Introduction to Public Management Theory

INTRODUCTION TO

PUBLIC MANAGEMENT THEORY

Alan S. Cajes

Introduction to Public Management Theory

Š 2003 Alan S. Cajes All rights reserved. Published 2003.

Printed in the Philippines Printing or copying information exclusively for personal and non-commercial use with proper acknowledgment of the author is allowed. Users are restricted from reselling, redistributing, or creating derivative works for commercial purposes without the express, written consent of the author.

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Introduction to Public Management Theory 1

THEORY, MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE Theory is an explanation of related facts. It is a set of ideas and methods used to discover meaning or significance.

Meaning or significance refers to the pattern of relationships that the mind establishes between or among perceivable objects. In the absence of a pattern of relationships, objects of perception are just out there, devoid of any meaning.

One way of explaining meaning or significance is through the concept of difference or the metaphysical principle of separateness. Take the case of the terms “right” and “wrong”. The human mind understands the meaning of right because of its difference from wrong. Without the idea “wrong,” the mind could not determine what is “right.” Why? Because if there is no idea of what is wrong, then the mind could not tell that something is right, and vice versa.2 This is the basic concept of the principle of separateness. Everything is “something determinate in itself, existing, and at the same time, not identical with any other being and unity.”3 Put differently, everything is separate and distinct from other things. Hence, the “concept of separateness is expressed...in a judgment of ontic differences, that is, in a judgment affirming

1

Earlier versions of this paper were delivered in lecture form to officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on November 19-23, 2001 at Camp Crame and to students of the Master in Public Management Program, Development Academy of the Philippines, in July 2002.

2 Other metaphysicians claim that the principle of identity is more basic than the principle of separateness or contradiction. This means that one knows a thing not in relation to its opposite. Thus, “right” is known to be “right” not in relation to “wrong” but per se.

3 Mieczyslaw Albert Krapiec, Metaphysics An Outline of the History Being (New York, San Francisco, Bern, Frankfurt am Main, Paris and London: Peter Lang, 1991), 133 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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the pluralism of beings.�

44

Meaning, therefore, is a way of seeing the differences of things known and establishing their pattern of relatedness or unrelatedness. An illustration of this is the shift in approach in addressing the problem of depleting fish stock.

In the early 90s, one of the ways to prevent over fishing was through the activities of the Bantay-Dagat Programs. The general perception was that depleting fish supply was due to the bad fishing practices like the use of poison and dynamites. To solve this problem, the government and volunteer groups implemented a program policing the costal zones to prevent illegal fishing and apprehend illegal fishers. At this time, the idea of solving the same problem by also policing the forests to prevent illegal logging did not yet make sense or meaning. Thus, there was no relation then between forest degradation and the depletion of fish supply in coastal areas.

A few years later, the approach changed. What was once unrelated became interconnected; what was once meaningless became meaningful. This became possible by showing the ecological patterns of relationships between the coastal resources and the upland or forest resources. It was shown, for instance, that forest degradation leads to siltation of rivers and estuarine areas, the hatching ground for fish.

The coastal zone and the upland zone are obviously different ecological systems. That is why one can make a distinction between the latter and the former. But the two zones are related since they form part of the overall natural system. Hence, although the two zones are separate and distinct from each other, the mind can see patterns of their interrelatedness or meaning.

FUNCTION AND DEFINITION OF THEORY The function of a theory is to explain phenomena, which are composed of facts. By establishing a pattern of relationships between and among facts constituting a phenomenon, one can explain the meaning or significance of such patterns of relatedness. In so doing, one can bring out to the open a phenomenon so that it becomes understandable to the human mind. Without 4

Ibid.

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explanation, a phenomenon lays hidden from human understanding; with explanation, a phenomenon becomes sensible.

There are explanations that are correct in the same way that there are theories that become discredited over a period of time. A theory becomes discredited or no longer acceptable when a better theory or way of explaining a phenomenon becomes available.

Before the time of Isaac Newton, for instance, it was widely believed that the “moon stayed in the sky because it obeyed heavenly laws that were 5

beyond the reach of earthly laws that forced objects to fall to the ground.”

But Newton debunked this explanation when he proposed his gravitation theory. In this theory, gravity is a force. It is its laws that prevent the moon from falling from the sky. This discovery led to the possibility of explaining the motion of the heavenly bodies. th

Newton’s gravitation theory became dominant in science from the 17 century up to the time when Albert Einstein proposed his general theory of relativity in 1915. In this theory, Einstein explained gravitation “as the 6

marriage of space-time and matter-energy.” For Einstein, gravity is not a force but “the bending of space-time caused by the presence of matter-energy (the sun).”

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A theory then is a kind of story or what postmodernists call a narrative.

It tells the story about known facts. Take the case of republicanism, which is a political theory enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. By treating this theory as a kind of a narrative, the country’s political system can be told and explained.

5

Michio Kaku and Jennifer Thompson, Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 18 6 Ibid., 27 7 Ibid., 28 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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Republicanism as a Political Narrative8 Consent of the governed is the bedrock of the Philippine political system.

The framers of the country’s constitution explicitly planted this idea in the fundamental law of the land. Formally adopted in 1987, the Philippine Constitution provides that sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them. This provision eloquently makes the Philippines a republican state.

