BAYERO UNIVERSITY KANO

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

COURSE CODE: PAD3315

COURSE TITLE: ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY
COURSE FACILITATOR:
PROFESSOR SHEHU DALHATU GALADANCI

QUESTIONS:
1. Give an account of the contributions of Max
Weber to the Development of public
administration theory.
2. Analyse the key features of New Public
Management

GROUP SEVEN (7)

GROUP SEVEN (7) MEMBERS
1
Adamu Idris Salisu Sms/16/pad/00345
Balarabe Yahya Isma'il Sma/16/pad/00310
Abdullahi Hamza Sani Sms/17/pad/00636
Raihanat Arabi Sms/16/pad/00281
Aisha Shehu Abdussalam SMS/16/pad/00354
Hawa Usman Sms/16/pad/00376
Anniekpeno Ibanga Okon SMS/16/pad/00296
Halima Suleiman Shehu Sms/16/pad/00356
Fadila Ibrahim Galadima Sms/16/pad/00290
Fatima Mustapha Zahra Sms/16/pad/00334

Q1. Contribution of Max Weber to the Development of Public Administration Theory

2
Max Weber is said to be the 'father of bureaucratic management theory.' Weber was a German
sociologist and political economist that viewed bureaucracy in a positive light, believing it to be more
rational and efficient than its historical predecessors.

Max Weber was born in 1864 and died in 1920. Born in the family of a textile manufacturer in Germany,
Weber studied Law at the University of Heidelberg. His doctoral thesis focused on: "A contribution to the
History of Medieval Business Organization".

According to Nicholas (2006:6), the earliest of the closed model is that of bureaucratic theory. It's best
known representative is Max Weber, a remarkable German Sociologist, who also gave us the sociology of
religion.

Max Weber's Concept of Authority and Authority Systems

Max Weber maintained that every organization big or small must be endowed by authority. According to
him, no organization can exist without the influence of authority. Weber analyzed the role of the leader
in an organization and examined how and why individuals respond to various forms of authority. In other
words, Weber examined why individuals obey commands of a leader, and why people do as they are
told. To deal with this problem, Weber made a distinction between power and authority. He defined
power as" the ability to to force people to obey, regardless of their resistance, and authority exists where
orders are voluntarily obeyee by those receiving them. In this way, we see power as those circumstances
in which a person can impose his will on a given situation, whereas, the exercise of authority would
require that a person is successfully issued orders to a group of surbodinate who respond because of
their belief in the legitimacy of the order. The felt obligation of the surbodinates is central in authority
relationship. He outline three purr types of legimate authority, they are:

1. Charismatic Authority
2. Traditional Authority
3. Legal or Rational Authority
1. Charismatic Authority; This is the oldest form of authority, Weber maintained that initially people
used charismatic Authority to rule large society. Charismatic authority: relies on the extraordinary
personal qualities of an individual which effortlessly draw others to follow. In an organizations based
on charismatic authority, the personal qualities of the leader provide the basis for exercising
authority. Commands are base on the leaders insipiration. This authority rest on devotion to the
specific and exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual persons, and of the
normative pattern order revealed or ordained by him.
2. Traditional Authority; when a charismatic leader died or seriously unhealthy and incapable of leading
the society the need for new leader will necessitated the blood lineage of that charismatic leader to
assume control of the mantle of power, because of his closet to the late charismatic leader.
Traditional Authority: Rest upon people's belief in the age old customs and traditions. In this type of
authority, authority was vested in the person rather than office. The bases of order and authority in
traditional organization are precedent and usage. Max Weber maintained that blood relationship is a
dominating factor in traditional authority thus, the incumbent must belong to the royal family
(Lineage of Charismatic leaders). If he does, he will enjoy the legitimacy of traditional authority e.g.

