WHAT IS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?

Public Administration is concerned with the management of public programs. Public

administrators work at all levels of government, both at home and abroad and they manage non
prot organizations, associations and interest groups of all kinds. The study of Public
Administration is often dated back to the work of French and German scholars in the late
nineteenth-century. Public administration began as the study of government administration and
that study began as part of late-nineteenth-century efforts to reform governmental operations.
Most scholars and practitioners date the beginnings of the self-concious study of public
administration to an 1887 essay written by Woodrow Wilson (then scholar, later president).
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921.
His essay was basically reformist in nature and highly practical. It was designed to address the
efciency and open corruption that had become part of government during the late 1880s and to
suggest certain remedies within the administration of government. He believed that scholars and
practitioners had focused on political institutions and too little attention had been paid to
administrative questions - the questions of how the government actually operates. As a result of
that lack of attention, was that it was becoming harder to run a constitution than to frame one.
He rst wanted the work o government agencies to be accomplished more effectively. He felt
that such organizations would operate best if they pursued the private sectors commitment to
efcient or businesslike operations.
Wilson particularly favoured the idea of concentrating power in a single authority atop a highly
integrated and centralized administrative structure. His recommendation of a strong chief
executive has been echoed by writers and CEO even to the present.
The men and women who followed Wilson in discussion of what came to be called Public
Administration were very practical people, concerned with reforming governmental structures
and making them more efcient. But they were also quite careful to place these concerns within
the context of democratic government. Leonard D. White, noted that the study of Public
Administration needs to be related to the broad generalizations of political theory concerned with
such matters as justice, liberty, obedience and the role of the state in human affairs. A continued
concern for operating efciently while at the same time operating in a way consistent with
democratic values marks the eld of public administration even today.
LECTURE NOTES I PLSC350 PUBLIC SERVICE ADMINISTRATION | 17-01-13
Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt
(Thompson and Wadsworth, 2009)

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The Ministry of Public Administration is a facilitating partner to Government Ministries,
Departments and Agencies, dedicated to supporting and developing a stronger and more versatile
Public Service. The portfolio of Public Administration was established in 1991 in the Office of
the Prime Minister. In 1996, a Ministry of Public Administration and Information (MPAI) was
created with an expanded portfolio. It was restructured as the Ministry of Public Administration
in May 2000 but was dissolved in December of the same year. It was reconstituted as the
Ministry of Public Administration in December 2001 and reconfigured as the Ministry of Public
Administration and Information in 2003. Subsequent to the November 2007 General Elections,
the Ministrys portfolio was split into two, and one of the ministries created was the present
Ministry of Public Administration (MPA).
The Ministry of Public Administration at present comprises the following six (6) core
Divisions:
Public Service Transformation Division (PSTD)
Public Management Consulting Division (PMCD)
Public Service Academy (PSA)
Scholarships and Advanced Training Division (SATD)
Strategic Human Resource Management Division (SHRMD)
Internal Support Divisions
As at September 2008, the Ministrys nine (9) internal support Divisions/Units are:-
Corporate Communications Division (CCD)
Corporate Services Division (CSD)
Finance and Accounts Division (FAD)
Human Resource Management Division (HRMD)
Legal Services Division (LSD)
Programme Management Division (PMD)
Strategic Services and Information Technology Division (SSD)
Executive Secretariat (ES)
Internal Audit (IA).
MPA Services
I. Services offered to Citizens:
Scholarships
Bursaries
LECTURE NOTES I PLSC350 PUBLIC SERVICE ADMINISTRATION | 17-01-13
Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt
(Thompson and Wadsworth, 2009)

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II. Services offered to Ministries/Departments:
Training of Public Ofcers (PSA)
New Systems Facilitators - NsFs (PSTD)
Opinion Leaders (PSTD)
Organisational Design and Consulting (PMCD)
WHAT DO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS DO?
An action orientation to public administration requires that we focus on what public and non-
prot managers actually do - how the act in real-world situations. How they spend their time?
What skills do they require to do their work well? What are the rewards and frustrations of public
service? From the perspective of the administrator, we can ask, what characterizes the most
effective and responsible public or nonprot management? What are the demands on
administrators? What are the satisfactions that public managers draw from their work?
We will approach these issues by concentrating on the skills managers need to accomplish their
work. In a classic article in the Harvard Business Review, Robert Katz provided the rst major
descriptions of the general skills all managers need:
1. Conceptual
2. Technical
3. Human
1. Conceptual skills include the ability to think abstractly, especially in regard to the
managers concept of the organization. This category also involves the ability to see the
organization as a whole, how all the parts or functions work and t together and how
making a change in one part will affect other parts. Conceptual skills also include the
ability to see how the organization or parts of it relate to the organizations environment.
2. Technical skills refer to an understanding of and prociency in the methods, processes and
techniques for accomplishing tasks. These are, for example, the skills of an accountant
who can conduct an audit or develop an income statement or the skills of a mechanic who
can repair an engine.
3. Human skills involve the capacity to work effectively as a member of a group or the ability
to get others to work together effectively. (Others may include subordinates, superiors,
managers at the same level or virtually anyone with whom one might work on a given
project or assignment.
LECTURE NOTES I PLSC350 PUBLIC SERVICE ADMINISTRATION | 17-01-13
Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt
(Thompson and Wadsworth, 2009)