The essence of Philippine republicanism may be expressed in this way: more and more representative democracy, and less and less direct democracy.

The first type of democracy means that the people elect from among themselves those who will govern on their behalf. This differs from the second type, which means that the people govern themselves directly. Put differently, representative or mediated democracy means government through agents, while direct democracy means government through the principals of the social contract.

The constitution or the contract among the principals of the state sets the parameters on how democracy operates in the country. Democracy’s representative character takes form through the three co-equal branches of government, namely, the executive department, the legislature, and the judiciary. Each branch is sovereign in its domain. The executive department is sovereign when it implements laws. The legislature is sovereign when it enacts laws. And the judiciary is sovereign when it interprets laws or settles competing legal claims.

Such a differentiated but complementary exercise of sovereignty is not only designed to institute a system of checks and balances. It also aims to speed up the performance of government functions, and to ensure high quality in the delivery of public services through specialization. More importantly, it is a delegated function of the governed – the citizens, who are the elementary particles of sovereignty.

The delegation of such an important function is convenient since the people are preoccupied with the urgent demands of life such as making a 8

A version of this part of the paper was published in INQ7.net on May 23, 2001. See http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/may/23/vwp_4-1.htm Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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living and supporting a family, among others. Because it is impractical for the people to always govern themselves directly, they choose from among themselves those who will exercise sovereignty on their behalf. The process of choosing the governors happens during elections, which are moments in the political history when the people directly exercise sovereignty by voting their candidates to office.

Direct democracy, however, does not only happen during elections.

The constitution also provides for such avenues as initiative, referendum, and recall. Through such means, the people can directly enact laws, make important political decisions, and withdraw the delegated sovereignty from those they have elected.

Election or the process by which the sovereign Filipino people directly exercise sovereignty to delegate it to those they have elected is a political function of qualified citizens of the republic. Its basis is the principle of knowledge, which means that the citizens elect those who represent their will.

That is why candidates for election run on the basis of political platforms, which they design to meet the will of the electorates. Democracy as a marketplace of ideas requires the candidates to sell political ideas to the electorates, who will decide whether such ideas are consistent to their own.

When elections do not follow the principle of knowledge, they fail, at least in theory. The subsequent outcomes of a failed election are theoretically questionable.

Because a republic operates on the proper exercise of sovereignty, procedures serve as a method to determine the validity of the exercise of sovereignty. Procedures are products of reason and experience or theory and practice. They involve a series of steps or activities that are logically or sequentially lined up to produce the desired results. In science, procedures determine the validity and reliability of knowledge. In politics, they define legitimacy.

Take, for instance, the election process. The candidates design their political platforms and then file their certificates of candidacy; the Commission on Elections publicly announces the qualified candidates; the candidates campaign; the voters choose their candidates, write their names on the ballot, and put their ballot in the ballot box; the election canvassers count the valid Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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ballots and based on the rule of majority or plurality declare the winners of the election. Any deviation from the process would render the results of the election invalid or unreliable.

A republic, therefore, operates on the basis of laws or generally accepted political principles that define the procedures for the exercise of sovereignty. Whenever the governed or their agents make arbitrary political decisions, the republic degenerates into anarchy.

Hence a theory does not merely explain. As shown above, a theory also helps in systematizing a social organization or, in the case of Philippine republicanism, a system of political administration.

Definition of Theory Theory refers to “a set of interrelated constructs (concepts), definitions and propositions that presents a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena.”9 In this definition, concepts are the building blocks of a theory.

Concept refers to the term and its meaning or definition. The meaning of a term differs from one theory to another. The term jail, for instance, could mean either a place of rehabilitation or a place for punishment, depending on the theory that a researcher in criminology will use. That is why in research, a definition of terms is important so that readers will be guided accordingly when they read the research work.

In logic, propositions are statements that can either be affirmed or denied. They are composed of concepts and stated in such a way that they convey a message or a train of thought.10 Greek humanism, for instance, posits that a person (man) is a “rational animal, and that the meaning of human life is found in the exercise of rationality.”11 9

See Fred N. Kerliner, Foundations of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966), 11. Karl Popper considers theory as a tentative conjecture, something that cannot be proven by empirical evidence but can be refuted. See also Scott Gordon, The History and Philosophy of Social Science (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), 600-601 10 Theoretical propositions, in research, are the bases of research hypotheses, which are tentative solutions to a research problem.

11 Kenneth Minogue, Politics, A Avery Short Introduction (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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THEORIES OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT A Clarification of Terms Negro and Nigro (1992) defines public administration by summarizing its five (5) characteristics: 1. It is a cooperative group effort in a public setting; 2. Covers all three branches of government – executive, legislative, and judicial – and their interrelationships; 3. Has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus a part of the political process; 4. Is different in significant ways from private administration, and 5. Is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals on providing services to the community.12 The important terms in the above definition are: public, government, politics and administration. The term “public” pertains to or affects “the people as a whole or the community, state or nation.”13 In current usage, it refers to the interest groups or stakeholders broadly represented by the public sector, private sector and civil society. The term “government” is commonly defined in political science textbooks as the instrumentality through which the State acts.14 It means the “political direction and control exercised over the action of” the citizens.15 The term “politics” refers to the “art and science of political government.”16 It is an art because it can be practiced or put to use. It is also a science because it has a systematic body of knowledge from which the principles and conduct of government are derived, hence the term “political science.”