3
 Emir, Oba and Obi (for Hausas, Yorubas, Igbos respectibly). Note it is not necessary that Traditional
leaders must belong to charismatic leader lineage all the time but must of the time that is the case,
so also not all the charismatic leaders been inherited by their sons and relative. Some time when a
charismatic leader pass away the search for a new leader is not in the late leaders blood ties but the
person with equal personal qualities.
3. Legal or Rational Authority; both the charismatic and traditional forms of authority are characterised
by tensions and succession dispute and crises which resulted to bloodshed and lost of life and
property and the must devastating is that a well organized society and organization that is built on
these forms of authority degenerated and collapse because of the struggle for power unavoidable
conflicts e.g The great Kanem Borno empire, Ogiso dynasty, and all other prehistoric societies
dissolve and loose their growing insight as a result of succession dispute. Max Weber in his search of
idle type of authority he introduced legal or reational authority (bureaucracy). This form of authority
is based upon laws, statuses, and regulations system as the dominant form of modern institution.
The system is called rational because the means are expressly designed to achieve certain specific
goals. It is legal because authority is excercised by means of a system of rules and procedures
through the office which an individual occupies at a particular time. Here authority is thus vested in
the office of the person rather than the individual. For legal-rational organization, Weber uses the
name bureaucracy, which is an impersonal system. It is the most suitable one for efficient
administration in whatever kind of institutions it operates.

The Concept of Bureaucracy

The word bureaucracy is composed of two ancient words "bureau" and "cratos" the first "bureau" stand
for as office or core of officials, and the second word "cratos" stand for as system of rule.

The word bureaucracy was first used and coined by French scholar in person of Vincent De Gournay
"burumaniya" (office illness). The term bureaucracy was later been popularise by German sociologist
Max Weber and he is regarded for his tremendous work as the father of modern Bureaucracy.

Max Weber became the father of bureaucratic approach to organization. The terms "bureaucracy" and
"bureaucrat" describe organizations which are nearly universal and the individuals who staff those
organizations. As a characteristic feature of all large scale undertakings, bureaucracy is usually regarded
as a modern phenomenon. However, a peep of history clearly shows that bureaucracy is a very ancient
institution. In ancient times, it existed in Egypt, Rome, China, and India. In these countries the rulers felt
the need for well developed bureaucracies to run the administration of their vast empires.

Max Weber sees the complex organization as structure of positive activities directed towards the
achievement of certain objectives as well as adequate means to achieve them. He stated that to
maximize it's efficiency every Administrative system develop a system of highly specialized jobs and a set
of systematic rules and procedures.

According to him, efficiency can be secured by re arranging jobs and altering rules and procedures. He
laid emphasis on position in organizations rather than human beings. Bureaucracy/bureaucratic
organizations postulate system based on legitimacy of control by superior and the obligation of

4
obedience by surbodinates. It is formalistic in nature and enforced by a system of sanctions
(punishment) and rewards.

Bureaucracy is the set of regulations drawn by governments to control activity, usually in large
organizations and governments. It is represented by a standardized procedure that dictates the
execution of all processes within an institution, division of power, hierarchy and relationships. In every-
day practice the interpretation and execution of policy leads to informal influence. Bureaucracy is a
concept in sociology and political science referring to the way in which the administrative execution of
legal rules is socially organized.

Characteristics of Bureaucracy

Weber says that bureaucracy is an administrative body of officials whose roles are determined by the
writing rules. He saw bureaucracy as an impersonal system operating on the basis of calculable rules and
staffed with full time appointed officials. Weber stated the following principals characteristics of
bureaucracy:

1. The officials are personally free and subject to authority only with respect to their impersonal
official obligations.
2. They are organized in a clearly defined hierachy of office.
3. Candidates are selected on the basis of technical qualifications: in the most rational case, this is
tested by examination or guaranteed by diplomas certifying technical training or both.
4. Each office has a clearly defined sphere of competence in the legal sense.
5. They are remunerated by fixed salaries in money, for the most part with a right to pensions. The
salary scale is primarily graded according to rank in the hierachy.
6. Th office is treated as the sole or at least the primary, occupation of the incumbents.
7. It constitutes a career. There is a system of "promotion" according to seniority or to achievement
or both, promotion is dependent on the judgement of superiors.
8. The official works entirely separated from ownership of the means of administration and without
appropriation of his position.

