PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

DEFINITION

What is public administration?

Public Administration - the implementation of government policies.

ADMINISTRATION – The term ‘Administration’ has been derived from the Latin word ‘ad’ and
‘ministrare’ which means “to serve.”

Administration exists whenever people cooperate to achieve the goals of their groups and such
achievements require planning, organization, command, cooperation, and control. It involves the
mobilization, deployment and direction of human and material resources to attain specified objectives.

Administration, as an activity, is as old as the society itself. Administration is a part of our daily life. The
food we eat, the clothes we wear, the products we buy, the streets and highways on which we travel, the
automobiles in which we use for transportation and the numerous services we enjoy like education, medical
care, housing, and many others are made possible through administration. Thus, administration plays a
vital role in our daily activities.

▪ In a simple phrase it means that, to care for or to look after human beings, to manage affairs.
Administration can be defined as organization activity which involves cooperation and coordination
for the purpose of attaining preferred goals or objectives.

Public Administration may be considered both a field of action and a field of study.

▪ As a field of action, Public Administration refers to the mechanics and structures through which
government policies are implemented.

▪ As a field of study or discipline, Public Administration refers to the academic discipline which studies
the mechanics and structures through which government implement its programs.

Public Administration, according to Woodrow Wilson, is a detailed and systematic application of law.
Every particular application of law is an act of administration.

Public administration is the implementation of government policies, determining the policies and
programs of governments, specifically, the planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and
controlling of government operations.

Luther Gullrich “Public Administration is that part of science of administration which has to do
with the government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work
of government is done.”

Public administration is government in action. Pubic administration is the specified and systematic
application of law. Every particular statement of law is an act of administration and this administration
work on the basis of rule of law. Therefore, public administration refers to that as a part of management,
which relates to the administrative activities of the government.

CHARACTERISTICS:

▪ The issue of cooperation and unity of purpose for the welfare of all; Public Administration is a
collective caring process for the welfare and well-being of all. It, therefore, involves the
harmonization of personal and group goals. It harmonizes personal and group goals.

ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINSTRATION

In today’s modern state and in developing countries functions and role of Public Administration is very
important. The role and importance of Public Administration are as follows.

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 1. It is the basis of government. – The modern state cannot confine its field of activities to merely
maintenance of law and order, dispensation of Justice, collection of revenue and taxes and
participation in welfare activities. The modern welfare state is expected to provide more and more
services and amenities to the people. Public Administration is the machinery used by the state to
place itself in a position to make plans and programmes that can be carried out.

2. It is the instrument of change in the society. – Public Administration is regarded as an instrument

of change and is expected to accelerate the process of development. In our country, the government
has undertaken the task of levelling down the economic inequalities, spreading education among all
abolishing untouchability securing equality of status, rights of women and effective and all round
economic and industrial development. The burden of carrying out these social changes in a planned
and orderly way rests upon the Public Administration of the country. The success of Indian
democracy will depend not only on the wisdom of the legislature but more on the capability and
sense of purpose on the part of the Administration.

3. It plays vital role in the life of the people. – Today every aspect of human life come within the range
of Public Administration. Various departments of government such as education, social welfare,
food, agriculture, health, sanitation, transport, communication etc. are run by the department of
Public Administration. Thus, Public Administration is rendering various types of services to the
people from birth to death of an individual.

4. It is an instrument for executing laws, policies, programs of the state.

5. It is a stabilizing force in the society as it provides continuity. – Public Administration is carried on
by the civil servants who are the permanent executives. Political executives i.e., ministers may come
and go, systems of government or constitutions may undergo change but administration goes on for
ever. Hence, Public Administration is a great stabilizing force in society. It is a preserver of the
society and its culture.

6. It is instrument of national integration in the developing countries which are facing class wars.

Nature and Scope of Public Administration

▪ The nature of Public Administration may be narrow and management whereby it is defined only as
the Action Side of government or mainly the activities of the executive arm of government. Also, it
deals with the functions of the Manager or the Chief Executive Officer only.

▪ There is also the broader view of Public Administration where it embraces the tree organs of
government being the executive, legislative and the judiciary. It reflects the collective caring
activities of the three organs of government. Furthermore, it involves the role of the least personnel
to the highest in a work situation.

THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Scope: Following are the three important perspectives about the scope of Public Administration.

1. Narrow perspective or POSDCORD perspective.

2. Broad perspective or subject-matter view.
3. Prevailing view.

1. NARROW PERSPECTIVE OR POSDCORD PERSPECTIVE – Luther Gullick is the main

exponent of this perspective. According to him the scope of public administration is narrow or
limited. It is also regarded as POSDCORD view. It insists that the Public Administration is
concerned only with those aspects of administration which are related with the executive branch
and its seven types of administrative functions.

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 These seven types of functions which shows the scope of Public Administration are as follows –
1. ‘P’ stands for planning
→ Planning is the first step of Public Administration. i.e., working out the broad outline of
the things that need to be done.

2. ‘O’ stands for organization.

→ It means establishment of the formal structure of authority through which the work is
sub-divided, arranged and coordinated for the defined objective.
3. ‘S’ stands for staffing.
→ It means the recruitment and training of the staff and maintenance of favourable
conditions of work for the staff.
4. ‘D’ stands for Directing.
→ It means the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and
general orders and instructions, and thus guiding the enterprise.
5. ‘Co.’ stands for Co-ordination.
→ It means interrelating the various parts of organization such as branches, divisions,
sections of the work and elimination of overlapping.
6. ‘R’ stands for Reporting.
→ It means informing the authority to whom the executive is responsible as to what is going
on.
7. ‘B’ stands for Budgeting.
→ It means accounting, fiscal planning and control.

2. BROAD PERSPECTIVE OR SUBJECT-ORIENTED PERSPECTIVE – Prof. Woodrow Wilson,

they have taken a very broad approach about the scope of Public Administration.
→ According to them (A) Public Administration covers all three branches of the government.
Legislative, Executive and Judicial and their interrelationship. Legislative organ makes
the laws, Executive organ of the government implements the laws. and Judicial organ of
the government interprets the laws. There is inter-relationship between these three
organs.
→ B) Scope of Public Administration is like a cooperative group. It consists of all from class
one officer to class four employees.
→ C) Public Administration is a part of the political process. It has an important role in the
formulation of public policy at all levels, from national to grassroot. It is closely associated
with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community. It
has been influenced in recent years by the human relations approach.

3. Prevailing view – Prevailing view divides the scope of Public Administration into two parts:
1.) Administrative theory; 2.) Applied administration.

1. Administrative theory - It includes the following aspects.

a) Organizational Theory - The Structure, organization, functions and methods of all types of
public authority engaged in administration, whether national, regional or local and
executive.

b) Behavior - The functions of administrative authorities and the various methods appropriate
to different types of functions. The various forms of control of administration.

c) Public Personal Administration - The problems concerning personnel e.g. recruitment,

training, promotion, retirement etc. and the problems relating to planning, research,
information and public relation services.

2. Applied administration - It includes the following aspects:

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 a.) Political functions - It includes the executive - legislative relationship, administrative
activities of the cabinet, the minister and permanent official relationship.

b.) Legislative function - It includes delegated legislation and the preparatory work done by the
officials in connection with the drawing up of bills.

c.) Financial functions - It includes total financial administration from the preparation of the
budget to its execution, accounting and audit etc.

d.) Defense - Functions relating to military administration.

e.) Educational function - It includes functions relating to educational administration.

f.) Social welfare administration - It includes the activities of the departments concerned with
food; housing, social security, and development activities.

g.) Economic Adminstration - It is concerned with the production and encouragement of

industries and agriculture.

h.) Foreign administration - It includes the conduct of foreign affairs, diplomacy, international
cooperation etc.

i.) Local administration - It concern with the activities of the local self-governing institutions.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION.

▪ Judiciary Approach: Of all the approaches to the study of Public Administration, the judicial
approach is the oldest. This approach assumes that Public Administration carried out primarily by the
executive organ of government is nothing more than the implementation of rules and regulations as
passed by the legislature.

Public Administration is the Science of government and is the knowledge of the laws by which every society
is regulated. It can be concluded here that Public Administration originated from the study of the judiciary
or Administrative Law

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▪ Scientific Approach: Fredrick W. Taylor’s, the father of Scientific Management, effort was to develop
public administration into a science from principles within the engineering and management sciences.
Taylor’s desire was to increase production by motivating the workers to work harder.

