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Public and Private Administration

Public administration operates in the government setting and focuses on political direction, public accountability, and providing essential services, while private administration operates in business and focuses on profit motives. Both public and private administration rely on common managerial skills and serve people. While distinctions exist, public and private administration share more similarities than differences and are becoming increasingly alike.

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268 views

Public and Private Administration

Public administration operates in the government setting and focuses on political direction, public accountability, and providing essential services, while private administration operates in business and focuses on profit motives. Both public and private administration rely on common managerial skills and serve people. While distinctions exist, public and private administration share more similarities than differences and are becoming increasingly alike.

Uploaded by

Rishik Gupta (Riskytemp)
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PBA396

Introduction to Public Administration

UNIT:1
LECTURE -5
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
ADMINISTRATION
Learner’s objectives

■ To trace the difference between public and private administration


■ To identify the similarities between public and private administration
■ Public administration : operates in the government setting

■ Private administration: operates in the non-government


setting- business enterprises
Distinction between public and private administration

Scholars : Paul H. Appleby, Sir Josia Stamp, Herbert A. Simon, Peter


Drucker made a distinction between public and private
administrations.
According to Paul H. Appleby:

■ The public administration is different from private administration in three important


aspects:

1) the political character

2) the breadth of scope, impact and consideration and

3) public accountability.
Josia Stamp

■ Josia Stamp identified four aspects of difference between public and private
administration
■ Principle of uniformity
■ Principle of external financial control
■ Principle of service motive
■ Public responsibility
Herbert Simon

o Public administration is bureaucratic while private administration is business like.

o Public administration is political while private administration is apolitical.

o Public administration is characterized by red tape while the private administration is free of
it.
Difference between Public & Private Administration
■ Political Direction
Public administration takes place in a political context.
It is a political process.
Private administration = business activity.

■ Absence of profit motive

 provide services to the people and promote social good

■ Prestige

 enjoy high status and prestige in comparison to their counterparts in private


enterprises especially developing countries
Continued…
■ Public Gaze

 actions of public administration are exposed to wide public gaze because the
public closely watches it.

 The Public Administration operates in a glass house.

■ Service and Cost

 Most governments spend more money than their income or revenues

 a deficit budget that is, expenditure exceeding income


Continued…
■ Consistency of treatment

legal obligation to not to discriminate against any person

■ Public accountability

responsible to the public, though not directly but indirectly through:

 political executive

 legislature

 judiciary, etc.
Continued…
■ Large-scale administration

larger than any big private concern in terms of:

 size,

 complexity and

 diversity of activities
Continued..
■ Nature of functions

Public administration differs from business administration in the nature of the functions
performed by it. Like:

(a) It is more comprehensive than private administration, that is, it covers a wider range
of activities.

(b) Its activities are more urgent and vital for the very existence of society.

(c) Its services, sometimes, tend to be monopolistic, for example, defence.


Continued…
■ Monopolistic and Essential Services

 national security

 foreign relations

 law and order

 mint and currency


Continued…
■ External Financial Control

 Legislature authorizes the income and expenditure of executive branch

 Private administration is not subject to the principle of external financial


control. It is free to manage its finances as it likes.
Continued…
■ Legal framework

 Responsibilities are fixed by a set of constitutional practices, laws and


regulations.

 Makes public administration more rigid in operation

 Private Administration– enjoy large amount of autonomy barring limited amount


rates restrictions & rules. Rules are defined by the organization itself.
Continued…
■ Uniformity of treatment: 

Public Administration – dealing with client, in terms of behaviour, has to be


natural and impartial. (no. political affiliation.) (non discriminations.)

 Private Administration– It can take up a discriminatory approach. It can


provide privileged treatment to the group, based on its business interest.
Similarities between Public and Private Administration

■ Scholars like Henry Fayol, Mary P. Follet and L. Urwick do not make a
distinction between public and private administration.
Similarities between public and private administration

■ Both public and business administration rely on common skills, techniques


and procedures.

■ The managerial aspects of planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling


are the same for public and private administration

■ In modern times the principle of profit motive is not peculiar to private


administration, because it is now accepted as a laudable objective for public
sector enterprises also.
Continued…

■ The accounting aspects like maintenance of accounts, filing, statistics and stocking are the
same
■ The private concerns are also subjected to many legal constraints.
 
■ There is a similar type of hierarchy and management systems, both in public and private
sectors.

 same kind of organization structure, superior – subordinate relationships, etc.


 
Continued…
■ Public and private administration serves the people, whether being called
clients or customers-

 Both have to maintain close contact with people to:


 inform about their services
 to get feedback about services and product.

 In both the cases, public relations help them to inform and improve their
services to the people.
Contribution

■ Both administrations carries on continuous efforts to improve their internal working


and also for efficient delivery of services to people or customers.

■ Both get influenced, adopt and reform their own practices in the light of best practices
of the other.

 In personnel management, the private organizations have been influenced greatly by


the practices of public organisations.

■ And lastly they share similar kinds of personnel and financial problems
To Conclude…
■ Distinction between public and private administration is not absolute.

■ They are becoming more and more alike in many respects.

■ However, there significant differences between these two types of administration

■ Both public and private administration are placed in different environments.

■ But this difference is more apparent than real.


Continued…
Waldo:

“The generalization which distinguish public administration from private


administration by special care for equality of treatment, legal authorisation of,
and responsibility of action, public justification of decisions, financial probity
and meticulousness, etc. are of very limited applicability,”

In fact public and private administrations are the “two species of the same
genus, but they have special values and techniques of their own which give to
each its distinctive character.”
Know more at:

■ https://ifioque.com/career-workshop/management/public&private_administration
■ https://www.managementstudyguide.com/public-and-private-administration.htm
■ Public and private administration are the “two
species of the same genus, but they have special
values and techniques of their own which give to
each its distinctive character.” comment

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