CONCEPTS IN THE
STUDY OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION

WHAT IS ADMINISTRATION?
• Derived from Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means ‘to serve’
• “a process, common to all group efforts; public or private; civil or military, large
scale or small scale. It is a process of work in a departmental store, a bank, a
school, a hotel or a city.” – L.D. White

TYPES OF ADMINISTRATION
• Private Administration: refers to activities of a private
organizations, such as household, club, corporation or
company
• Public Administration: refers to the activities of the state
performed by the central, provincial or local government

WHAT IS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?
• Public Administration is an aspect of the larger field of
administration. It exists in a political system for
accomplishment of the goal and objectives formulated
by the political decision maker.
• It is also known as governmental organization because
the adjective “public” in the word “Public
Administration” means government’s administration.
• Hence, the focus of the Public Administration is on

DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
• Public administration is “detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every particular
application of general law is an act of administration”. – Woodrow Wilson, Political Science
Quarterly (1887)
• Public administration is the activity required for the implementation of
public policy. – L.D. White
• “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.” – Luther Gullick

DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
• Felix A. Nigro defines public administration as:
• Co-operative group efforts in a public setting,
• Covers all the three branches of the government that is executive,
• The legislative and judicial branch of the government,
• Public administration has an important role to make public policy and
its implementation,
• It also associated with various private groups and providing public
services to the people.

NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• Integral View: Public Administration encompasses all the activities which
are undertaken to accomplish the given objective. In other words, Public
Administration is the sum total of managerial, technical, clerical and manual
activities.
• Managerial View: Public Administration encompasses only the
managerial activities and not the technical, clerical and manual activities which
non-managerial in nature.

SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• POSDCORB View
 Given by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick
• P – Planning
• O – Organizing
• S – Staffing
• D – Directing
• Co – Coordinating
• R – Reporting
• B - Budgeting

SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• Subject Matter View
 M.E. Dimock said that “administration is concerned with ‘What’ and ‘How’ of the
government. The ‘What’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a field, which
enables the administrator to perform his task. The ‘how’ is the technique of
management, the principles according to which the co-operative programs are carried
to success. Each is indispensable; together they form the synthesis called
administration.”
 Public Administration deals with substantive fields of administration such as defense,
education, public health, social welfare, agriculture, police, fire protection and so on.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
Public administration plays its role in many ways which makes the public administration
more significant to us. It plays an important role:
1. As an Instrument for Providing Service
2. As an Instrument for Implementing the Laws and Policies of the Government
3. As an Instrument for Development and socio-economic change
4. As an Instrument for the Sustainable Development
5. As an Instrument for National Integration
6. As an Instrument for Community Development
7. As an Instrument for Public Safety
8. As a Separate Academic Discipline