Scope of Public Administration

Scope of Public Administration

Since in public administration, there is no unanimous definition, so there is no agreement on what public administration is and thus, its scope is also unsettled and undefined. Waldo says the since public administration deals with the government in action and as that remains ever-changing, the scope also remains ever-changing.

Willoughby’s View

Willoughby in his book ‘Principles of Administration’ has discussed at great length the scope of public administration. According to him, the study of public administration includes the study of five areas.

1.      General or Overhead Administration- It primarily refers to managerial activities such as planning, co-ordinating, commanding etc.

2.      Organizational Structure- It refers to the study of the design of the organization such as hierarchy, scalar chain etc.

3.      Personnel Administration- Training, promotion, grievance Redressal, recruitment etc.

4.      Financial Administration- It refers to the study of the economical use of financial sources.

5.      Material and Supply- It refer to the management of material resources.

Macqueen says that the scope of public administration extends to three Ms

1.      Man

2.      Method- The study of structures and processes.

3.      Material

Pfiffner says that scope of public administration includes the study of two areas.

1.      The principles of administration- It refers to the study of the various concepts, theories, law, methods, methodologies, tools, techniques etc.

2.      The sphere of administration- It refers to the study of various levels of administration such as local administration, regional administration, internal administration, national administration, international administration etc.

In a similar way, Walker has come out with two major areas of study in this regard.

1.      Administrative Theory- It refers to the study of concepts, theories, tools, techniques, methods and methodologies of administration.

2.      Applied Administration- It refers to the study of various functional areas of administration such as school administration, health administration, law and order administration etc.

This definition also brings about a scope of public administration from a similar perspective as was the case with Macqueen. But, if we look at these definitions individually, the scope seems to be simple. This cannot be the case.

Various Schools of Thought

Narrow View v. Broad View

Narrow View	Broad View
The study of the executive branch of the government.	The scope of Public Administration includes the study of all the three organs of the state i.e. the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

Managerial View v. Integral View

There are certain theorists like Fayol, Gulick, Urwick etc. who fall under the managerial school of thought. These theorists emphasized that public administration includes within its domain only the managerial activities because according to these theorists, it is the managerial activity that enables an organization to appear one and directs the entire organization towards a single goal. They also believe that the tone and tenor of the administration is defined through the managerial activities only.

This view has been contested by the Integral View Theorists like Whyte, Dimock, Peter Self, Gladden, Wilson etc. These theorists believe that public administration as a discipline includes within its ambit the study of all the activities of the organization such as manual activities, clerical activities and technical activities besides the managerial activities. All these activities are critically linked to the success or failure of the organization.

Similarly, if we take into account the POSDCORB view, it emphasizes that public administration as a discipline means the study of tools and techniques of the administration. But, this has been contested by the Subject Matter View. The subject matter view says that public administration as a discipline includes within its ambit the study of public policies. But, it has some serious implications. It expanded the scope of public administration to such an extent that everything came under the umbrella of public administration and at the same time, it made public administration inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary in nature, as a result of which, the various contents of other disciplines came under the domain of public administration (Political Science, Sociology, Psychology etc.). This resulted into a loss of boundary leading towards a crisis of identity because today the government or public policy extends to almost every area of human activity.

Waldo has appropriately responded to this concern. He says that public administration has a stable core though a vacillating periphery. The study of the stable core imparts it, its identity and the study of the vacillating periphery further enriches it. No discipline today is uni-disciplinary, every discipline is multi-disciplinary. As of today, being uni-disciplinary is death and being multi-disciplinary is growth and prosperity. The study of tools and techniques is the stable core or the staple area of public administration. The vacillating periphery is studying various things in light of various tools and techniques of administration.

Stephen K. Bailey

The study of public administration includes four major areas.

1.      Descriptive Theory- It to refers to the study of ‘what is’ i.e. the study of organizational structures and organizational processes.

2.      Normative Theory- It refers to the study of ‘what ought to be’ or ‘what should be’ i.e. the study of the normative concerns and objectives of the government.

3.      Instrumentalist Theory- It refers to the study of tools and techniques of administration.

4.      Assumptive Theory- It refers to the objective study of administrative behaviour. It refers to the behaviour of the individual within organization without assuming their angelic or villainous behaviour.

Public administration carries a wider scope and it is the study of government in action. Government in action is a dependant variable and being a dependant variable, it is linked to a number of ecological concerns. The government in action is never static and thus, its boundary can never be established or delineated.

The scope of public administration is linked to the concept of public administration. This is because the definition of public administration is not yet settled and it is not yet fully conceptualized. Thus, it is difficult to demarcate its outline.