paper that there are
principles which can be arrived at inductively from
the study of human organization which should
govern arrangements for human association of any
knd. These principles can be stusied as a technical
question, irrespective of purpose of the enterprise,
the personal compring it, or any constitutional
political or social theory underlying its creation
(Gulick , Luther and Urwick , L. (eds.), Papers on the
Science of Administration, New York, Institute of
Public Administration, 1937, p. 49)
What are the Principles?
Acronym : POSDCoRB
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
P= Planning
O= Organising
S= Staffing
D= Directing
Co= Coordinating
R= Reporting
B=Budgeting
1927-1937 Golden Era of
Administrative Principle Paradigm
• There were high degree of respectability both
in government and business.
• During 1937-47, the principle s were began to
be challenged.
• Herbert A Simon, “Proverbs of Administration”
in 1946 and Administrative behaviour, (1947)
argued that there is no such thing as principles
of administration, what are paraded as
principles are in truth no better than proverbs
Robert Dhal Challenge
• The quest for principles of administration was
obstructed by three factors
• 1. There were value permeating
administration while science is value free
• 2. Human Personality differs
• 3. The organizations have to work in a social
framework that also differs.