Kay 235:
Introduction to Management
Lecture 1
Subject: The development of public
administration, and its relationship with
management
Reading: Greene, Chapter 2
Notes

The syllabus is available at:


http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~myildiz/courses
Today’s lecture
Introduction

Beginnings of Public Administration (PA)

Woodrow Wilson `Study of Administration` article (1887)

Politics & Administration Dichotomy/Separation


PA is:



PA is similar to Business Administration (BA)
Managing the affairs of the state
Implement a variety of policies
What do governments do


In general: Education, Health, Justice, Internal & External
Security
More specifically: Establishing speed limits and enforcing
them
How to define PA?

It is a social science


It is a multidisciplinary field



Studies social phenomena and human behavior
Includes political science, management & law
Some says PA has an `identity crisis`
It is both an academic discipline, and a
practice/profession.

The two are closely linked.
The issues that PA deals with



What does government do?
How to understand complexities in
public organizations?
What is the environment in which public
organizations function?



How they function?
What they do?
Why they do it?
SOME BACKGROUND

Thomas Hobbes 17th C.


Adam Smith, 18th C.



Leviathan
The Wealth of Nations
Invisible hand
Alexis De Tocqueville, 19th C.


Democracy in America
Power of associations
Degree of Government
Involvement in Economy

Limited Involvement



Adam Smith, Wealth
of Nations
Invisible hand
The aggregate of
people’s self interests
make up of the
public interest

Larger Involvement


Hobbes
Reasons





Externalities
Monopolies
Imperfect Information
Examples: Roosevelt,
Wilson, FDR
Some Actions

Break up monopolies
Primary Objective of PA

Multiple criteria/objectives

Effectiveness


Efficiency



Achieving objectives with minimum resources (time, money,
personnel…)
Responsiveness


Achieving stated objectives
To the needs of the society
Social Equity
All these things and more…

Objective: Better society through better government
PA as a practice/profession

PA programs train future public administrators

Training includes courses in:






Management
Organizational theory and behavior
Personnel administration
Budgeting & financial management
Administrative History and Law
PA offers new courses as it responds to changes


E-government
Ethics
History of PA

PA and bureaucracy is many centuries
old, but the PA discipline is new:


US PA begins with Wilson`s 1887 article,
`The Study of Administration`
PA is born out of political science

Still, there is a productive tension between
the two.
Development Stages of PA
1. CLASSICAL PERIOD (1900-1940)
 Politics & administration
dichotomy/separation
 A generic view of administration


No real difference between PA & BA
Universal principles of scientific
management

BA techniques may be applied to PA
Stages of PA-2
1. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1900-1940)
 A mechanistic view of the people and the world


A strong reaction against corruption in government



It is thought that money is the primary motivation
Cleaning up government from partisan politics and favoritism
Bringing competence to government by applying scientific
methods
Primary Goal

Establishing competent and neutral professional
administration
Politics & Administration Dichotomy

Politics


Administration


Formulating government policies by democratic processes
such as election and the parliamentary processes
Execution of these policies
Powers of government



Legislature: Parliaments (Politics)
Executive: Central and local government (Administration)
Judiciary: Courts (Both formulate and execute policies (Both
politics and administration)
Politics & Administration Dichotomy

Woodrow Wilson believed that


Administration executes the law
There is little difference between PA & BA


Government could and should be more businesslike in its
operations
Mixing politics & administration is both ineffective
& inefficient


Government employees should be selected for their merit
They should be free from political influences and
pressures
Scientific Management

Founder: Frederick W. Taylor


Universal principles of management
There is a `one best way` of implementing
policies.


PA was focusing on upper management
Taylor focused on lower management

Assembly line workers
 How to make production/workers more efficient
Scientific Management

Taylor believed that

There was always a `one best way` of
doing things



Time and motion studies for workers
Money was thought to be the main
motivator
A very mechanistic view of the world
Hawthorne Studies

Conducted by Elton Mayo





Beginning in 1927
Examined the relationship between
workers, work environments & productivity
His research started the `Human Relations
Movement`
Importance of informal groups
Beginning of the `behavioralist movement`
Other Contributors

Max Weber


Defined the bureaucratic form of organization
Also known for authority types


Traditional, charismatic and legal-rational
Mary Parker Follett

Offered a management philosophy based on


Individual motivation and group problem solving
Participatory management
Other Contributors

Gulick and Urwick


Papers on the Science of Administration (1937)
Famous acronym: POSDCORB







Planning
Organizing
Staffing
Directing
Coordinating
Reporting
Budgeting
End of the Classical Period

The rise of the administrative state in
1930s

Emerged in response to the problems of


The Great Depression of late 1920s
And the World War II
Stages of PA: Stage 2
2. BEHAVIORIST PERIOD (1940-1970)
 Affected by both political science and
management
 Disputed the scientific principles


Advocated the study of behavior
Application of economics on bureaucracy

Anthony Downs: Forerunner of the public choice
theory
Other Contributors

Chester Barnard

The Functions of the Executive (1938)



Organization as cooperative systems
Managers balance the needs of the individual & the
organization with effective communication
Herbert Simon

Administrative Behavior


Classic management principles are contradictory
Simon argued that there are limits for human organizations to
handle and process information


Rational decision-making within limits
Bounded rationality, satisficing

People give `good enough` decisions, rather than pursuing the
best course of action
Behavioralism: Multidisciplinary

Behavioralists studied individual
behaviors rather than institutions


E.g. participatory decision-making
Multidisciplinary character:


Systems theory, taken from biology
Public Choice Theory, from economics


Self-interested bureaucrats, instead of pursuing
the public interest
Comparative PA: In other countries
PA as management

Similar curricula





Organizational theory
Human resource management
Information systems
Budgeting
Oriented towards a generic
management theory
PA & BA: Similar or Different?

The focus is on similarities & differences


Government, private and non-profit
comparisons (Greene, page 58)
Graham Allison Article (Next week)

Just a few arguments (More details next week)


Short term focus in PA
 Budget process and political pressures
Limited term leadership
 Relatively quick turnover of appointed PA leaders
Some Contributions to PA
by Management Scholars

Theory X and Y


Process of Motivation


Douglas McGregor
Victor Vroom
Managerial Grid

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton
Stages of PA: Stage 3
3. THE NEW PA (1968-1980s)
 A radical change in the PA discipline



Very normative and activist period
Rejected the rationality of the behaviorist school
Foci




Organizational humanism
Participatory bureaucracy
Representative bureaucracy
Bureaucracy should address social inequalities

Concerned more with equity than efficiency
Stages of PA: Stage 4
4. THE REFOUNDING PERIOD (1980--)
 Challenges to mainstream PA (New Public
Management)
 Main challenges

Public choice theory



Bureaucrats are motivated by self-interest
Privatization
Reinventing government movement
The Refounding Period

Oil crises and fiscal stress of late 1970s
and early 1980s resulted in



Privatization
One again, efficiency became very
important
Still, efficiency should be balanced with
other competing goals

Such as accountability and equity.