CHANCELLOR COLLEGE

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

FROM : STEVEN MATCHAYA

REG. NUMBER : BA/DEV/ECO/25/20

TO : PROFESSOR HUSSEIN

COURSE : PAS 111, INTRODUCTION TO

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

ASSIGNMENT TITLE : BRIEFLY EXPLAIN THE NATURE

AND MEANING OF THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS: TRADITIONAL
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, PUBLIC ORGANISATION, PUBLIC
SERVICE, PUBLIC SECTORAND NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT.

ASSIGNMENT NUMBER :2

DUE DATE : 6 SEPTEMBER 2021

 The nature and meaning of concepts of public administration

In brief I will explain the nature and meaning of the following concepts: traditional public
administration, public organisations, public service, public sector, and finally new public
management.

Firstly, traditional public administration is also called the traditional model. It can be
characterised as an administration under the formal control of political leadership, based on a
strictly hierarchical model of bureaucracy, staffed by permanent, neutral, and anonymous
officials, motivated only by the public interest, serving any governing party equally, and not
contributing to policy but merely administering those policies decided by the politicians
(Hughes, (1998), p. 22). Traditional administration has been visualized as one that is
concerned with fulfilling all legal requirements of government operations and maintenance of
stability (Dhameja & Mishra 2016, p. 117). Its theoretical foundations were derived from
scholars like Woodrow Wilson, Northcote – Trevelyan and Max Weber. It started in the late
nineteenth century and by 1980, governments had moved away from many of its precepts.
Although the traditional model of public administration remains the longest standing and
most successful theory of management in the public sector, they are now being replaced.
There are several reasons for it to be replaced. Some of the reasons are its characteristics for
it tended to be rigid and bureaucratic, was based on the process instead of focussing on
results and lastly, it was cogent and detailed (Hughes, (1998, 2003), p. 22, p 17).

Secondly public organisation these are organisations that are publicly controlled or funded,
asthey provide vital services for the country. They are also responsible to produce goods and
services, which we hold very dearly. These are political entities because they are made up of
coalitions of various interest groups and various parties vying for power. As Etzioni said an
organisation is a social unit or human grouping constructed and reconstructed to seek specific
goals. Meaning that first they are formulated with a purpose to achieve, second, they are
composed of people, for the people are crucial in the running of those organisations
(Dzimbiri, (2015), p. 1). Another thing is that organisations are not natural and fixed entities
that are subjected to unchanged laws. They are constructed from nothing, and they can be
modified, changed, or transformed completely. Some of the organisations are dynamic
entities that can be modified to fit the needs of the people who are to benefit from the services
of the organisation (Dzimbiri, (2015), p. 2). Public organisations are capable of and
competent in achieving pre-planned goals and can combine successfully the human, material,

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and financial resources in a more rational manner because they have important features which
kwandala (1977) identified as follows the specificity of purpose, the hierarchy of authority;
division of labour and specialisation, formal communication, employment of skilled
personnel, rules regulations, procedures, and control (Dzimbiri, (2015), p. 5). According to
Hughes (1998), he said that public organisations have fewer constraints compared to private
organisations. And that the workers are treated too well and had to do so little compared to
the private sector (p. 36).

Thirdly public sector, these are usually compressed of organizations that are owned and
operated by the government and exist to provide services for its citizen (Daland 1981;
Leonard 1991; Geddes 1990a; Therkildsen). Before the emergence of new public
management public sector was regarded as a kind of ‘machinery’ that needed technical fixes
if it did not function properly (shafritz & Russel (2017), p. 8). Except for this numerical
importance of providing services and jobs, its assessment by the European Union was found
to be negative (roll, (2014), p. 185). This was so because public sector management has been
inconsistent due to its deep politicization as result it captured a narrow interest group (Lewis
2007; APS Review Downstream trend, 13 august 2007). This personalised relationship with
politics is prone to political interferences and sudden changes. For the wages are always
linked politically to salaries offered to elected officials in the executive or legislative branch.
At first, it was monopolised in providing services but the emergence of new public
management lead to reforms of the public sector (van der Meer, readschelders & toonen,
(2007), p.34). Some of the reforms were the change of the employment system to a largely
aligned one so that it will provide a secure carrier which was different from the past public
sector in which were underpaid. For job security to be successful administrative scientists
brought up the idea of modernizing personnel management which led to a wide array of
human resource management initiatives, this led to the introduction of new payment schemes,
mobility schemes, management development plans and training programmes in the public
sector (Roll, (2014), p. 24). This has led the employees of the public sector to enjoy greater
job security than their counterparts in the private sector. The new public management also
proposed that the public sector is expected to follow the principle of efficiency, economy, and
profitability as practised in the private sector, just like the way we see the government taking
much interest in the public-private partnership (PPP) in implementing its policies and projects
(Shafritz & Russel (2017), p. 41)

