Fisheries Administration and Lagislation

Unit 1 - Public administration

1.1 Introduction

The Public Administration/Management has following objectives:

• Understand the concept of public administration/ management/organization
• Understand the evolution of the concept of public administration and its importance
• Understand the role of government
• Understand the role and core functions of public manager
• Understand the structure of government /organizations
• Create understanding about the skills required by the public manager in imparting duties
• Understand the changing role of government and role of public managers.

The word ‘administration’ has been derived from Latin words ‘ad’ = to and ‘ministiare’ = serve and ‘Public’ = people or citizens. Thus the word administration means to execute the policy of government to serve public. The course on public administration/management is important as every citizen must understand the functioning of government. Besides, whether one works in private or public organization or one is doing one’s own business or whatever the profession, this course is useful as it helps understand organizations and their functioning. It also helps us understand the environment in which we are working.

A public administration as a practice is as old as the human civilization. When human beings started living in society in an organized way they started the practice of administration, because they started to live cooperatively in society. It is said that when a man tried to left a stone and was unable to do so alone and was helped by another man, the practice of ‘management/administration began. Egyptian Pyramids (1491 BC) You must have seen Egyptian pyramids and must have thought how such huge structure was built. The construction of Egyptian pyramids in 1491 is an example of practice of administration, as it involved cooperative effort of thousands of people. Mohenjodaro and Harrapa In Pakistan Mohenjodaro and Harrapa civilizations are a magnificent example of practice of administration. The two cities had well planned roads, granary, wells and walls around the city to protect it. Such planning of city shows that the rulers managed the city well.

Definition of Public Administration
Now we will look at various definitions of public administration to better comprehend the concept: “Public administration is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes and goals of government are realized”.

• "Public administration as a field is mainly concerned with the means for implementing political values…”
• “The process of public administration consists of the actions involved in effecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus the continuously active, ‘business’ part of government, concerned with carrying out the law, as made by legislative bodies (or other authoritative agents) and interpreted by the courts, through the processes of organization and management.”
• It is a cooperative group effort in a public setting;
• It covers all the three branches --- executive, legislative, and judicial -- and their interrelationships.

Evolution of Public Administration
One of the definitions of Public Administration is that public administration is about management of public programmes. As we have learnt that during the period of Indus Valley civilization cities were well constructed and planned and that the practice of public administration is old. But as a subject it is new. We would now see the development of this practice as a subject. The evolution of public administration/ management is discussed in following paragraphs. The study of public administration is divided in following Schools:

• The Classical School
• Human Relations School
• Behavioural School
• System School
• Management Science School
• Power and Politics School