scholarly journals Relevance of Classical Management Theories to Modern Public Administration: A Review

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred G. Nhema
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Organizational Management ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Management Theories

 ABSTRACTThis study focuses on the analysis of management theories of the 19th and early 20th centuries that are commonly referred to as classical organization theories. These ideas are contrasted with the human relations school of thought that achieved great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s. The study asserts that there are valuable lessons that modern public bureaucracies and other public institutions can draw from these early theoretical frameworks. Public organizations molded on the classical organizational management theoretical perspectives have proven remarkably stable in different circumstances around the world. However, they are now increasingly expected to adapt to new and unforeseen circumstances by integrating the foundations inherited from the past and the lessons learnt over the past three decades. Such an approach will enable public institutions to adapt to rapid changing circumstances and in the process be well equipped to meet the demands of their citizens at the levels of theory and practice. Key words: classical organization theory, human relations perspectives, rationality, rule of law, public administration.            

Developing E-Government Coursework through the NASPAA Competencies Framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M McQuiston ◽  
Aroon P Manoharan
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Master Of Public Policy ◽  
It Skills

Information technology (IT) is often less emphasized in coursework related to public administration education, despite the growing need for technological capabilities in those joining the public sector workforce. This coupled with a lesser emphasis on e-government/IT skills by accreditation standards adds to the widening gap between theory and practice in the field. This study examines the emphasis placed on e-government/IT concepts in Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs, either through complete course offerings or through related courses such as public management, strategic planning, performance measurement and organization theory. Based on a content analysis of their syllabi, the paper analyzes the extent to which the IT/e-government courses in MPA/Master of Public Policy programs address the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration competency standards, and further discuss the orientation of the courses with two of the competencies: management and policy. Specifically, are e-government/IT courses more management-oriented or policy-oriented? Do public management, strategic planning, performance measurement, and organization theory courses address IT concerns?

Secularization, Deprivatization, and the Reappearance of ‘Public Religion’ in Japanese Society

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Mullins
Keyword(s):  
Public Institutions ◽  
Allied Occupation ◽  
Restoration Movement ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Religion In Public Life

Abstract Sociological theories about the fate of religion in modern societies originated in Europe and were initially based on the history of Western Christianity. Whether or not these theoretical perspectives are useful for the analysis of other religious traditions in non-Western regions of the world has been the focus of considerable debate for decades. This article engages some of the familiar theories of secularization in light of major developments in Japanese religion and society over the past two centuries. While it has been widely assumed that modernization inevitably brings with it a decline in religion, the first phase of this process in Japan was accompanied by the creation of a powerful new form of religion—State Shintō—that served to unite the nation around a common set of symbols and institutions for half a century. This was followed by the rapid and forced secularization of Shintō during the Allied Occupation (1945-1952), which essentially privatized or removed it from public institutions. Since the end of the Occupation, however, there has been an ongoing movement to restore the special status of Shintō and its role in the public sphere. Even though recent case studies and survey research indicate that individual religiosity and organized religions are facing serious decline today, the reappearance of religion in public life and institutions represented by this restoration movement also needs to be taken into account in our assessment of secularization in contemporary Japan.

How managers and students view public service: The theoretical vs. practical divide

2021 ◽  
pp. 014473942110130
Author(s):  
John R Wood ◽  
Kenneth Kickham
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Public Administrators ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Management Concepts ◽  
Analysis Of Results

This paper examines existing management concepts and practices that make up three contemporary approaches to public policy and public administration. We attempt to understand whether municipal public administrators and public administration graduate students validate these perspectives in “reality” versus “ideally.” Addressing the extent to which practicing public administrators and students identify with theoretical frameworks, which one(s) they deem most prominent, and how closely their preferred frameworks correspond to what they see in practice, we offer an exploratory analysis of results from 176 respondents through descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). We hypothesize significant differences with respect to 1) what is preferred and what is perceived in the workplace, 2) group membership (administrator, graduate student, or undergraduate student), and 3) gender (female or male). This research will help public administration educators bridge the gap between theory and practice and narrow the distance between the “is” and the “ought.”

scholarly journals Classification of management errors within the scope of the basic notions of Korogodin’s theory of goal-oriented systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15
Author(s):  
Eduard A. Sosnin ◽  
◽  
Boris N. Poizner ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Organizational Management ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Problem Situations ◽  
Management Decision Making ◽  
By Products

Introduction. The issue of goal-setting in management in general and in public administration, in particular, is one of the most relevant and important for management theory and practice. The purpose hereof is to study and reveal the mechanism of goal-setting in management. Materials and methods. The article is based on Korogodin’s theory of goal-oriented systems. The works on public administration, social construction and management, as well as foreign research on organizational management and business, are used herein. Results. A simple classification of typical management errors from the standpoint of the theory of goal-oriented systems is given: those related to goals, resources, operators, and by-products. Discussion and conclusion. The potential of using the teleonomic systems approach for the analysis of problem situations in management has been demonstrated. A strict and logical classification makes it possible to algorithmize the management decision-making process.

