Comparative Public Administration
February 12, 2025
The Importance of Employment Statistics Management students and professionals alike should know the importance of employment statistics and numbers and must also know how to interpret such reports. Indeed, based on employment statistics and numbers, several important business decisions such as when to enter a particular market or how to base such entry strategies need […]
It has been well established that people with strong communication skills perform better at workplace, primarily for the reason that they can manage people effectively, whether clients, colleagues or bosses. However, like any other skill, communication skill can be honed and developed. Managers who spend time in developing this skill in their teams, reap benefits […]
The Concept of Sovereignty Sovereignty is a term that is used to refer to the independence and autonomy of modern nation states. Unlike earlier eras where countries were ruled by Kings in historic times and by colonial powers in the 18th and 19th centuries, sovereignty refers to the fact of absolute independence and autonomy that […]
The dialogue between individuals to come to a common conclusion benefiting all is called as negotiation. Negotiation refers to the discussions among individuals evaluating the pros and cons of a situation and coming to an alternative best suited to all. In negotiation, individuals try their level best to come to a conclusion which would satisfy […]
The Downfall of Charles Ghosn and his Sudden Fall from Grace Over the last few days, the global media has incessantly covered the fall from grace of one of the most flamboyant and charismatic CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of the present times, Charles Ghosn of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the three way automakers alliance which is one of […]
We are at the next level of understanding departments within the organizations. In the earlier article we understood about the line staff and auxiliary agencies and the organization of business in departments based on the four principles of finance, process, clientele and geography. This article shall look at the distribution of authority within the department.
Based on the distribution of authority, there are two main systems namely Bureau System and the Board or Commission system within departments. When all the administrative authority is invested in a single individual within the department then the system is Bureau.
When a plural body is vested with all the administrative power then the system is known as Board or Commission. Now, the next obvious question that comes into the mind is how to decide which system to use. According to author Raj Kumar Pruthi, in his book Administrative Organizations, there are conditions that determine the choice of systems:
Also, when an organization has to perform both kinds of functions, then in such cases as well, the Board systems works better.
To sum up, for services and functions that require collective intelligence, holistic view points, mature decision making, a Board system works well as there are more members to arrive at balanced decisions.
The Board or Commission system is followed under following conditions:
There has been a lot of debate amongst the scholars regarding whether the public organizations and their structures inherently differ from those of private organizations.
Some support the argument saying that it does and some say that through the difference is there but it is only in the presence of red tapes in the public organizations.
Those who oppose the statement argue that, the public organizations are very different from the private organization in terms of lack of flexibility, excessive government control, lack of clear performance indicators like profit and loss and a lot of emphasis on rules and hierarchy.
Some researchers like Pugh, Hickson and Hinnings pointed out that the size of the organization and technological developments are other important determinants of the structures and hierarchy of any organization.
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