ADMINISTRATION &

MANAGEMENT:
A TERMINOLOGICAL CONFLICT

By: Oweru, P.J.

 What is Administration???
• According to Theo Haimann, “Administration
means overall determination of policies,
setting of major objectives, the identification
of general purposes and laying down of broad
programmes and projects”.

• According to Newman, “Administration means

guidance, leadership & control of the efforts
of the groups towards some common goals”.
 What is management?

• Mgt is an activity of getting things done with

the aid of the people & other resources in
formally organized groups.
 Introduction
• There had been a controversy regarding the
interpretation of these terms among various
authors of mgt.
• At the initial development of mgt thought, no
distinctions were made btn Mgt &
Administration
• The two terms were used interchangeably
 Introduction cont…
• In 1923, the terminological conflict btn the
terms was raised by Oliver Sheldon in his book
“The Philosophy of Management” when he
asserted that administration is a decision
making function while mgt is an execution
function.
 Introduction cont…
• After that observation, other mgt contributors
furthered the terminological conflict.
• Various views that emerged led to three
approaches/perspectives with that regard
(Prasad, 2008).

A. Administration is above management

B. Administration is a part of management
C. Management and administration is same
 Administration is above management

• Several classical mgt thinkers believe that,

administration is above management as far as
their functions are concerned.

• Some of those thinkers include, Oliver

Sheldon, William Spriegal, Milward, R.H.
Lansberg, Ordway Tead etc.
 The difference btn Administration &
Management
• The difference between Mgt and Admn can be
summarized under 2 categories: -

1. Functions

2. Usage / Applicability
• On the basis of functions, the following
differences stands;
S/N BASIS OF DIFFERENCE ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT

1 Major focus Policy formulation and Policy executive for

objective determination objective achievement
2 Nature of functions determinative Executive

3 Scope of functions Broad and conceptual: Wider, Narrow and operational: Not
more generic & all inclusive of generic-it deals with the
mgt-it deals with the execution of the policies within
determination of the purpose of the limits set by administrators
an enterprise, corporate policies
& general plans & procedures 2
achieve them

4 Process Administration decides what is Management decides who

to be done & when it is to be
done
5 Level in an Top level
organization
6 Skills required Conceptual, Analytical &
Human skills
7 Factors affecting Mostly external
should do what & how he
should dot it.
Middle & Lower level
Technical skills, human skills
and admin skills
Mostly internal
On the Basis of Usage: -
 Administration is part of
Management
• In this view point, it is the vise versa of the
previous assertion that administration is above
management.
 cont…
• It treats management to be comprehensive,
inclusive of administration. Eg. Brech, provided
that, “Mgt is a generic name for the total process
of executive control in industry....It is a social
process …for the effective and economical
planning and regulation of the operation of an
enterprise..”.
• While administration is dealing with execution of
the processes/activities which are then checked
against plans.
Administration and Management are
same…
 Observation by different writers of mgt
• Practically, there is no difference btn mgt & admn.
1. At one point a manager can be concerned with both -
administrative mgt function and operative mgt function as
shown in the figure below.
• However, managers who are higher up in the hierarchy
denote more time on administrative function &
• The lower level denote more time on directing &
controlling worker’s performance i.e. mgt.
 Similarities…
2. Effective and efficient use of org resources
• In a real sense, Adm & MGT both represent
systematic mobilization & utilization of
physical resources & direction of human effort
to accomplish predetermined objectives
 Similarities…
3. They both involve same functions, principles
and objectives.
The degree of ADM & MGT performed
by the different levels of mgt
****The end of topic****