LESSON 1 THE PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objective
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Definition of Terminologies
3.1.1 Meaning of Public Administration
3.1.2 Nature and Scope of Public Administration
3.1.3 Public Administration and Other Social Sciences
3.2 Public Administration: Art or Science
3.2.1 Approaches to the Study of Public Administration
3.2.2 Basic Principles of Public Administration
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Essay Questions
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION
It focuses mainly on the definitions, meaning, features, scope and basic principles as regards
Public Administration.

The concept of Public Administration would be examined from the context of its universality
and its relevance to all human formations.

2.0 OBJECTIVE
At the end of this Unit, you should be able to:
• explain the term “Administration.”
• define the term “Public Administration.”
• state the Scope of Public Administration
• state whether Public Administration is Art or Science.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Definition of Terminologies

Administration is a universal practice and also of universal importance. 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 specified objectives.

Public Administration may be considered both 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 discipline, Public Administration
refers to the academic discipline which studies the mechanics and structures through which
government implement its programmes.

Public Administration, according to Woodrow Wilson, is a detailed and systematic application

of law. Every particular application of law is an act of administration.

In the words of Dwight Waldo, “Public Administration is the art and science of management as
applied to the affairs of the states and for ….”

Luther Gullrich, “Public Administration is that part of science of administration which has to do
with the government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the
work of government is done.”

All these definitions of Public Administration exhibit the following characteristics:

• Organization and Direction and material resources into an organized structure. This
organized entity is well guided to attain – Here Public Administration brings together
human acceptable goals for the interest of all.

• The issue of cooperation and unity of purpose for the welfare of all; Public
Administration is a collective caring process for the welfare and well-being of all. It,
therefore, involves the harmonization of personal and group goals. It harmonizes
personal and group goals.

3.1.2 Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The nature of Public Administration may be narrow and management whereby it is defined only
as the Action Side of government or mainly the activities of the executive arm of government.
Also, it deals with the functions of the Manager or the Chief Executive Officer only.
There is also the broader view of Public Administration where it embraces the tree organs of
government being the executive, legislative and the judiciary. It reflects the collective caring
activities of the three organs of government. Furthermore, it involves the role of the least
personnel to the highest in a work situation.

The scope of Public Administration is as follows:

• the formulation and implementation of public policies;

• the executive arm of government

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 • the involvement of problems concerning human behaviour at governmental level;
and
• a field that is differentiated in several ways from private administration.

However, Public Administration is broad and cannot be restricted to a specific detail. It is multi-
discipline because students and practitioners alike need to draw from several discipline like
political science, psychology, sociology and especially the sciences in order to reach the truth
about a particular administrative problem or before the best decision can be taken and
implemented.

3.1.3 Public Administration and other Social Sciences

Public Administration is a distinct discipline of its own. However, as human beings and nations
relate to each other through interactions so do various disciplines. There is a close relationship
between Public Administration with other social sciences.

Psychology and Public Administration. Psychology is the science of the mind. Mental activity
is known to guide the behaviour of an individual. Public Administration is mostly for the
implementation of public policies efficiently. How do we get efficient human beings to carrying
public related tasks? This is why psychology comes in from recruitment, the individual stay
and the exit from the organization. Public Administration is able to master human behaviour to
a reasonable degree due to the assistance of psychologist and the knowledge of psychology in a
work place would definitely produce well-motivated and happy workers.

Law and Public Administration. Laws are carefully established rules and regulations that are
made to regulate conduct and performance of individuals and groups as Public Administration
is the administration of public laws.

In democratic process under the separation of power, checks and balances, rules and regulations
are analysed by the Legislature. The judiciary is well known by the function of judicial reviews.
Therefore, every political settings and administrative processes in public administration has
legal connotations in law making, execution and interpretation.

Philosophy and Public Administration. The knowledge of philosophy enables public

administration to systematically accumulate knowledge and wisdom from all fields of human

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 undertakings. This enables administration to guide, teach, lead and serve the human society in the
creation of pleasant world for the benefit of the entire humanity.

Religion and Public Administration. Religion is a social science which deals with human
relationship with the Supreme Being. In all contents and purposes, the essence of religion is to
truly identify with the Almighty. Religion is one instrument of peace and obedience to constituted
authority which public administration symbolizes.

3.2 Public Administration: Art or Science

Public Administration is the implementation of rules and regulations by the executive arm of
government. It is the totality of all government activities.

There is always this friction about Public Administration being an Art or Science course. Art is the
knowledge acquired by learning and practice and Science is the act of doing an activity in a
systematic way. But Public Administration can be viewed as a Science base on certain criteria.

Existence of Agreed Principles. The principle of Public Administration as agreed by writers in the
field, are: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. There is
also a span of control that limits the number of subordinates one can conveniently control.

