SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1). NARROWER SCOPE V/S BROADER SCOPE.

2). POSD CORB V/S SUBJECT MATTER VIEW.

NARROW VIEW: - regarding the scope of public administration the very initial view presented by  LUTHER GULICK. He related administration only to the function of the executive body only. Then he narrowed the scope of the public administration.

Later on NIGRO & NIGRO opined that public administration is related with the function of all the three organ of the government. and it also performed the function arised due to the interaction of these three organs. It is known as broader view regarding the scope of public administration.

2). POSD CORB V/S SUBJECT MATTER VIEW.

This view of scope of public administration was advocated by LUTHER GULICK in his very famous paper on the SCIENCE OF ADMINISTRATION 1937. He believed that administration consisted of seven elements. He summed up these elements in acronym ‘POSD CORB’, each letter of which implies one element of administration.

LUTHER GULICK explains these seven element of administration (or function of the chief executive ) in following ways:-

P---PLANNING:- this is the working out in broad outline the things that need to be done and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise.

O---ORGANISING:- that is the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which work sub-divisons are arranged , defined and coordinated for the defined objectives.

S---STAFFING:- this is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining favourable conditions of work.

D---DIRECTING:- this is the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and general orders and instructions and serving as the leader of the enterprise.

CO---COORDINATING:- that is all important duty of interrelating the various parts of the work.

R---REPORTING:- that is keeping informed those to whom the executive is responsible as to what is going on. This includes keeping oneself and one’s subordinates informed through records, research and inspection.

B---BUDGETING:- all that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning ,accounting and control.

2). SUBJECT MATTER VIEW:-

but one can easily understand that posd corb is the instrument only. To apply these instrument the knowledge of the subject is required. Without the knowledge of subject matter it will become almost impossible to apply ‘POSD CORB’ effectively. Therefore it is cleared that both POSD CORB and SUBJECT MATTER are not contradictory to each other, but complimentary they are very closely related to each other and the relationship between them was defined nicely by LEWIS MERIAM as POSD CORB & SUBJECT MATTER both are the two blade of same scissor and for the smooth functioning both the blade must be sharp.

Similarly M.E. DIMOCK observed “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 tasks. The ‘how’ is the technique of management, the principles according to which the cooperative programmes are carried to success. Each is indispensable. Together they form the synthesis called administration”.

Public administration as a discipline consists of five branches:

1). Organisational theory and behaviour.

2). Public personnel administration.

3). Public financial administration.

4). Comparative and development administration.

5). Public policy analysis.