Communication Theory – Meaning and Examples
Imagine a world without communication! You have a brilliant idea with you but don’t possess the power of communication. You have a strong desire for something, but cannot express your desires. Life would be dull, blank and the world would not be worth living. Such is the power of communication. Communication is the essence of […]
The Problem with Economic Theories
The world has been in economic turmoil for the past century. One crisis after other has struck in different parts of the world. This is happening simultaneously with growing emphasis on economic education. Universities and schools all over the world are devoting more resources and manpower to economics than they have ever done before. Yet […]
Conflict at Workplace – Why Conflict Should be Avoided ?
Differences in interest, thought process, perception as well as need lead to a conflict. When individuals do not agree to each other’s opinions, a conflict arises. Conflict can occur at any place be it organizations, groups and even at our homes. Let us first go through the below example. Sandy was heading the operations department […]
Negotiation Techniques
Negotiation is referred to as the style of discussing things among individuals in an effort to come to a conclusion satisfying all the parties involved. Discussions should be on an open forum for every one to not only participate but also express their views and reach to an alternative acceptable to all. It is important […]
Self Assessment for Leadership: Assessing the Strengths and Vulnerabilities for Improving Leadership Effectiveness
Leaders are responsible for creating and realizing the vision by encouraging the followers to work towards the fulfilment of a common goal. Effective leaders should be able to have a perfect assessment of their strengths/weaknesses and deal with it efficiently. By adopting remedial measures, they should reinforce their areas of strengths and overcome their deficiencies. […]
The behavioral approach to public administration owes its genesis to the Human Relations Movement of the 1930s.
The movement started off as a protest to the traditional approaches to public administration that focused on organizations, institutionalization, rules, and code of conducts etc with absolutely no mention of people who are the center of all these activities.
The pioneering work done by Taylor and the emergence of Scientific Management created quite stir not just in the industrial sector but also in management and study of public administration.
Henry Fayol worked on his Fayolism at around the same time as Taylor and came up with different set of functions and principles for the management bringing in terms like discipline, unity of command, equity and team spirit.
Herbort Sumon was one of the torch bearers of this moment and stated that administrative behavior is part of behavioral sciences and the study of public administration cannot be complete without the study of individual and collective human behavior in administrative situations. The behavioral approach has certain salient features like:
This approach made more sense and had greater relevance than earlier approaches as it took into consideration the fact that the political, social, economical and psychological environments have an effect on human motivation and which ultimately has an effect on the work output of an individual.
It also helped to develop an understanding of what, how and why of the way the public administrators act. It showed that the way administration is conducted is influenced by human sentiments, presumptions biases and perception, which many of us may have experienced firsthand during our interaction with government organizations and public administrators.
Behavioral approach has contributed to the study of public administration in many ways like the scholars started studying cross-structural and cross-cultural administrative behaviors and which further paved the way for the comparative study of public administration.
Like all new things, this approach too has its fair share of criticism and the critics have ruthlessly questioned the utility of this approach in the analysis of administrative problems.
They find it limited in scope and of little use. The study of public administration goes beyond small social groups and deals with large communities and therefore the behavioral approach falls short.
The modern behavioral approach is leaning towards becoming more action oriented and prescription format nevertheless. Roscoe Martin and his Craft Perspective define the shift better.
It concerns itself with the decisions, outcomes and the political skill needed to perform a particular managerial job.
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