Comparative Study of Public and Private Administration

The most common differentiation attributed to the difference between public and private

administration is the difference in their core principles and more specifically their goals. It is

their attitude toward money that best gives the disparity between the two. Public sectors are

perceived as mostly geared toward the generation of profit. This is the basic objective of a

private organization to ensure its longevity. This is also the basic means to support its

employees. More often than not this is the definitive factor that determines the compensation of

its employees. Arguably, both deal with bureaucracy but in a Philippine perspective this is more

so ascribed to public administration in occurrences such as red tape.

In contrast, public administration is not supposed to be profit driven and may have more

ambiguous purposes. Its more specific purpose is to enact policies and ensure the welfare of the

people that they serve. But this does not entirely mean that they are not concerned with financial

matters. Funding and financial support is also an issue for public sectors. This may even be more

of a problem as public institutions may not have enough appropriation as this could be dependent

upon influence and instigation by public officials. This could also lead to the assumption that this

is entirely reliant upon the current administration seating in place. The next dissimilarity is on

decision making. The democratic characteristic of our current sovereignty suggests that decisions

in public administration must be pluralistic with more people benefiting from them. Participation

is encouraged and informed decisions involving all levels of the hierarchy should be appreciated.

In private organizations, it is much more simple as it is monopolistic that must avoid conflicts of

interest making the goals easily perceptible (Beldia, 2009).

 The ethical implications on both aspects are also relatively different. In a deductive

scheme, ethics is broadly defined as the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. But this

takes on a more complex interpretation in relation to a given a set of ethical dilemmas than an

individual may be faced with regularyly. “This deliberative aspect of ethics is important because

the issues you will face in public organizations are rarely black or white. Should you lie to a

legislator so as to carry out a policy you think is correct? Should you bend the rules to benefit a

client in need? Should follow orders from an organizational superior even if you know you are

being asked to do something wrong? These questions and the thousands of others you may

encounter in public organizations don’t have easy answers. To act properly, you must be able to

sort through the many and often competing values that underline your work, and you must be

able to come to a reasoned conclusion that will form the basis for action” (Denhardt & Denhardt,

2009).

Public Administration as a Field of Study