The term “administration” has a number of meanings. It could mean the 1) 1995), 11

12

Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration 7th Edition (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Philippine copyright, 1992 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.), 11 13 Webster’s Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language 14 “State” is the collective term of the citizens, the definite territory that they occupy, their government, which the international community recognizes and through which they render habitual obedience, and their exercise of sovereignty or freedom from internal or external control.

15 Webster’s Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language 16 Ibid.

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“management of any office or organization; 2) the function of a political state in exercising its governmental duties; 3) the duty or duties of an administrator in exercising his executive functions, and 4) the management by an administrator of such duties.”17 Dwight Waldo, however, distinguishes “public administration” from “Public Administration”. The former has to “with the administration of public organizations and public offices” while the latter covers the academic study of public organizations.18 The former definition is akin to the definition by Negro and Nigro.

From the above discussion of concepts, one can say that public administration is essentially the systematic process of putting government into action so that it can perform its roles and functions as the instrumentality of the State. Thus, public administrators are persons vested with authority to perform duties and responsibilities required of their respective occupied offices. Public administrators are, however, different from politicians whose job is to formulate the State’s policies, goals and values. Once the politicians have done their job, the burden of implementing the policies, achieving the goals and observing the values shift to the shoulders of public administrators.

Public Management and Public Administration Public management is not synonymous with public administration although they are often used interchangeably in literature. 19 Public management is a tool of public administration. It may be defined as the application of management sciences in public administration.20 17

Ibid.

See Dwight Waldo, “Public administration” in Marian Irish (ed.), Political Science: Advance of the Discipline (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968), 158-169. This work was cited in Danilo R. Reyes, “The Identity Crisis in Public Administration Revisited: Some Definitional Issues and the Philippine Setting” in Victoria A. Bautista, et. al (eds.) Introduction to Public Administration in the Philippines, A Reader (Quezon City: University of the Philippines and the College of Public Administration, 1993), 18-38 19 Another confusing term for students of public administration and management is “governance.”

Although governance deserves a lengthy discussion in itself, this writer adopts Joachim Ahrens’s definition of governance as "the capacity of the institutional environment" to manage the interaction among and between individuals and social groups, as well as the public agencies. See Joachim Ahrens, “Prospects of Institutional and Policy Reform in India: Toward a Model of the Development State?” Asian Development Review vol. 15, no. 1 (1997), 111-146. This writer also takes the perspective that governance is a method or system of public administration while public management is a tool of public administration. Thus, governance applies at the political level while public management applies at the organizational level.

20 The application of management sciences to business administration is appropriately called business management.

18

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Management sciences are “normative in character, and quantitative in their methodologies.” 21 Their focal point is decision-making as a means in solving problems and improving organizational performance. Robert L. Joss’s discussion on the functions of a manager will help explain this point: “…A manager is responsible for seeing that his or her organization (or unit within the organization) performs – that it fulfills its purpose with sufficient effectiveness to warrant its continued existence. Managers inherit an organization’s past and its current capabilities, and are responsible for defining and delivering a better future. This usually required the organization to continually improve and innovate. “ The unique feature of the management job is that the manager is responsible for accomplishing results though work with other people…They assume an accountability for the collective achievement of those under their supervision… “ In this role, the important tasks which a manager must fulfill include selecting people, organizing their assignments and work, providing them the tools and training to do their jobs well, and giving the coaching and feedback necessary for people to know how they are doing and how they can improve. All this is done within the context of the defined ‘results’ which the manager has clarified for the organization to deliver.”22 This extensive quotation aims to emphasize the distinct role of a manager so one can appreciate the various tools and techniques that a manager uses in his/her work. Among the tools, approaches and techniques, which the management sciences have contributed to the field of public administration, are operations research, model building, econometrics, urban planning, transport management, civil service management, natural resources management, planning, programming and budgeting system (PPBS), cost-benefit analysis, linear programming, decision theory, statistical 21

Division for Public Economics and Public Administration, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Rethinking Public Administration: An Overview, 47 22 Robert L. Joss, “Management,” Australian Journal of Management vol. 26, special issue (August 2001), copyright by the Australian Graduate School of Management Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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decision-making, probability experimental design, simulation, programme evaluation and review technique/critical path method (PERT/CPM), queuing and sampling, game theory, information theory and cybernetics, among others.23 Integrative Management Theories The open-systems theory, contingency theory, organizational development approach, industrial humanism, and the limited rationality theory are generally referred to as the integrative approaches to management.

These theories attempt to study organizations holistically as distinguished from the “piece-meal” approach of earlier theories like the bureaucratic model, scientific management, administration school and human relations resources school.

Open-Systems Theory The techniques used in public management come from the “systems approach to problem solving.”24 The basic idea of the systems approach is the interrelationship between the internal and external environment of an organization. The internal environment includes the processes, machines, equipments, people, managers, etc. while the external environmental generally covers the inputs or raw materials that the organization uses, the outputs or what the organization produces, and the stakeholders such as the customers, suppliers, etc. Any change in the internal or external environment will have an impact on the whole organization.