ELEMENTS OF BUREAUCRACY

1. Division of labor
2. Hierachy of authority
3. Rules and proceedures
4. Records
5. Impersonality
6. Career and Merit.
1. Division of labor: Bureaucracies are based on a systematic division of labor. In a bureaucratic
organization the total organizations task is broken down into a number of well defined specialized
functions. These functions are divided between between officials positioned at different
organizational levels. This implies at each position in the hierachy has its own clearly specified
spheres of duties and authority. Organizational expectations are reflected in job specificity.
2. Hierachy of Authority: Bureaucracy emphasizes the principles of hierachical arrangement of offices.
Hierachy manifests itself in a number of levels of differently graded functionaries in which lower

5
 office is under the control and supervision of a higher one. It creates a system of superior-
surbodinate relationship under which each official is accountable to his superior for his and
surbodinate's action. This hierarchic order is study based on organizational rank.
3. Rules and Procedures: Bureaucracy operates according to a fixed set of detailed written rules. These
rules specify the authority, rights and duties of the employees and the modes of doing the work. The
object of these roles is to specify proper office proceedures and to assure regularity in dealing with
otsiders. Behavior is subject to systematic discipline and control.
4. Records: in Bureaucratic organization, administration is based upon written records. These records
containing administrative acts, decisions and roles, provide a ready reference for the future
administrative action. The written documents (records) are stored in files, access to which is limited
and frequently a source of power. The body of officials and those records and files made up bureau
or office.
5. Impersonality: in a bureaucratic organization, the official business is conducted without regard, for
persons. The officials are not influenced by prejudice, bias and sentiments emotional consideration
in delaying with cases. The act according to rules in their contact with others include inside and
outside the organization. They do not discriminate between individuals on grounds of purely
personal elements. Impersonality was considered by Weber to be bureaucracy's special 'virture'
because it eliminates irrational elements from performance of the individual bureaucrats and the
organization as a whole.
6. Career and Merit: Employment in a bureaucracy must be base on qualification. The work is career
with tenure and pension rights. In addition, promotion is base on seniority and achievement,
decided on performance (merit). Dismissal is only for objective cause. It assumed that employment
will involve a lifelong career and loyalty from workers. In other words, job security, incremental
salaries and retirement benefits were guaranteed so long as the employee was qualified and
perfomed at acceptable levels in government this evolved into civil service system.

Advantages of Bureaucracy

Bureaucratic form of organizations is superior to any other form in precision, stability, discipline,
efficiency, control, rationality in reliability, equity and impersonality.

Limitations of Bureaucracy

Red tapism, inflexibility, dominating authority too rigid e.t.c.

The most common description people have today off Bureaucracy is that, it is a system of management
which is characterised by slow-down in decision making and red-tape. This limits the acceptance and
adoption of the concepts in contemporary management.

By administering the strick principles and rules of bureaucracy, leaders may become obsessed by it, at
the detriment of the achievement of specified goals of the firm.

Employees are commonly alienated in a bureaucratic structure. Rules, proceedures and regulations
become standards of behavior for workers in a bureaucratic setting rather than output, interpersonal
relationship, skills, e.t.c

6
Bureaucracy encourages needless domination of employees by superiors making the employee bear the
burden where it is heaviest in the organization.

Conclusion

Weber been regarded as the father of modern bureaucracy he defined the term in two aspects; firstly
bureaucracy is the social mechanism that maximizes efficiency in administration, secondly bureaucracy is
a form of social organization with specific characteristics.