Interorganizational Governance in Marketing Channels

1994 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan B. Heide
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Relationship Management ◽  
Marketing Channels ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Interfirm Relationships ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives

Relationship management rapidly is becoming a central research paradigm in the marketing channels literature. A growing body of conceptual and empirical literature addresses different aspects of interfirm relationships, building in part on recent theoretical developments in organization theory, law, and economics. Interestingly, however, some of these theoretical frameworks make radically different assumptions about the nature of interfirm relationships, though these differences to date have not been examined systematically in the marketing literature. The author reviews these theoretical perspectives and develops a formal typology of approaches to relationship management. Specifically, he develops a typology of three different forms of governance, which vary systematically in terms of how specific interfirm processes are carried out. He also discusses the antecendents of different relationship forms and shows the results of a preliminary empirical test.

Sub-administration: ideologies, myths and metaphors

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 140-149
Author(s):  
David John Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
American Business ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
And Behavior

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to recommend that public administration (PA) theory and practice should become more sensitive to its sub-administration, and to suggest how this can be done. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper maintains that this sub-administration includes those ideologies, myths and metaphors that contribute like an unconscious in shaping (and misshaping) governmental policy and administration. Descriptions of the nature of ideologies, myths and metaphors are given, along with some examples of those that are harmful – such as the ideologies of the American Business Model and neo-liberalism. Findings PA should seek to engage and oppose such ideologies, myths and metaphors that are problematic – both those constructed within and without of PA itself. It is recommended that, for such analytical purposes, PA should turn toward post-traditional PA, including the insights of post-modernism and epistemic pluralism. Originality/value The concept of sub-administration is of significant utility both for PA theorists and practitioners in strengthening public administrative performance. The author has offered such and/or similar recommendations in earlier publications, including in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, 19 (1), 90-102: 2016.

The neglected variable. The coevolution of public administration and political parties in the UK and Italy (1950–2010)

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Eugenio Pizzimenti ◽  
Enrico Calossi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Research Question ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Party Change ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Party Organizations

AbstractThe relationships between the State and political parties have often been analysed in dual terms. Yet, as Katz and Mair already noticed in their well-known (and criticized) article on the emergence of the cartel party, a clear separation between parties and public institutions has never been completely achieved, in the evolution of liberal democracies. In contrast, while parties act as agencies of institutionalization, public institutions recognize (de jure or de facto) parties as the legitimate actors of political representation. From this perspective, it is worth considering party change as a process intertwined also with institutional change. To date, however, the analysis of such a relationship has been neglected by political scientists, who have privileged explanations of party change based on other factors, whether at systemic or at a micro level. By avoiding a priori assumptions about causality, our main research question is the following: is it possible to identify patterns of co-evolution between State institutions – more specifically, public administration – and party organizations? Building on a new institutional approach to organization theory, the aim of this article is to investigate to what extent the evolution in the size of party organizations and in the size of public administration has followed similar trajectories. Our study focuses on the United Kingdom and Italy, from 1950 to 2010. Our findings confirm that parties' external face expands when public spending and the number of public employees increase, and vice-versa. The same holds for parties' internal face, at least in the Italian case.

THEORIZING URBANISM IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Urban Centers ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Negotiation ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Poststructural Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
High Level

AbstractIn this article I consider recent research on urbanism in ancient Mesoamerica, especially over the past twenty years. I focus on the theoretical perspectives that archaeologists use to address cities, urbanism, and urbanization. I argue that despite some significant advances in how we understand urbanism, most research continues to be embedded within cultural evolutionist, functionalist, and elitist theoretical frameworks. I highlight approaches drawn from poststructural theory that hold promise for developing a more dynamic, complex, and culturally compelling view of Mesoamerican urbanism. Using examples from pre-Hispanic Oaxaca, I discuss how a focus on practice, social negotiation, and materiality draws attention to the actions of people within their social, cultural, and material settings rather than on abstract high-level forces such as cultural evolutionary structures or the functioning of urban centers within broader societies.

Governing the Public Sector E-Performance

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlotta del Sordo ◽  
Rebecca L. Orelli ◽  
Emanuele Padovani
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Organizational Management ◽  
Monitoring Systems ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regulatory Interventions ◽  
Share Information

Over the past several decades the demand for accountability in the field of public administration has been growing exponentially in Europe. The particular emphasis for this theme was the stimulus for the significant adoption and use of information technology systems in the public sector. Thus, the main focus of European countries has been e-government that provides process reform of the manner in which governments work, share information, and deliver services to external and internal clients. Therefore, accountability has become more critical for improving the economic, financial and organizational management of public matters. The need for accountability has pushed the Italian legislature to produce a sequence of legislative and regulatory interventions towards increased transparency in public administrations. This paper presents an account of the likely consequences that performance monitoring systems have, through e-government technology, on public service transparency and accountability. This research utilizes a study on the Brunetta reform (from the Ministry of Public Administration) to foster public sector productivity; that study's key principles are efficiency, meritocracy, accountability, and transparency.

The Impact of Courts on Public Management: New Insights From the Legal Literature

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 658-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Osorio ◽  
Rosemary O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Reasonable Doubt ◽  
Management Implications ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This article challenges some of the accepted wisdom about the relationship between courts and public institutions. The authors raise a reasonable doubt concerning whether judges as a whole are refusing to defer to administrator’s expertise and have lost their “cloak of neutrality.” Moreover, there is evidence to conclude that judges, as a whole, are shying away from the detailed “command-and-control” approaches of the past where courts determined remedial norms, formulated comprehensive and inflexible decrees, and then occupied a substantial directive role in their implementation. At the same time, the authors find continued salience in O’Leary and Straussman’s concern regarding untested conclusions made largely in absence of empirical evidence concerning the impact of courts on public management. Implications for the education of public administration scholars and practitioners are offered.

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