When the ISO standards, for instance, became widely accepted in the 90s, businesses in the country adopted and instituted the standards of ISO 9000 and 14000 in their respective organizations. Here, the demand of the external environment for high-quality and environment-friendly products and services required business organizations to modify their internal processes.

Under the open-systems theory, organizations are viewed as sets of “variables that are interrelated in such a way that changes in one variable 23

See Division for Public Economics and Public Administration, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Rethinking Public Administration: An Overview, 46-47 24 Ibid., 63 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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effect changes in other variables.” 25 This theory basically claims that organizations exhibit similar characteristics such as the following: 1. “As open systems, organizations constantly seek and import resources (inputs) in both human and material form and transform these inputs into products and services, using internal social and technological processes (throughputs).

2. “Open systems export their products to the external environment, and these outputs usually become the inputs of other organizations.

3. “Organization structures develop around patterned activities that form stable and predictable input, throughput, and output cycles.

4. “Over time, structural differentiation and task specialization are common system responses to the search for resources and adaptiveness, and as the organization becomes more complex, managerial structures for coordination and control become more elaborate.

5. “Feedback, in the form of information about environmental responses to organizational activities (outputs), is used to keep the system on course with regard to its goals and to evaluate the performance of the organization and its sub-units.

6. “Open systems seek equilibrium or a stable state, both internally and in relation to external forces, and they achieve equilibrium through a constant process of adaptation to their environments.”26 The open-systems theory is inspired by recent developments in the physical sciences, particularly theoretical physics and ecology. The organizational characteristics shown above, for instance, are directly related to the characteristics of natural processes like the water and nitrogen cycles. In the same way that there are models used in natural resources management, open-systems organizations can also be studied through models. The use of techniques such as inventory controls and just-in-time approaches help managers in predicting and controlling 25

Koya Azumi and Gerald Hage, Organizational Systems (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1972), 11 quoted by Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 123 26 Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 123 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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organizational performance. These techniques fall under the field of total quality management (TQM), which is one of the recent and notable approaches under the systems-theory.

Contingency Theory The situational or contingency theory developed in the late 1950s. It denies the claim that there is a single best way of managing organizations because of the various and shifting variables or contingencies that will affect the needs and operation of an organization. Management approach, therefore, needs to change or adapt to the changing business factors.

In terms of organizational structure, the theory stresses the importance of the organization’s size, the technology it uses, the environment where the organization operates, etc. These factors vary from one organization to another, as well as from one part of the organization to another. Thus, there is no one best way to structure an organization. Since the various parts of an organization are influenced by contingencies, they may need to be structured differently.

The theory emphasizes that managers have little or no control over internal and external factors that may affect their organization. Although managers can strategize on how to respond to such factors, they always face the risk that the organization may not be able to produce what is expected.

Minimizing risk through contingency planning is a key organizational approach under the contingency theory. This involves the avoidance or reduction of fire-fighting approaches, which often divert an organization’s resources and focus away from the intended course of activities. One way by which a manager could minimize business risks is by manipulating or influencing the organization’s external contingencies by advertising and marketing interventions, entering into partnerships with government and industry associations, etc An important contribution of the contingency to the field of management is the implied need for managers to continually search for practices and techniques that they can use in responding to specific organizational situations. Thus, the need for organizations to build their Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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knowledge bases using appropriate information management systems, including project and process monitoring systems.

Organization Development The basic proposition of this approach to management is that organizations are changeable. Thus an organization can solve its problems by effecting changes or improvements in the parts of the organization. Most of the strategies and techniques under this approach “focus on motivation, morale and performance and can include group dynamics, role playing, critical incidents research, participative management, organizational learning and development, sensitivity training, group encounters, conflict resolution and communication techniques.”27 Organization development (OD) involves four basic phases, namely, diagnostic, action planning, implementation, and evaluation. In the diagnostic phase, “an OD specialist works with management to define clearly the reasons for the problem and to decide which organizational characteristics are involved.” 28 The action-planning phase involves the formulation of the proposed strategy or intervention to address the identified problem. In this phase, an OD specialist may use focused-group discussions involving the key stakeholders of the problem to determine the “most important points of intended impact or leverage.”29 In the implementation phase, an OD specialist uses applicable tools and techniques to solve the identified problem. In the last phase, an OD specialist, together with the key stakeholders, reviews the implementation of the OD strategy or intervention to assess its effectiveness vis-à-vis the desired outcome.30 OD specifically aims to formulate the strategy or intervention needed to produce change(s) in behavior of the organization or parts of the organization.