The concept of bureaucracy emerged as a critique to the two forms of authority (charismatic and
traditional), as a result of their shortcoming and the need to enchance productivity in administration
bring about the introduction of legal rational authority which many complex organization adopted for
Administrative conveniences.

Bureaucracy may have out lived it's age of supremacy, but it is still hard to foresee a future without any
need for the order, proceedures. Level of authority, and controls that constitutes a Bureaucracy. The
problem is how to develop a system that combine necessary bureaucratic features with a people
centred, flexible and imaginative style.

Q2. key features of New public management.

Public Management was basically a late 1990s development in the public sector management that
gathered a momentum with the re-inventing movement and governance discourse in the 1990s. The
origin of New public management can be traced back to Administrative reform measures in the west, to
be more specific, in the organization for economic cooperation and development.

Nicholas Henry has identify five fundamentals of New public management as follows:

1. Alertness; Government should improvise the problems and act before it actually hit the system, not
the other way round.
2. Agility; Government should be agile in the sense that it should be entrepreneurial, open and
communicative.
3. Adaptability; Government should be continuously engage in improving quality of it Programmes and
services and thereby adjusting with demands.
4. Alignment; Government should collaborate with other government, non governmental and civil
societies organizations to achieve social goals.
5. Accountability; Government should have a clear and compelling mission that focuses on the need of
the people.

DEFINING NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT.

Let us start by offering a working definition of NPM. For purposes of this assignment, the NPM is defined
as a set of operating principles captured by Osborne and Gaebler in Miller and Dunn, 2006 Reinventing
Government (1991). Unfortunately, these operating principles were not necessarily generated and
abstracted from well-defined theory, but as practical solutions to the operational problems confronting

7
governments. In fact, they were generated as remedies for a broken system of government. Primarily
governmental institutions were seen as undemocratic, unresponsive, inefficient, and failing in most other
measures of what constitutes an effective organization. In addition, one of its remedies, the outsourcing
of public services as a means to efficiency, has generated continuing debates that involve passionate
proponents and critics alike. Indeed, this debate has clouded, as we will argue, the deeper theoretical
roots of the new public management. These roots are based on rich and primarily European notions of
the relationship of the individual to society.

Key features and principles of New Public Management.

Osborne and Gaebler (1991) Identified ten principles that represent an operational definition of NPM.

1. The first is that a government has a responsibility to "steer" the delivery of public services in the
addressing of public issues. As such, it reflects a notion that government does not necessarily have
to be doing something in order to be responsible for the delivery of that public service.
2. The second principle is that government ought to be "community-owned" and that the role of
government is to empower citizens and communities to exercise self-governance. This notion stands
in contrast to the notion that citizens are merely recipients of public services and do not have to be
actively engaged in the process of deciding what those services would look like. Indeed, the citizen
simply needs to know they were receiving the same service as that delivered to other citizens or
recipients such that no preferential treatment is being shown.
3. third principle involves the role of competition. Competition is seen as inherently good such that,
through competition, the best ideas and most efficient delivery of services can emerge. Competition
can drive the newly empowered citizens and recipients to create new and better ways of providing
public goods to themselves and their fellow citizens. Sometimes competition means that various
public and private firms were competing to procure the rights to deliver a public service. It also
means that departments within a government have to compete for limited public resources, that
communities have to compete with each other to offer fresh and original ideas, and employees have
to compete with each other in the delivery of the services for which they are responsible.
4. A fourth principle is based on the notion that governments should be driven by their missions. Far
too often, the results of governmental operations were the enforcement of rules that may or may
not have been relevant to the particular cases. It should be the purposes for which agencies are
created that drive the activities of that agency, not the rules that have been constructed around that
agency.
5. A Fifth principle companion principle is that public agencies should be judged on the results that
they generate. Organizational processes like the budget cycle should be directed assessing the cost
and benefits of the outputs of the units and not on the allocation inputs (staff, space, resources)
between those units.
6. The sixth principle relates to viewing citizens and consumers of public goods as customers. The
notion of customer is predicated on the value of choice. Customers ought to have a right to choose
between competing and differentiated approaches that could be taken to deliver any particular
public good.

