Administrative theory free essay sample

Although administration has existed since the organise state came into existence,it brgan to attract the scholars only in the late part of the 19TH century and since then it has developped in different directions In ancient India,Kautilya’s Arthashastra discussed principles amd machinery of Public Administration,the Arthashastra is considered as the first textbook on public administration. Woodrow Wilson,the Father of the discipline of Public Administrationgave us the concept of the Politics-Administration Dichotomy in his attempt to reform the American political system leading to the birth of the discipline of Public Administration. he believed in the operational and business side of administration and wanted it to be free from politics. The classical theories of administration developped in the U. S. A from the 1880’s to the late 1930’s. The classical theorists were Henry Fayol, Luther Gullick, Mooney, Riley etc.. all these writers believed in the existence of certain universal administrative principle which could make organisation function more efficiently and effctively. We will write a custom essay sample on Administrative theory or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The classical theory has four features- impersonality, division of labour, hierarchy and efficiency. F. W Taylor,a pioneer in management science conducted studies in the early part of the 20th century on human operating in industrial settings. The impact of his studies were so great that management was given the status of a science . The main aim of scientific management is to secure higher productivity, Taylor is known as the Father of scientific mamangement theory. The Bureaucratic theory of organistion was evelopped in a systematic manner by German socioligists Max Weber who studied it from the view point of authority and gave us the characteristics of the ideal type of bureaucracy. It may look unconventional to include karl marx amon administrative thinkers because he did not particularly deal with bureaucracy but he examined the role of bureaucracy in his various works on the State and society. The Hawthone experiments(1927-1932) carried of under the leadership of George Elton mayo led to the emergence of the human relations movement. The Expirements discovered the importance of informal organization and gave us a deeper insight to the phenomena of group behaviours,the behavioural movement emerges as a protest against the unscientific classical and traditiona approaches. One of the most important thinkers of the behavioural approach is Herbert Simon who gave us the decision making theory. Under the behavioural approach we have motivational theories such as Abraham Maslow need hierarchy, mc gregor’s theory X and theory Y and herzberz’s motivation-hygiene theory. The post Second world war period also witnessed the emergence of the concept of the development administration (F. W Riggs) and New Public Administration(Waldow) whose major thrust is on enhancing the role and the capacity of the public administration system to meet the challenges of, and to direct social change both development administration and new public administration are goal oriented as well as change oriented. The NPM perspectives is the latent paradigm in the evolution of administrative theory. The NPM represent a synthesis between Private and Public administration. NPM is the new thrust of reforms sweeping through the wall. The central spirit of NPM is about getting getting things done better by re-inventing and re-making the government. IMPLICATIONS OF ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY Since its formal birth in 1887, the study of Public administration has developed in different directions. There are many theories in public administration but there are no general theories in public administration. Public administration lacks most of the rigidity and precission necessary for the scientific concept of a theory. Moreover,no single theory or school of thought is wholly right in the sense that it is complete and universal. A review and assessment of Public Administration theories shows that there is much diversity in its evolution and development. Public Administration draws its greatest strength and its most serious limitation from the diversity. On the one hand ,there is tremendous richness and complexity built into public administration theories. On the other hand, the diversity of the theories often means that the field lacks a sense of identity. As a result, there is the challenge to create a synthesis of different elements represented by the different theories of Public Administration. To sum up, the classical theory gave attention to the formal structure of organization and their management. The behavioral approach paid attention to the human behaviour in organizations and associatives processes like decision making. The human relations and new-human relations approaches study people in organizations. Advocates of comparative public administration and development administration highlight the ecological aspects of administration. The NPA emphasizes questions of values and ethics in administration. NPM wants a synthesis between Public and Private Administration. Since there are no universal s in public administration the future Public Administration will need all of these approaches to manage the modern public agency.