Its general objective is “to create an ongoing organizational capacity to solve problems.”31

27

Division for Public Economics and Public Administration, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Rethinking Public Administration: An Overview, 64 28 Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 122 29 Ibid.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

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Industrial Humanism Industrial humanism, following William G. Scott and Terence R. Mitchell, 32 uses “social-psychological concepts and research findings to the design of jobs and the conduct of the managerial process.”33 The proponents of this theory claim that “aspects of the formal structure such as depersonalization, task specialization, and close supervision alienate and frustrate many workers, with resulting adverse effects on performance.”34 Industrial humanism or the organizational psychology approach focuses on “problems associated with understanding and improving the social-psychological interface between the worker and the organization.”35 Its basic assumptions include the following: 1. “The average employee wants and will respond positively to work that is interesting and also allows some discretion and the opportunity to shape his or her work environment; 2. “In many cases, jobs can be redesigned so as to satisfy basic psychological needs; 3. “Close supervision and control-oriented administrative structures do not automatically produce efficiency; 4. “Tightly centralized decision-making in a rigidly hierarchical format often causes workers to feel powerless and subject to constant manipulation, and 5. “Authoritarian management prevents the healthy psychological development of the person; over the long run, it fails to produce the desired contributions to organizational efforts.”36 Limited Rationality Theory Herbert Simon propounded this theory as a reaction to the rational-comprehensive model, which assumes that decision-makers have complete information and can make informed and intelligent decisions all the 32

See William G. Scott and Terence R. Mitchell, Organization Theory: A Structural and Behavioral Analysis, rev. ed. (Homewood, III.: the Dorsey Press, 1972), 27-29.

33 Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 120 34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid. 121 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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time. Simon’s alternative model contains the following assumptions, which are opposed to those of the rational-comprehensive model: 1. “Organizational actors frequently do not agree on basic values, goals, and outcome preferences and, therefore, these are often vague and contradictory; 2. “Decision makers typically do not know all of the possible alternatives available or their consequences; 3. “More often than not, managers respond to problems on the basis of preconceived notions and habitual patterns; 4. “The motives and values which come together to define a problem and structure the search for solutions have their roots in group-based perspectives as opposed to an organizational point of view, and 5. “Organizational decision makers never have perfect information and they have, for technical and psychological reasons, only a limited capacity to analyze the information they have.”37 The value of Simon’s model may be expressed in this way: Since decision makers have limited rationality, the structure and processes of an organization are given due importance because they help in increasing people’s organizational rationality. Workers, for instance, bring in competencies in their workplaces, thereby helping the organization solve work-related problems. In turn, an organization could help improve the competencies of workers through training programs and other forms of interventions. This process would result in improved rationality both at the individual and organizational levels.

Classical and Neo-Classical Approaches The preceding management theories are part of the general trend to “understand organizations holistically and to define areas in which management might effectively intervene to improve technical, social, and psychological conditions.” 38 The trend is a reaction to the perceived

37 38

Ibid. 119 Ibid. 118

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inadequacies of the Human Relations approach to management.39 The important contribution of such trend in management theory is the effort to view organizations in an integrative manner. The earlier management theories were generally focused on particular aspects of organizations rather than the whole. This does not mean, however, that the earlier theories are no longer useful. Many of the ideas contained in the integrative theories come from the earlier models, which are discussed below.

Bureaucratic Model The sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) viewed the state as possessing “within the domain of its jurisdiction a monopoly over coercive force.” 40 In his reading of the signs of his times, there was a significant trend in the “modernization of the state’s exercise of coercive power by its adoption of rationalistic methods and the staffing of its departments with people who are skilled in the arts of efficient administration.”41 Weber attributed the introduction of “more ‘rational,” i.e., more efficient, mode of hierarchical organization” to capitalist. 42 This modern mode of organizations or rational-legal bureaucracy eventually paved “the way for the shift of the authority to exercise the coercive power of the state from the politicians to officials.” 43 Weber described bureaucracy in the following terms:44 1. “A hierarchical arrangement of offices, each with its own authority or legitimated powers. The administrative structure of the bureaucracy, therefore, is pyramidal, with each lower office under the control of a higher one.

2. “A systematic division of labor, with each office or position having its own clearly specified sphere of competence expressed as duties and powers.

3. “Formalized, written rules of conduct and procedure to be 39

Ibid.

Scott Gordon, The History and Philosophy of Social Science, 484 41 Ibid.

42 Ibid, 487 43 Ibid.

44 Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 102 40

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applied uniformly. These rules are implemented and followed because ‘…they conform to the statutes of a government that monopolizes their enactment and the legitimate use of physical force.’”45 4. “Impersonality – officials are subject to an impersonal order and formally established norms of conduct, and they act only in accordance with these rules in their contacts with others inside and outside the organization.

5. “Neutral competence is the hallmark of the bureaucratic official.

They are selected and progress through their bureaucratic careers on the basis of their technical competence, not considerations such as social status and partisan loyalties.”

Based on Weber’s description of bureaucracy, one can distill the following reasons why he “asserted that bureaucratic forms of organization were more efficient than other systems of administration:”46 1. Clear definition of staff duties and responsibilities; 2. Clear delineation of office functions and authority; 3. Implementation of written rules of conduct and procedure; 4. Observance of government laws; 5. Professionalism in dealing with internal and external stakeholders; 6. Competence-based selection process, and 7. Performance-based promotion process.