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All these skills are important to managers but are not equally important to all managers. Katz
makes a strong argument that technical skills are most important to managers at the supervisory
level who manage day-to-day operations but become less and less important as the level of
management increases. On the other hand, conceptual skills are most important to top-level
managers who must deal with the organization as a whole rather than with just a few parts of it.
Conceptual skills are less important at the middle-management level and least important at the
supervisory level.
Human skills, however, maintain a constant, high level of importance; they are critical regardless
of ones level. How managers human skills are employed may vary from level to level (for
example, top managers lead more meetings than supervisory managers). but a category, human
skills remain the one constant for managerial success.
Conceptual skills are associated with knowledge and values. The techniques public managers
require in such areas as budgeting and personnel are technical skills and the personal and
interpersonal qualities that help managers work effectively with other are human skills.
One way to elaborate on an action approach is to create an inventory of the skills and
competencies required for successful public management. One of the best ways is to talk with
public managers about their work. Several research studies have sought to answer this question
by identifying the skills that are critical to managerial success. Of these studies, an early study
by the US Ofce of Personnel Management (OPM) is particularly helpful (Flanders & Utterback,
1985). The OPM study was based on information gathered from a large number of highly
effective federal managers and produced a description of the broad elements of managerial
performance at the supervisory, managerial and executive levels.
According to the OPM study, the competencies of managers include:
1. Being sensitive to agency policies and national concerns;
2. Representing the organization and acting as a liaison to those outside the organization;
3. Establishing organizational goals and the processes to carry them out;
4. Obtaining and allocating necessary resources to achieve the agencys purposes;
5. Effectively utilizing human resources;
6. Monitoring, evaluating and redirecting the work of the organization.
Public administration excellence requires not only doing the job, but doing it well. Different
skills are required for different managers. As managers move up the organizational lader, they
must accumulate increasingly broader sets of skills.
LECTURE NOTES I PLSC350 PUBLIC SERVICE ADMINISTRATION | 17-01-13
Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt
(Thompson and Wadsworth, 2009)

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First-line supervisors
Must apply communication skills, interpersonal sensitivity and technical competence to ensure
effective performance on their own part and within their work unit.
Their actions must begin to reect those characteristics in the next ring:
1. Leadership
2. Flexibility
3. An action orientation
4. A focus on results
Middle Managers
Must demonstrate all these characteristics of effectiveness and begin to acquire the skills
listed in the outer ring.
1. A broad perspective
2. A strategic view
3. Environmental sensitivity
Top Level Managers
They are at the highest levels of the public service and are responsible for the accomplishment of
broad agency objectives:
1. Must demonstrate a full complement of effectiveness characteristics
2. Above all, be most successful.
A wide diversity of skills, regardless of how the job is constructed or of the style in which it is
executed, will be essential to your success as a manager in the public service.
The OPM detailed the core qualications expected of the highest level government executives,
those comprising the Senior Executive Service:
LECTURE NOTES I PLSC350 PUBLIC SERVICE ADMINISTRATION | 17-01-13
Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt
(Thompson and Wadsworth, 2009)

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1. Leading change
2. Leading people
3. Results driven
4. Business acumen
5. Building coalitions
These were complemented by six competencies:
1. Interpersonal skills
2. Oral Communication
3. Integrity/Honesty
4. Written communication
5. Continual learning
6. Public service motivation
One public administrator when asked about her feelings of the work of Public
Administration stated:
I was interested in improving the quality of life for all people and increasing
the access of women and minorities. I believed that I could have the most
impact by being involved in local government at a management level. The
most rewarding aspects of my work have been, being able to articulate the
mission of the city and focus my resources and efforts in effectively meeting
that mission, solving problems of residents and seeing employees grow and
develop.
LECTURE NOTES I PLSC350 PUBLIC SERVICE ADMINISTRATION | 17-01-13
Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt
(Thompson and Wadsworth, 2009)

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