Definition, Nature, Scope and Importance of Public Administration

Before understanding the meaning of public administration, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the word „administration‟. The English word „administer‟ is derived from a combination of two Latin words „ad‟ and „ministrate‟ meaning „to serve or manage‟. Literally, the term „administration‟ means management the affairs of public or private. Administration refers to mobilisation of resources – human and material- to achieve pre-set of objectives. Administration is thus an activity undertaken in pursuit of the realisation of a goal. It is an effort requiring a group of persons, each individually carrying out certain allotted tasks, which when so performed by all, leads to the achievement of an objective which has already been established and made explicit. Public Administration is a section, despite the fact that an expansive and critical part, of organization. Organization implies execution of the official elements of the state. Public Administration fits two uses. It alludes to the training. Likewise, it implies a field of scholarly enquiry or train. Public Administration alludes to the investigation of the exercises of the State, however these exercises may identify with the official or the lawmaking body or the legal. Numerous scholars confine it to the official. Be that as it may, a few researchers would have expand the meaning of the term and extended it to all the three branches. Public Administration alludes to the association and administration of exercises financed from the citizen's cash. In the USA, government employees and scholastics, for example, Woodrow Wilson advanced American common administration change in 1880, moving public organization in to the scholarly world. Woodrow Wilson is viewed as the father of public organization. As a train, public organization is a post-1947 development in India. In spite of being exceptionally youthful train in a group of sociology, it has shot into noticeable quality; and today it is an extremely well known subject. Public Administration is the front of the legislature, being its obvious face. The perceivability of public organization is prominent and proceeds. While the legislature watches settled hours of working however public organization is ever at work. With the ushering in an era of welfare states, the administration is construed as a “moral act” and “administrator as a moral agent”. Public Administration has become the machinery for formulating plans and programmes and carrying them out. All this reveals that Public Administration is imperative for all societies -developed or developing, dictatorial or democratic.

The ordinary perspective of people in general organization is that it talks about just the procedures, leaving aside the substantive concerns. Hence it worries about arranging, association, staffing, coordinating, planning, revealing, planning, assessing, and so on. The approach of public manner, public organization bargains with the procedures as well as the substantive field. Public Administration is a piece of the more extensive field of organization. Organization is a procedure penetrating all aggregate exertion, be in broad daylight or private, common or military, extensive scale or something else, and is along these lines of general nature. Organization, being normal for all endeavors in quest for cognizant purposes, and isn't a characteristic of present day age alone. Public Administration of today, be that as it may, has three recognizing highlights: Its motivation have been totally reoriented, its capacities have massively expanded in number, assortment and intricacy, and its system has immensely expanded in number, assortment and multifaceted nature, and approach has developed from experimentation arrange into a deliberate train with a sorted out, regularly expanding group of information and experience. Public Administration exists in a political framework for the achievement of the objectives and goals figured by the political chiefs. It is otherwise called legislative organization in light of the fact that the descriptor 'public' in the word 'public organization' signifies 'government'. Consequently, the concentrate of public organization is on public organization, that is, bureaucratic association (or managerial association) of the administration. Public Administration has gained greater importance since the emergence of Administrative State. It is an instrument not only for protecting and restraining but also fostering and promoting. Its contents, today, are more positive in nature for it is now engaged in looking after myriad needs of human life- health, education, recreation, sanitation, social security, etc. It is, therefore, a creative factor, its motto being the „welfare of man‟. These functions are in addition to its basic functions of maintaining law and order in society. In nature, contents and scope – all go to make it the „heart of the problem of modern government‟. A country‟s progress is, thus, largely determined by the quality of its public administration. In the analysis, Administration is a moral act and administrator is a moral agent. This thesis is basic to the transformation which is needed in public administration to make it an effective instrument for the ushering in of the democratic welfare state. Public Administration is the machinery used by the service state to place itself in a position to make plans and programmes that can carried out, and to carry out the plans and programmes it has made. Administration is of importance for another reason too. It is essentially national character makes it a powerful instrument of national integration. Public Administration is the first need of a society, more so of a developing country like “Administration”, as E N. Gladden says, “is a long and slightly pompous word, but it has humble meaning”. The word administer, derived from the Latin word ad + ministrate, means to care for or to look after people, to manage affairs. Administration is a process permeating all collective effort, be it public or private, civil or military, large scale or otherwise, and it thus universal nature. Public Administration of today, however, has distinguishing features: its purpose has been completely reoriented, their functions have enormously increased in number, variety and complexity, and its discipline ever increased body of knowledge and experience. In the words of Woodrow Wilson, “Public administration is detailed and systematic application of law”. Every particular application of law is an act of administration. Pfiffner defines Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy. According to Gladden, “Public administration concerned with the administration of the government.” Professor L D. White observes, “Public administration consist of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy”. According to Luther Gullick, “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government and thus concern itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the Government is done” Waldo defines Public Administration as “the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of state.” Public Administration lends itself to two usages: it is an activity; and it also refers to the discipline (or subject) of intellectual inquiry and study. Maintaining law and order is an activity and is part of public administration. But public administration is also a discipline like Economics, Sociology, History etc., and is a subject of study: it studies these activities and functions, formulates concepts and builds models and theories. The above definitions point out that the term Public Administration has been used in two senses. In the wider sense it includes all the activities of the government whether in the sphere of the legislative, executive or judicial branch of the government. This wider view has been taken by L D. White, Woodrow Wilson, Pfiffner and Marshall Dimock. In the narrow sense public administration is concerned activities of the executive branch only. This view has been taken by Gullick, Simon, Willoughby, Fayol and Ordway Tead. By common usage and practice the term „public administration‟ is restricted to the organisation and operations of the executive branch only. Public Administration may thus be defined as government in action.