The outcome of good administration can be predicted to be efficient work force and efficient and
productive output. Therefore, the ability to determine future occurrence through present indices
makes Public Administration Science-oriented in nature.

Public Administration is concrete and exact because it has the organizational outlook. Organization
is the putting in their right perspectives human and material resources to achieve set goals. It
further creates formal authority structure and allocates duties and functions. Another proof
the Public Administration is Science is that in an attempt to carry out its various functions, there is
some form of experiments. The whole world can be termed “the laboratory” of Public
Administration. Policies and Laws are tentative intentions to regulate human affairs. They (law
and regulations) are experimented upon to see how good it would work for the benefit of mankind.

Lastly, it is an agreed principle that everyone is equal before the law. This involves the calculated
use of resources to actual set goals. A calculated sue of resources must involve careful and uniform
use of thoughts, words and actions both in theory and practice. This is scientific because it is a
systematic accumulation of knowledge.

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 As an art, Public Administration can be seen as having more than one definition. For Science, the
definition would have been only one. Public Administration as an art, has various definitions both
at a narrower or broader view. Another attribute of Public Administration that makes it an art
subject is that human behaviours are subject to irrational acts which may also affect the policy
content which may vary due to the variation in human nature.
There is also the issue of unequal treatment of people when it comes to Public Administration. This
unequal treatment may be due to corruption, nepotism and favouritism. Irregular human behavior
cannot be subjected to laboratory experiment. Therefore, Public Administration is an art because
knowledge is gained through learning. But in all, it should be noted that it is not absolutely true
to say that Public Administration is absolutely an art or science.

3.2.1 Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The word “approach” means to come nearer or closer to something. The approaches discussed
here depend on the definition of Public Administration and the extent to which the boundaries of
the subject are adjusted. The following are the approaches to the study of Public Administration.

Judiciary Approach: Of all the approaches to the study of Public Administration, the judicial
approach is the oldest. This approach assumes that Public Administration carried out primarily by
the executive organ of government is nothing more than the implementation of rules and
regulations as passed by the legislature.

Public Administration is the Science of government and is the knowledge of the laws by which
every society is regulated. It can be concluded here that Public Administration originated from the
study of the judiciary or Administrative Law

Scientific Approach: Fredrick W. Taylor’s, the father of Scientific Management, effort was to
develop public administration into a science from principles within the engineering and
management sciences. Taylor’s desire was to increase production by motivating the workers to
work harder.

Comprehensive Approach: Here, Public Administration is considered as the total performance

of governmental functions or organizational functions by those placed in position to do so. This
approach to the study of Public Administration sees both the functional and the administrative tasks
as Public Administration and hence the term “comprehensive.”

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 Administrative Process Approach: As the name suggest, this approach sees administration as
the make-up of some processes or functions which include policy, organization, personnel, finance
procedures and control.

Conventional Approach: This is a transition from the comprehensive and the administrative
process approaches. Here, a distinction is drawn between specialized professional and the
“generalists” or the administrative staff. The question that arises here is, the generalists or
administrators as the technical experts, who is “fit” to head the organization?
Economy and Efficiency Approach: Under this approach, economy is replaced with the issue of
efficiency. There is a strong relationship between the scientific approach and the economy and
efficiency approach. While the scientific approach attempts to identify the principles of making
management of men and materials in any organisation more efficient, the efficiency approach
largely introduces and applies these management principles in the organisation of men in the public
and private sectors of a political system.

Historical Approach: This approach sees Public Administration from the perspective of historical
developments or events in a nation’s public service. A typical type is the reforms in the Nigerian
civil service from 1922 till date. The Nigerian civil service is growing and getting refined due to
the several reforms she has undergone to make it what it is today.

Equity Approach: The equity approach to the study of Public Administration states that public
officials should become sensitive to the needs, desires and aspirations of the public. This approach
is the outcome of the widespread disorder experienced in the United States of America in the fifties
and especially the development and spread of ideologies of Socialism which emphasized equity of
human beings – have the concept of equity.

Realising that man’s actions towards his fellow man had been inhuman, the equity approach is
aimed at rectifying man’s injustice or inhumanity towards man by encouraging the American public
servants to discard self-interest and to be sensitive towards man’s social problems.

3.2.2 Basic Principles of Public Administration

Public Administration is defined as a body of knowledge systematized and synthesized from

various public utterances and actions. Therefore, it has certain principles which are essential tools
for providing goods and services to the people. Principles are sources for action or essential
regulations or fundamental truths capable of guiding human conduct or behavior and performance.
Public Administration has the capacity to organise and direct human and material resources to
achieve set goals. The principles of Public Administration include the following:

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 Hierarchy: This simply means the orderly arrangement and distribution of power, functions,
positions and authority in an organization. Here, the objectives of the organisation are sub- divided
into sub-objectives; tasks are broken down into smaller units, power and authority delegated
downwards.