Scientific Management The scientific management approach started influencing the art and science of management in the United States when Weber was writing his ideas about the sociology of organizations. 47 This trend was stimulated by the industrial revolution that “made technology an important element in organizing work, and brought the man-machine nexus into sharp focus.” 48 With the 45

Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, Doubleday & Co., 1962), 49-79 and Guenther Roth and Wolgang Schuchter, Max Weber’s Vision of History (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1979), 11-64. Cited in Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 102 46 Ibid. 103 47 Ibid. 106 48 Division for Public Economics and Public Administration, Department of Economics and Social Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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introduction of machines that speed up the production process, workers needed to be “proficient in carrying out technical processes.”49 The new requirements for organizational efficiency altered the method of earlier organizations, which relied mostly on manual labor. Work tasks became specialized and repetitive, hence routinary. But since the production was now dependent on both people and machines, there was much focus in rewarding productivity. Thus, workers were paid more when they rendered overtime work and manufacturing processes were designed in a systematic way.

Frederick W. Taylor, one of the proponents of scientific management, was an engineer who “concentrated on intensive, empirical analyses of work processes at the level of the industrial shop and the individual worker.” 50 Taylor’s goal was to discover the “’one-best-way’ to design and execute tasks.”51 He pointed out “the need for professional management, the scientific study and design of work processes, and the creation of an ethos promoting the mutuality of interests between workers and the organization.”52 For him, organizations must aim for “efficiency and goal accomplishment,” which can be achieved through “systematic research and evaluation.”53 Principles of the Administration School The focus of the administration school was not shop management but the entire organization. For the proponents of this approach to management, efficiency and organizational goals cannot be achieved by fine-tuning the worker-machine but by properly arranging and readjusting the organizational parts or subdivisions.54 The important principles of the administration school 55

include the following :55 1. “Organizational structure, coordinated by management, is the Affairs, Rethinking Public Administration: An Overview, 65 49 Ibid.

50 Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 106 51 Ibid.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid. 107 54 Ibid, 109 55 Ibid. 110 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

key to rational-efficient administration. People should be correctly fitted to the structure, and the organization chart is a basic tool for monitoring and controlling the entire administrative process.

“Organizations should be constructed according to four basic criteria: (a) the purposes they serve, (b) the processes they use, (c) the persons and things worked with, and (d) the place where their work is done. Also, whenever possible, division of labor and specialization (of organizational units) are desirable.

“Unit of command or direction by only one supervisor is essential. Multiple supervision creates confusion and conflict, which undermine organizational performance and employee morale. For the parts of the organization to function effectively, in a coordinated manner, there must be a unified command at the top of the system – i.e., hierarchy is required. Similarly, the head of each organizational unit must centrally direct all activities of that unit.

“Those held responsible for tasks in the organization must be given the authority to carry them out. Thus, along with responsibility, authority should be delegated down the hierarchy to its logical level, and top management should concentrate on the setting of organizational goals and general policies to be implemented by subordinates.

“A narrow ‘span of control’ is desirable. There is a limit to the number of immediate subordinates that any one person can effectively direct and control. This number decreases as the variety and complexity of subordinate functions increases.

Inefficiency and confusion are likely to result when one official attempts to supervise directly the activities of a large number of organizational subdivisions. Consequently, tall hierarchies with narrow spans of control are often needed to maintain control.

“Systematic planning is a necessary administrative function.

Through planning, management creates the organizational foresight necessary for long-term survival and prosperity.

“Human psychological variables should be taken into consideration… Incentives and other personnel practices should be used to promote initiative and a willingness to accept responsibility. Esprit de corps and harmony should be

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cultivated.”

The famous proponents of the administration school include Henri Fayol, a French mining engineer and executive, and Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick, who edited the Papers on the Science of Administration. 56 It was Gulick who formulated his noted acronym, POSDCORB, of the seven administrative functions: 1. “Planning: the development in broad outline of the a activities to be carried out and their methods of execution so as to accomplish the goals of the organization; 2. “Organizing: the establishment of the formal structure of authority, on the basis of which work subdivisions (e.g., departments, bureaus, agencies, offices, etc.) are established and coordinated; 3. “Staffing: the entire personnel function of recruiting and training staff and maintaining favorable working conditions; 4. “Directing: the continuous task of dealing the organization by making decisions and implementing them through policies and procedures; 5. “Coordinating: the crucial job of interrelating and meshing the various parts or elements of the work process; 6. “Reporting: the process and techniques of keeping superiors informed of the status of their work in progress (e.g., data collection and information management); 7. “Budgeting: the tasks of fiscal planning, accounting, and control.”57 The principles of the administration school have a considerable influence to the field of public administration, especially in area of administrative reform.58 Pfiffner and Sherwood have identified the following influences of the school in relation to the “reorganization plans of the reformers:”59 56

Ibid, 109 Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick, eds., Papers on the Science of Administration (New York: Institute of Public Administration, 1937). Cited in Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration by Nigro and Nigro, 110-111 58 Ibid., 111 59 Ibid.

57

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1. “The elected executive (president, governor, mayor) should be the administrative leader as well. This arrangement establishes political accountability for administrative performance. If there is no strong elected chief executive, a professional manager should be appointed to head the administrative apparatus. In addition to clarifying lines of authority and accountability, this structure assures unity of command.

2. “The administrative structure of the jurisdiction should be organized along hierarchical lines, with the chief executive on top. The hierarchy should allow the chief executive to direct and hold accountable all other administrative officers in the system.

3. “The number of departments reporting directly to the chief executive should be small enough to permit a manageable span of control. This principle should be applied throughout the organization.