Public Administration. These views are:

According to this view, public administration is sum total of all the activities undertaken in pursuit of and in fulfilment of public policy. These activities include not only managerial and technical but also manual and clerical. Thus the activities of all persons from top to bottom constitute although they are of varying significance to running of administrative machinery. L D. White shares this view. According to him, Public Administration “consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfilment or enforcement of public policy. This definition covers a multitude of particular operations in many fields – the delivery of a letter, the of public land, the negotiation of treaty, the award of compensation to an injured workman, the removal of a litter from a park, and licensing the use of atomic energy. Similarly, Dimock holds that administration is concerned with the „what‟ and „how‟ of the government. The „what‟ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a field which enables the administration to perform his tasks. The „how‟ is the technique of management, the principles according to which cooperative programmes are carried to success.

According to this view, the work of only those persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial functions in an organisation constitute administration. It is these persons who shoulder the responsibility of keeping the enterprise on keel and to run it most efficiently. Their job is to plan, programme and organize all the activities in an organistion so as to achieve the desired ends. Simon Smithburg, Thompson and Luther Gullick subscribe to this view of administration. Luther Gullick says, „Administration has to do with getting things done; with accomplishment of defined objectives‟. The term administration is also used in narrower sense to refer to those patterns of behaviours that are common to many kinds of co-operating groups or the specific technological methods used to reach these goals. The above two views differ from each other in many ways. The integral view includes the activities of all persons engaged in administration whereas the managerial view restricts itself only to the activities of a few persons at the top. The integral view postulates all types of activities from manual to managerial, from non- technical to technical whereas managerial view takes into account only the managerial activities in an ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. As study public administration examines the every aspects of government‟s effort to discharge the laws and give effect to public policy; as a process it is all the steps taken between the time an enforcement agency assumes jurisdiction and the last break is placed; and as a vocation, it is organising and directing the activities of others in a public agency.

There is no unanimous opinion regarding the scope of public administration. There are two different views explaining the subject matter of public administration. They are POSDCORB view and the subject matter view. Broadly speaking, Public Administration embraces the entire area and all the activity of the government. But by established usage the term has come to signify primarily the organisation, personnel, practices and procedures essential to the effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of government. Public Administration is in fact the executive in action. It does not include the study of judicial or legislative administrations, although they too share in the implementation of public policy. We study in it the actual administration or the actual administrative machinery of the state.