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Fourthly public service, these are services in the public, they are distributive, and they act as
a reason of policy; they consequently operate differently from the production for profit, in
their priorities, costs, capacity and outputs (spicker, (2011), p. 11). Public service is different
from the public sector, for the public sector may be owned or at least controlled by the
government; the public service may not, a good example may be the presence of
independently provided libraries which may be different from the government library but
they both provide the same service (Southern Education Library Board, 2006). But in some
countries, public services are found in the public sector such as in the European Union
(European Commission, 2005, p.25) Public service covers a lot of things such as activities
done for the benefit of the public example community and family service, medical care,
housing, and education. Public services play a lot of roles some of them is the provision of
services to the society or country (Jordan, 2006). But some public service organizations don’t
provide service directly to the public. Instead, they provide public sponsors of some activities
that provide some benefits to the public such as providing service to wildlife to protect
species of the wildlife (Davies, 2003). Finally, in general, public service has always been
associated with some principles some of them are; fair distribution of services, redistribution
of wealth from the rich to the poor, adherence to social justice, equity, the ideals also
propagated by the elected representatives. Although this is so in developing countries there is
the introduction of fees to use the services provided, this has led to the addition of a principle
of ability to pay to use the service (van der Meer, Readschelders & Toonen, (2007), p.175).
but with the introduction of new public management in the delivery of improved service,
instead of institutionalizing certain government values, practices, and strategies. Hence some
reforms appeared to be technical and scientific without having much of the needed impact.
The new public management reforms must lead to the replacement of the public service
norms such as neutrality, impartiality, accountability, responsiveness, representativeness,
equality, justice integrity and commitment are being replaced by pro-market values like
competitiveness, efficiency, productivity, and profitability (Haque (1998).

Fifthly new public management, the approach to new governance. its emergence reflected
changes that took place in the public sector of the western nations. These changes were like
the advanced changes which underwent in public sector management. These changes were
like provision of high-quality service that citizens value, increasing the autonomy of public
managers, rewarding organizations and individuals based on whether they meet demand
targets, making use of human and technology resources, appreciative of the virtues and

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competition, maintaining an open-minded attitude about which public purpose should be
performed by the private or public sector (Chakrabarty & Chand, (2012), p. 23). The popular
mood of the paradigm was against the state for its dismal performance in almost every sphere
of the political, social, and economic system. New public management has a lot of features
some of them are: empowering citizens, it calls for more autonomy for public sector
managers through its greater flexibility in personal policy like a contractual appointment
(Chakrabarty & Chand, (2012), p. 24). It is a new set of experiments in public sector
management informed with the market principle of efficiency and economy to make the
ailing public sector effective (Chakrabarty & Chand, (2012), p. 111). The new public
management call for a shift in public sector management taking into consideration the three
Es; Efficiency, Economy and Effectiveness (Chakrabarty & Chand, (2012), p. 112). Under
new public management, there are a lot of scholars, one of them known as Christopher hood
consider new public management as a marriage between the new institutional economics and
business type managerialism (Hood 1991). He continued to say that new public management
is proposed to make a hostile inroad in the domain of sheltered bureaucracy and substituted it
by a more flexible, market-based public administration. Under new public management, a set
of new nomenclatures like managers service providers and customers are manufactures to
distinguish themselves from its predecessor. It portrays the image of public administration by
having minimum government, de bureaucratization, decentralization, market orientation of
public service, contract out, privatization, performance measure. According to Christopher
hood these were the essential points he nailed down.

In conclusion, in brief, I have explained the nature and meaning of the following concepts;
traditional public administration, public organisations, public sector and new public
management.

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