© Hun Myoung Park (2014.10.7)
Public Management: 1
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF JAPAN
Public Management and Policy Analysis Program
Graduate School of International Relations
DCC5330 (2 Credits)
Public Management
Fall 2014
Class Note: Public Management Paradigms
This note provides students with key summary of public management paradigms. However,
this summary shouldn’t be a substitute of assigned readings.
Classics of public administration are Woodrow Wilson’s seminal paper (1887) and Max
Weber’s work (1922) on bureaucracy as an ideal type construct.
It is not easy to say “paradigm” in public administration mainly because of difficulty
reaching consensus on the paradigm. Henry (1975) is often cited for an illustration of public
administration and public management paradigms, although situations have changed ever
since. See Henry (1975), Perry and Kraemer (1983), and Henry, Nicholas. 2010. Public
Administration and Public Affairs, 11th ed. Longman. Chapter 2.
1. Politics/administration dichotomy: Frank Goodnow’s Politics and Administration (1900)
and Leonard White’s Introduction to the Study of Public Administration (1926). Public
administration tried to be independent of politics (arbitrariness of politicians), assuming that
public administration is of the execution of policies determined by politics.
2. Scientific management: Frederick Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management
(1919). Underlying assumption is that there is single best way to perform a task and the best
one can be found by “scientific management,” time and motion study in particular. An
employee is a kind of machine man who eagerly maximizes his/her benefits in response to
material incentives. Imagine assembly lines of Ford, GM, and Toyota.
3. Principles of administration or administrative management: W. F. Willoughby’s
Principles of Public Administration (1927) and Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick’s Papers
on the Science of Administration (1937). They want find out general principles in public
administration that can be applied regardless of culture, task, institutional settings, etc. Some
of such principles are unity of control or the principle of one master (each employee should
have only one boss), span of control (the number of subordinates reporting to one boss
should be limited), and the principle of homogeneity (task should be grouped into nits on the
basis of their homogeneity). Gulick and Urwick summarize principles of public
administration as POSDCORB (planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating,
reporting, and budgeting).
4. Human relations and Theory Y: Elton Mayo’s The Human Problems of an Industrial
Civilization (1933), Hawthorne study against scientific management and administrative
management, and Douglas McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise (1960) emphasize
social and psychological aspects of employees than economic incentives. McGregor contrasts
Theory X (employees are lazy, passive, resistant to change) and Theory Y (employees are
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© Hun Myoung Park (2014.10.7)
Public Management: 2
self-directed and self-motivated and thus need participation, self-control, job enlargement,
etc.). Also see Maslow (1954) and Argyris (1957).
5. Administrative science (Behavioralism): Chester Barnard’s The Function of the Executive
(1938) and Herbert A. Simon’s “The proverbs of Administration” (1946) and Administrative
Behavior (1948). Simon criticizes “principles of public administration” and suggests a
scientific approach called “behavioralism.” He compares am economic man and
administrative man with bounded rationality. His “satisficing model” is sharply contrasted
with a comprehensive decision making model.
Henry (1975 and 2010) continues his public administration paradigms to public
administration as political science (1950-1970), public administration as management (19501970), public administration as public administration (1970-present), and governance (1990present).
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Administration development: Fred Riggs’s Administration in Developing Countries
(1964) and Ferrel Heady’s Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective (1979).
Role of public administration in developing countries.
Political perspective and new public administration: Waldo’s “The Administrative
State Revisited” (1965), George Frederickson’s New Public Administration (1980)
and Michael Harmon’s Action Theory for Public Administration (1981), emphasizing
values and ethics in public administration. Vincent Ostrom observes the ebb of public
administration and suggests a more scientific approach, that is, rational choice, in his
The Intellectual Crisis of Public Administration (1973).
New Public Management (NPM) to reform and reinvent government by making
public management more businesslike. See E.S. Savas (1987) and Osborne, David,
and Ted Gaebler (1992).
6. Caution
Students are oftentimes allured to think that latest paradigm (or framework) is the best and
thus should be applied to your countries. NPM and governance seem quite appealing to
developing countries and international organizations (e.g., UN, IMF, and World Bank).
However, this belief is just misunderstanding of the “paradigms.” Such “fashions” may or
may not be properly applied to any country. Students have to keep in mind that these changes
reflect American history during the 19th-20th century (e.g., Spoil System, World War, Great
Depression, and Great Society) and streams in public administration academia. Each
paradigm has its own background (emphasis), strength, and weakness. “Fordism,” a
management science method, did not die and are frequently found in industries even today.
As a consequence, students should review these frameworks critically, find lessons from
them, and then seek a plausible way to apply to a specific setting. For instance, key ideas of
scientific management will be sufficient in a setting where “infrastructure” of public
administration (e.g., hierarchy and rule of law) is poor and efficiency is desperately needed
for survival. By contrast, this administrative management will be less useful for environment
protection.
End of this note.
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