Luther Gulick sums up the scope of the subject by the letters of the word „POSDCORB‟ by which means: Planning, Organisation, Staffing, Direction, Co-ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. Planning means the working out in broad outline the things to be done, the method to be adopted to accomplish the purpose. Organisation means the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which the work is sub- divided, arranged, defined and coordinated. Staffing means the recruitment and training of the personnel and their condition of work. Directing means making decisions and issuing orders and instructions. Co-ordinating means inter- relating the work of various divisions, sections and other parts of organisation. Reporting means informing the agency to whom the executive is responsible about what is going on. Budgeting means fixed planning, control and accounting. different agencies regardless of the peculiar nature of the work they do. There are several thinkers who are of the opinion that the POSDCORB view of the scope of public administration overlooks the fact that different agencies are faced with different administrative problems, which are peculiar to the nature of the services, they render and the functions they perform. This view takes into consideration only the common techniques of administration and ignores the study of the „subject matter‟ with which an agency is concerned.

The subject matter view is more or less similar to the integral view of the nature of the public administration. According to this view public administration studies the sum total of the entire activities of the government; the executive, legislature and judiciary. Thus the scope of public administration is very wide. However, the POSDCORB view and subject matter view are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other. They together constitute the proper scope of the study of public administration. Thus Lewis Meriam rightly said, “Public administration is an instrument with two blades like a pair of scissors. One blade may be knowledge of the fields covered by POSDCORB; the other blade is knowledge of the subject matter in which these techniques are applied. Both blades must be good to make an effective tool.” Public Administration as a discipline consists of five branches: (I). Organisational theory and Behaviour; (II). Public Personal Administration; (III). Public Financial Administration; (IV). Comparative and Development Administration and (V). Public Policy Analysis The scope of public administration varies with people‟s expectations of what they should get from government. Throughout the world the demands made by the people upon governments have continually increased and in time to come they would further increase.

Public administration has a very important place not only as an instrument of governance but also as an important mechanism for preserving and promoting the welfare of community in the era of welfare states. It has a great impact upon the life of the people as well. The importance of public administration may be studied under three heads: (I). Its importance to the people. (II). Its importance in a democracy

Public administration has a very important place in the life of people. It is the branch of government that touches more directly and more strikingly than any other the lives of human beings. All people use the service of public administration almost in their in their activity. There are several departments of administration like the employment exchanges, industries department, medical department, and agriculture department etc, which affect almost every citizen in one way or other. With the advancement of science and technology the problem of maintaining effective coordination between the administration and the rest of the community has become great important. So the pursuit of knowledge of public administration becomes most essential element in the modern time.

The ideals of democracy, i.e., progress, prosperity and protection of the common man can be obtained only through impartial, honest and efficient administration. An administrator should be neutral in politics and serve faithfully any political party which comes in power. In the field of government he must possess some aptitude for getting along with politicians. Modern democracy has brought in the concept of a welfare state. It has increased the scope of state activity leading to ever increasing demands on public administration for more and more of services. Undue intervention of politicians in administration and it may cease to be an effective instrument for the realisation of nations‟ ideals.

Almost for all his needs the citizen depends upon public administration. In view of the important role of public administration in the life of the people, its study cannot be ignored by the citizen of a state. Therefore, its teaching should become a part of the curriculum of education. The study of public administration will help the people to become better administrators.

Industrial revolution and technological developments have contributed the importance of public administration. The ordinary person can feel secure only if lf large scale organisation based on sound principles of administration caters his interests. The

Emergence of concept of planning for the socio- economic amelioration of the common man has led to the development public administration. Formulation and execution of these plans widens the sphere of public administration. With the inception of welfare states the concept of police states has suffered setbacks. The welfare states look after the individuals in all way of life. These are the factors responsible for the development and growing importance of public administration.

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Research Scholar, MA Public Administration E-Mail – rajendersodhi1984@gmail.com