4. “Overall coordination should be maintained through executive control over the budget. Final authority over the administration of the budget should be in the hands of the chief executive.

5. “Staff units such as budget and personnel are appropriately used to strengthen coordination and control by giving them authority to monitor line activities. These units should report directly to the chief executive.

6. “Administrative functions should be departmentalized by purpose, e.g., parks and recreation, education, and defense.

7. “The functions of the professional administrator are summarized in POSDCORB. With the exception of elected executives, public administrators should be elected on the basis of their technical expertise.”60

60

John Pfiffner and Frank Sherwood, Administrative Organization (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1960), 63-65. Cited in Felix A. Negro and Lloyd G. Nigro, Modern Public Administration, 111 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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Human Relations Approach The behavioral or human relations theory has been referred to as the neoclassical approach to management since it was initially an improvement of the classical approaches such as the bureaucratic model, scientific management and administrative management. One distinctive contribution of the human relations school is the establishment of the “informal group as a major explanation of behavior in organizations.” 61 Elton Mayo, who led an extended research at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company or what came to be known as Hawthorne studies, found out that there was no relation between the physical conditions of the workplace and the productivity of workers. Mayo and his team concluded that the organization is a complex web of human relations or a social structure where informal groupings have a profound influence on the behavior of workers. Thus, organizations do not become productive by effecting changes in the formal structure (management, processes, people, etc) but also by understanding the informal structure (workers’ needs, feelings, values, relationships, work environment, etc.) and devising the appropriate interventions. When the formal and informal structures are not in harmony with each other, an organization would have a hard time improving productivity.62 Chestner Barnard, whose work has been associated with the human relations school, stressed that what keep organizations intact are strategically planned and coordinated plans, strategies and activities, an effective communication system, and a highly motivated workforce. This means that workers are willing to help an organization in achieving its objectives when the organization, in turn, makes workers feel satisfied in their job. To induce workers to contribute, an organization needs to institute a rewards system that provides sufficient financial and other forms of incentives.

Another contribution of Barnard is his concept of authority. He stressed the need for workers to understand what they must do, for workers to be convinced that what they must do are consistent to the organization’s goals and objectives, for them to think that an organization’s order or directive is consistent to their own personal goals and objectives, and for them not to doubt that the order or directive can be complied with using the available 61 62

Ibid., 113 Ibid. 115

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resources.63 Emerging Management Theories This part of the paper focuses on three recent approaches to management, namely, learning organization, new public management, and the postmodernist approach to management.

Learning Organization A learning organization is “skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.” 64 It is characterized by “systematic problem-solving, experimentation with new approaches, learning from their own history and experience, learning from the experience and best practice of others, and transferring knowledge quickly throughout the organization.”65 Change and innovation are central to a learning organization. Change refers particularly to the organization’s capacity to meet new and potential requirements of both internal and external customers. Innovation, on the other hand, involves the continuous process of improvements so that an organization can implement the required changes in its systems, processes, products, and goals. Its objective is to make the organization responsive to changing factors like customer preferences.

To make an organization innovative and adept at handling any change, a learning organization invests in human resource development and continuous education. The emphasis is in making the human resource development systems relevant and efficient by properly understanding the learning styles and habits of workers. Human resource development interventions that fail to consider such aspects in the learning process could hardly be translated to improved competencies of workers.

Another feature of a learning organization is the processing, use and sharing of information among workers and sub-units of the organization. This theme 63

Ibid. 116-117 David Garvin, “Building a Learning Organization” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1993), 78-91 65 Ibid. 81 64

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builds on previous management approaches that emphasize the need for employees to meaningfully and intelligently participate in the problem-solving and decision-making processes. It stresses the importance of designing and installing a system for the effective vertical and horizontal transmission of knowledge and information within the organization. It also promotes teamwork among workers. This is important because participation aims to develop a sense of common or shared organizational purpose among the workers.

New Public Management66 A number of academics and practitioners like David Osborne, Ted Gaebler, Stanford Borins and Owen E. Hughes consider the new public management (NPM) as a new paradigm of public management. The prominence of NPM as an approach to public sector reform is facilitated by factors such as the common public perception that government instrumentalities are generally inefficient in delivering public services, decreasing government budgets, and the trend towards global integration of governments and markets. Although there are various ways of understanding this approach, NPM is widely known for the following key components: “deregulation of line management; conversion of civil service departments into free-standing agencies or enterprises; performance-based accountability, particularly through contracts; and competitive mechanisms such as contracting-out and internal markets.”67 The NPM approach is currently used in developing countries although it is “only one among a number of contending strands of reform.” The most common features are privatization, retrenchment, and corporitization or the attempt to privatize the operations of a government department to “achieve greater efficiency, cost savings or service quality improvements.” 68 Other common initiatives such as “capacity-building, controlling corruption, and political decentralization or devolution,” however, are not related to NPM.

66

The ideas in this part of the paper are mostly taken from Charles Polidano’s November 1999 Public Policy and Management Working Paper No. 13 “The New Public Management in Developing Countries”. Polidano is based at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

67 See Peter Aucoin “Administrative Reform in Public Management: Paradigms, Principles, Paradoxes and Pendulums” Governance (1990), 115-37 and Christopher Hood “A Public Management for All Seasons” Public Administration (1991), 3-19 cited in Polidano’s work.