8
7. seventh principle is based on the notion that agencies (bureaucracies) “earn” their allocation of
resources by demonstrating the value in terms of the public good that will be generated by the
“investment” that elected officials would make in a particular agency. This perspective has the units
in an agency competing with each other by “selling” to the elected officials a greater public good
than that offered by the other agencies.
8. The eighth principle relates to the desirability of orienting public agencies toward preventing rather
than curing public problems. Although this particular principle has been seen as a critique of
bureaucracy is general, it is not our intention to argue that anticipatory organizations are inherently
related to NPM. We have included it here for completeness.
9. ninth principle is about maximizing the participation of the broadest possible number of people and
institutions in the decision-making process. In this sense, it is antihierarchy and anti-bureaucratic. It
is also anti-uniformity in that the way a particular public service is delivered is a function of the local
community of participants who decide how that service will be delivered.
10. tenth principle relates to leveraging market forces and utilizing market based strategies in the
delivery of public goods. It presumes that there is no one way to deliver a public good and a wide
variety of delivery mechanisms are possible.
These ten principles were translated into an implementation plan (Osborne and Plastrik, 2000)
that has five key elements that are of particular importance to this paper.

These elements constitute the “action plan” for a successful organization. The elements are:

 Core. Create clarity of aim (core) that allows the organization to focus on the key items that will
achieve its ends.
 Consequences. Connect consequences to the actions of organizations, individuals, and
collectives so that those actions have meaning and impact on the public.
 Customer. Focus on the customer in order to recognize that the purpose of public service is the
delivery of a public good to human beings.
 Control. Shift control form the top or center in order to empower individuals, organizations and
communities to address public problems.
 Culture. Change the organizational culture of public agencies by “changing the habits, touching
the hearts, and winning the minds” of public employees.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the New Public Management which emerged in the 1990s represented an attempt to make
the public sector more businesslike and to improve the government borrowed ideas and management
models from the private sector. It emphasizedbthe centrality of citizens who were the recipient of the
services or customers to the public sector.

New Public Management system also proposed a more decentralized control of resources and exploring
other service delivery models to achieve better results, including a quasi market structure where public
and private service providers competed with each other in an attempt to provide better and faster
services.

REFERENCES

9
 Weber, M. (1966). Os fundamentos da organização burocrática: Uma construção do tipo ideal
[The basics of bureaucratic organization: A construction of the ideal type]. AAVV. Sociologia da
Burocracia. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores.
 , M. (1982). Ensaios de sociologia [Sociology essays]. Organisation and introduction by H. Gerth
and C. Wright Mills. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Guanabara.
 *** Kimble, C.: Scientific Management and Bureaucratic Organization [Online] Available at:
http://www.chriskimble.com/Courses/mis/Bureaucratic_Organisations.html#Weber. Accesed:
04.05.2009
 Weirich H., And Koontz H., Management: A Global perspective, 11th Ed. Tata McGraw Hill New
Delhi, 2005.
 *** Von Mises, L.: Buraucarcy. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1946. [Online] Available at:
http://www.mises.org/Books/bureaucracy.pdf. Accesed: 04.05.2009.
 The elements of public administration.
 Olarewaju Barnabas... Fundamentals of management and administration.
 Osborne, D. and T. Gaebler. 1993. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is
Transforming the Public Sector. New York: Penguin Books.
 Forbath, W.E. 1998. “Habermas’s Constitution: A History, Guide, and Critique.” Law and Social
Inquiry, 23, 4: pp. 969-1016.
 __________ and P. Plastrik. 2000. The Reinventor’s Fieldbook: Tools for Transforming Your
Government. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
 __________ and P. Plastrik. 1999. Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing
Government. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass., C. 1973. Participation and Democratic Theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10