Comparative Public Administration
February 12, 2025
Ethics Management Programs are designed by an organisation or an employer as an attempt to have formalised structures for ensuring the organisation is perceived as fair, honest, responsible and just. Ethical programs globally are designed keeping four things in mind: Considering oneself and the organisation as part of the larger social framework. Considering the development […]
In the previous article, we have already learned about how fronting works in reinsurance. We now know how different entities have to collaborate in this complex arrangement called fronting. The concept of fronting is fairly recent and has been growing quite rapidly. However, before deciding whether or not fronting is right for a particular reinsurance […]
The fall of American giants such as Sears and Toys R Us has brought the focus back on vulture capitalists. People react negatively when they hear about private equity firms who have profited off the misery of other weaker firms. This is the reason why they have coined a derogatory term for the companies. This […]
High-Performance work teams comprise a group of highly talented and motivated professionals working together for the achievement of a common goal or business objectives. High-Performance teams assure the highest levels of performance and productivity, unlike average teams by leveraging the business resources optimally and making best utilisation of the available talents or competencies. Such teams […]
We have come across a number of times during our exploration of the topic, that it is somewhat difficult to define public administration in concrete terms. It has close association, interaction and influences from several fields of studies like law, political and social science administrative science and human relations and even behavioral science for that […]
The line agency in its traditional form exists as departments. Departments are the fundamental unit of administrative organizations and carries out all the functions. There are different shortcoming and problems associated with this structure as well but before we dwell into that, we shall make an attempt to understand the basic principles on which the organization of departments is based.
The organization of departments is based on four principles:
The above mentioned principles are not the sole criteria for the basis of organizations, aspects like traditions and history also play a role. Generally, the governments look at a combination of one or more principles and considerations to base the departments on. The most relevant however has been the functional principle or the Scientific Principle of Organization. With increase in specialization of functions, it only makes sense to have organizations based on them. Let us read about some of the features of this principle:
The departments are further divided into divisions which is the vertical division based on the broader functions to be performed by the department. The horizontal division is done for other specific activities to be carried out under that division.
The horizontal method of dividing the work within the organization is preferred in comparison to the vertical segregation. The arguments given for the same are:
The departments are generally divided into two divisions (there may be more), the division of Primary Activities and the Division of Secondary or Institutional Activities about which we read earlier.
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