Administrative hierarchy provides a determinate procedure that decides who is to decide. To avoid
contradictory authority-relationship, there is the need to establish a determinate hierarchy of
authority either by zoning authority along functional lines or by maintaining organisational
structure. Formal organisational structure is a plan for the division of work and allocation of
authority. The organization gives each member of the group his status and role in relation to the
other members, but specifies the content of his work and his functions in general terms. The whole
operation of the organization is organized into an unbroken order and clearly defined hierarchy.
Political Direction: Public Administration obtains leadership from politics. It is said that Public
Administration is the youngest branch of political science. Furthermore, public administration is
a political system in action. A political system is a set of interaction, abstracted from the totality
of social behavior through which authoritative values are allocated to the society. This principle
shows that administration obtains instruction from politics in providing the needed services to the
people. The top frames the broad policies or laws which the administration executes.

Unity of Command: This means that each member of the organization should receive order from
only one supervisor. This is to avoid conflict and confusion. A situation where two supervisors
issue two conflicting orders to a subordinate will create conflict and confusion within the
organization.

Public Responsibility: Political representatives are responsible to the people for their acts of
omissions and commissions. Public responsibility ensures the exercise of certain power and
authority in the execution of specified duties of functions for the benefit of the people. It also
stipulates the need for accountability to the people.

Unity of Direction: Organisation is effective when members work together towards achieving
same objectives. There must be subordination of individual interest of the organizational.
Members should not work at cross-purposes with the organisation. The objectives of the
organisation can be best achieved if members work towards the same goal, that is, the goal of the
organisation.

Public Relations: Public relations is a means through which people are informed about the
policies and intention of the government. It relates to the people that government is aware of their
problems and steps taken to solve the problems. It also picks up the reactions of the people on

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 government policies and laws as well as the solution to problems. The general public must be
aware of the happening in the government.

Chain of Command: There must be a chain of command in an organisation. This is the power
and authority linkage order and power must flow from the top to the bottom in an unbroken order
that makes for proper communication of decision taken at each level of authority. There must be
a clearly defined level of authority and decision-making and each decision taken should be
communicated downward through these defined chains of command.

Social Necessity: The essence of public administration is the process of formulating and
implementing public policies. Public here refers to the people or the masses in the society. Public
policy goes to express the will of the people through providing them the civic amenities as well as
developing them socially, economically and politically.

Span of Control: This has to do with the number of the people that a supervisor should
conveniently control. There is the need for a smaller number of people to be supervised and
controlled so as to allow for an effective control/supervision. A supervisor should also be able to
coordinate the activities of the subordinates. This coordination involves orderly arrangement of
group effort to provide for unity of action in the pursuit of common purpose. To do this effectively,
the number supervised should not be too large as to be uncontrollable.

Division of Labour: This is the division of work or specialisation which gives room for higher
productivity. This is because each worker can work at his or her area of competence.

Authority and Responsibility: This is the right to give orders to subordinates and be
responsible and accountable for such orders. They should also be responsible for the consequences
of such orders.

Discipline: This is the respect for or obedience of rules and objectives of the organisation. It is
also obedience to constituted authority as represented by management of the organisation.

Efficiency: The power to accomplish expected result is efficiency. Public administration,

therefore, must have efficient personnel to execute public programmes, satisfy the needs of the
society and promote its expansion and growth. Career development of public and civil servants is
achievable through pre-entry and in-service training programmes for the officials both senior and
junior cadre. It is essentially meant to promote efficiency.

Organisation: These are observable levels of government at the local, state and federal
government. In addition to this organization, public administration is also organised into

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 legislature, the executive and the judiciary. There are also visible formal and informal structures
within the system. This organisation is the basic principle of public administration capable of
bringing human and material resources together for effective use and service to the people.

Equity: This means kindness and justice based on pre-determined conditions which must be
known to all workers. The management should not be partial and should treat all workers fairly
and as equals.

Esprit-de-Corps: This is unity. Union is strength; workers must cooperate and regard
themselves as one in an attempt to achieve the organizational goals and objectives.

6.0 ESSAY QUESTIONS (Yellow Pad)

1. Make a distinction between private and public administration.

2. You are a newly appointed municipal administrator in a rural town. As you develop your first
strategic plan, your mentor advises you to consider the historical evolution of public
administration. Explain how understanding the historical development of public administration
can guide your approach to planning and delivering public services in your municipality. Provide
specific examples.

3. Your barangay captain wants to partner with a private company to build a small health center in
your community. As a student of public administration, you are asked to give your opinion. Based
on your understanding of the principles of public and private administration, explain the pros and
cons of such a partnership. What should the barangay consider before accepting the offer?

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 7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Willoughby, W. F. (2014). Principles of Public Administration.

White, L. D. (2013). Introduction to the Study of Public Administration.

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