▪ Comprehensive Approach: Here, Public Administration is considered as the total performance of

governmental functions or organizational functions by those placed in position to do so. This approach
to the study of Public Administration sees both the functional and the administrative tasks as Public
Administration and hence the term “comprehensive.”

▪ Administrative Process Approach: As the name suggest, this approach sees administration as the
make-up of some processes or functions which include policy, organization, personnel, finance
procedures and control.

▪ Conventional Approach: This is a transition from the comprehensive and the administrative process
approaches. Here, a distinction is drawn between specialized professional and the “generalists” or the
administrative staff. The question that arises here is, the generalists or administrators as the technical
experts, who is “fit” to head the organization?

▪ Economy and Efficiency Approach: Under this approach, economy is replaced with the issue of
efficiency. There is a strong relationship between the scientific approach and the economy and efficiency
approach. While the scientific approach attempts to identify the principles of making management of
men and materials in any organization more efficient, the efficiency approach largely introduces and
applies these management principles in the organization of men in the public and private sectors of a
political system.

▪ Historical Approach: This approach sees Public Administration from the perspective of historical
developments or events in a nation’s public service. A typical type is the reforms in the Nigerian civil
service from 1922 till date. The Nigerian civil service is growing and getting refined due to the several
reforms she has undergone to make it what it is today.

▪ Equity Approach: The equity approach to the study of Public Administration states that public
officials should become sensitive to the needs, desires and aspirations of the public. This approach is
the outcome of the widespread disorder experienced in the United States of America in the fifties and
especially the development and spread of ideologies of Socialism which emphasized equity of human
beings – have the concept of equity.

Realizing that man’s actions towards his fellow man had been inhuman, the equity approach is aimed at
rectifying man’s injustice or inhumanity towards man by encouraging the American public servants to
discard self-interest and to be sensitive towards man’s social problems.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION

Public Administration is defined as all the activities that are involved in the implementation of public
policies and orders as made of the executive, the legislature, and the judicial arms of government, while
private administration on the other hand, can be defined as all activities that are concerned with the
implementation of policies of private organization and institutions that are not owned jointly or principally
by the government.

▪ All activities that involve the implementation of government orders either in the ministries, extra-
ministerial departments, parastatals, local governments, educational institutions owned by
government, the police and the armed forces, are regarded as Public Administration. But such
activities that are concerned with implementation of policies or rendering of services to the public
by private enterprises or organizations not owned by the government are private administration.

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The Differences between Public and Private Administration

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

➢ All activities that involve the implementation of government orders.

PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION

➢ activities that are concerned with implementation of policies or rendering of services to the public
by private enterprises or organizations not owned by the government are private administration.

Differences in Terms of Recruitment

▪ In PUBLIC AD – Personnel procurement in the public sector is done by a centralized body, the Civil
Service Commission or by ministries acting on their behalf and according to the guideline formulated
by it.
▪ In PRIVATE AD – individual organization is responsible for the hiring of the staff. Also, in the
private sector individual organizations are responsible for the recruitment of their staff.

The principle of “To Whose Benefit”/ Focus on Service or Profit

▪ Public Organizations are mean for the promotion of the overall public interest. Therefore, the
“public” is the major beneficiary of any functions it is expected to perform.

▪ Private Organization, except humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross/Red Crescent, and
advocacy groups, the major objective of private administration is to maximize profit. In effect, the
main beneficiary of the private organization is the individual owner or the private group.

SIMILARITIES

▪ Administration in both sectors requires effective mobilizations and the use of human and material
resources to achieve specified goals. Both public and private administrations face the challenge of
regularly reviewing their goals in the context of existing resources.

▪ Although profit still remains the critical focus of private organizations, they are also being urged to
“treat employees fairly and take account of the effect of the firm’s” activity on the community it
serves and the environment in which it functions.

References:

Woodrow Wilson (1887), The Study of Public Administration.

Willoughby, W. F., Principles of Public Administration.

White, L. O., Introduction to the Study of Public Administration.

Philippine Journal of Public Administration, Vol. XXX, (1986)

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