Discuss about the Evolution and Growth of Administrative Theory.
The modern state is called as the Administrative State. The importance of the public administration in modern society, that it has been described as the “Heart of Modern Civilization”. Public administration as the process by which public resources and personnel are organized and worldwide to formulate, implement and manage public policy decision.
Public Administration as a discipline was born in the United States. Woodrow Wilson’s seminal contribution, The Study of Administration” published in the Political Science Quarterly in the year of 1887, laid the foundation for a systematic study of Public Administration.
According to him (Woodrow Wilson), Public Administration is a detailed and systematic study of public- law. He described administration as an art but emphasized that it be studied scientifically.
The dichotomy between politics and administration was first mooted by Wilson. He argues that administration and politics are separate. According to him, the field of administration is a field of business. The birth of Public Administration as a self conscious inquiry. Wilson is regarded as the founding father of the discipline of Public Administration. In his article, The Study of Administration”, he explained for a separate study of Public Administration from the political science.
Systematic study and analysis of administrative theory can be traced to the later part of 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry Fayol, Luther Gullick, Mooney, Frederich Taylor, Max Weber, Elton Mayo, Mary Parker Follet, Herbert Simon, Chester Barnard and Fred Riggs are prominent among the many who attempted the scientific study of organization.
Henry Fayol, Gullick and Urwick and Mooney and Reiley based on their own experience and studies contributed expensively towards administrative theory. The main contention of the theory is that a science of administration and basically it can be developed based on some principles and also based on the experience of administrators.
The most important concerns of this theory is the formulation of certain universal principles of organization and the watch words of this theory is efficiency and economy. Henry Fayol is considered as the father of administrative management theory, he mainly focus on the development of broad administrative principles which is applicable to general and also higher management levels.
Thus, he explain management in terms of five basic functions planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. Gullick also explain ten principles of organization division of work, bases of department organization, coordination through hierarchy, deliberate coordination, coordination through committees, decentralization, unity of command, staff and line, delegation and span of control.
Different scholars contributed their concept in the administrative theories, which is discussed in the following:
Fredrick W. Taylor is considered to be the father of scientific management. His main concern was how to raise industrial efficiency and productivity, scientific methods based on observation, experiment and measurement. Scientific management deals with input, output and costs and it aims to bring harmony between management and labor, so it includes proper selection and training of workers, proper allotment of tasks, selection of material and equipment, etc.
Max Weber, a German Sociologist, who mainly focused on the concept of Bureaucracy. Weber was the first thinker who described the characteristics of Bureaucracy in systematically way. According Weber, the rational-legal bureaucracy was a prime example of rationalization and he wanted to construct an ideal types of a fully developed bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a hierarchy, rational, and official. I design and operation of production processes on the “shop” level of the organization.
Elton Mayo, the pioneer of Human Relations Approach and this approach emphasized the human and socio-psychological factors in organization behavior.
The Human Relations approach emerged because managers found that Taylor’s scientific management and Fayol’s administrative management theory did not achieve complete production efficiency and work place harmony. The true inspiration of this theory has been come from the Hawthrone experiments (1924-1940). The contribution of Mayo is very useful not only in the industrial sector but also in the administrative system of a state, specially in the field of bureaucracy.
Herbert A. Simon’s concept of decision-making analysis the organizational behavior, particularly its non-rational character. The contribution of Chester Bernard is primarily considered as a behavioral list as he ‘laid emphasis on the psychological aspects of management. He explain, organization as a social system. The socio-psychological approach of McGregor and Maslow emphasis on the human side of the organization.
On the whole, administrative theory is called science of administration because it developed some principles and experience which is most essential for the modern state. Its basic aims are efficiency and economy.
According to Luther Gullick, administrative structure must have these seven principles. Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting. Administration is the process that must be carried out in all levels of organization and it developed a set of principles which is relating to the functions of management and structuring of organization.