68 This type of “civil service reform” is used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore.

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Postmodernist Approach This part of the paper describes the postmodern concepts that have influenced the science of management. These concepts are “difference,” “tolerance,” “contextualism,” “relativism,” “dialogue,” and “defiance.”

Difference. The term difference comes from the Latin word differo, which means to bring apart. If everything is different, then everything is separate, distinct, and distinguishable.

The concept of difference has wide implications in the various areas of human life, i.e. economic, socio-cultural, and political life. It implies, for instance, that an economic, cultural or political system that works in one country may not work in another given the difference of people's experiences as shaped by the categories of space and time. In particular, it does not follow that since one system of government works quite well in one country, then it should work well in another country.

Tolerance. Difference leads to the idea of tolerance, which is to recognize and respect the unique condition of reality in general. In practical terms, tolerance means, for example, respect to other cultures. In the Philippine setting, there are various local cultures that co-exist with one another, although such relationship is not always harmonious and peaceful.

Cultural co-existence means the existence of various and different cultural communities that tolerate each other's presence.69 Contextualism. Context may be defined as the parts or relevant circumstances that surround a text, which is understood, in a general way, as anything that can be interpreted. Context gives meaning to a text hence textual interpretation becomes possible by understanding the text’s context.

Polygamy, for example, could be right or wrong depending on its context; it 69

Following this train of thought, the colonization of the Philippines by the Spaniards and the Americans violate the notion of tolerance. The foreigners operated on the basis of identity, which presupposes that everyone is similar and shares the same nature. This notion led to their desire to impose uniformity on the natives, with uniformity based on the identity of the occupants. They made the Filipinos think the way they thought, act the way they behaved, put on clothes the way they dressed, speak the way they spoke, build houses the way they built their own, etc. Colonization was totalization. It sought to make Filipinos uniform and identical both in internal and external manifestations. It prevented tolerance of the differences among the various cultural communities in the country.

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is unacceptable within the context of Christianity but acceptable within the context of Islam. That is why it is not practical for government to ban polygamy for all Filipinos since Muslim Filipinos allow many marriages.

Relativism. Relativism assumes that meaning should not be considered in relation to a universal or transcendental standard or logos because such logos presupposes identity and fails to account the contextual dimension of meaning. Meaning is relative to the interpreter and the context of the text being interpreted. This implies that there are different meanings of a text, instead of one, and that each interpretation of meaning is legitimate.

Relativism, together with difference, is related to the idea of non-commensurability, which “involves a radical notion of non-comparability, and the unacceptability of imposing one set of cultural norms over another.�70 Dialogue. Under a condition characterized by difference, contextualism, relativism and tolerance, the only viable way of maintaining social and political order is not through the totalizing power or authority of the state but though the spirit of dialogue, negotiation and cooperation. Dialogue is not a communication among non-equals. It is a communication premised on differences. It is a process of coming to understand the positions of each party to a dialogue using the rule of consensus. It is a dialogue through words and words are contextual. The purpose of dialogue is not to win over the positions behind the words but to fuse the horizons of the dialoging positions.

Defiance. The attitude of postmodernism is active opposition against authority, because authority is perceived as a product of logocentrism or totalization, which is a violation of the notion of difference. Postmodernism rejects grand or totalizing narratives and since the state is one of the grand narratives, postmodernists defy the authority of the state.

This condition forces governments to reconfigure the procedures of decision-making to accommodate the postmodern imperatives. The result is a leveling of hierarchies. No one is above anyone. Nobody is superior to anybody. Everyone is equal, equality being understood in the context of difference, not similarity.

70

Florentino H. Hornedo, Pagpakatao and Other Essays in Contemporary Philosophy and Literature of Ideas (Manila, Philippines: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2002), 20 Alan S. Cajes, March 2003

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CONCLUSION Public management theory is dynamic. It has changed over the years and has influenced the way managers do their job. Research and experience are the bases of management theory, which in turn, helps enrich the practice of management.

Public managers use different approaches, tools and techniques in performing their functions. Their goal is to make their respective organizations fulfill their reasons for being, as mandated by law or policy. To achieve the goal, public managers set organizational objectives and establish systems and processes using appropriate methods, which differ from one management theory to another.

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About the Author Alan S. Cajes is formerly Director of the Institute of Pubic Management of the Development Academy of the Philippines, where he also serves as Faculty Member and Action Plan and Project (Thesis) Adviser of the Master in Public Management Program. He now serves as vice president and managing director of the Center for Sustainable Human Development, and in-house resource person on quality assessment, strategic and results-based management, project management, environmental management and sustainable development. He took his undergraduate studies in philosophy and political science and graduated cum laude from Holy Name University.

He earned his masterate in philosophy and graduated magna cum laude from the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where he also took up graduate studies in political science and history. He has worked as a journalist, community organizer, project manager, trainer and lecturer. He has received specialized trainings in project management, environmental assessment, environmental management, total quality management, and sustainable development. He is an assessor of the Philippine Quality Award, the highest level of national recognition for exemplary organizational performance.

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