(Sample Material) Definitions of some Public Administrative Terms - Online Coaching for Public Administration
Sample Material of Online Coaching for Public Administration, IAS Mains
Definitions of some Public Administrative Terms
Dear Candidates,
As you are all aware of this fact that whole Public Administration revolves around some of its Vocabularies. The interlinkages of these terms suitably help in making an effective answer in Public Administration. Below we are giving you some Administrative terms as a sample material of our Online Coaching. You can join Full Online Course to get these features on regular basis.
ACCOUNTABILITY: A political principle according to which agencies or organizations, such as those in government, are subject to some form of external control, an essential concept in democratic public administration.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY: That aspect of administrative responsibility by which officials are held answerable for general notions of democracy and morality as well as for specific legal mandates.
ADMINISTRATIVE DISCRETION: The ability of individual administrators in a bureaucracy to make significant choices affecting management and operation of programs for which they are responsible.
ADMINISTRATIVE MORALITY: The use of ethical, political, or social precepts to create standards by which the quality of public administration may be judged; such as the standards of honesty, responsiveness, efficiency effectiveness, competence, effect on individual rights, adherence to democratic procedures, and social equity.
AUTHORITY: Power defined according to a legal and institutional framework, and vested in a formal structure (a nation, organization, profession); power exercised through recognized, legitimate
channels.
BOUNDED RATIONALITY: Seeking the best possible solution, but not necessarily the most rational from a purely economic standpoint.
BUREAUCRACY: A formal organizational arrangement characterized by division of labor, job specialization with no functional overlap, exercise of authority through a vertical hierarchy (chain of command) and a system of internal rules, regulations, and record keeping.
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: The involvement of citizens in a wide range of administrative decision making activities.
COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM: Greater sharing of responsibilities between federal and state governments.
DELEGATION: Assigning tasks to others with certain conditionalities.
DIVISION OF WORK: One of the fundamental principles upon which the science of administration is based; increased specialization in the organization of work in order to narrow the range of tasks for which each person is responsible.
DUAL FEDERALISM: Pattern in which federal and state governments are struggling for power and influenced with little inter-governmental cooperation.
EFFECTIVENESS: Extent to which a program is achieving or failing to achieve its stated objectives.
EFFICIENCY: Relationship between inputs and outputs.
ETHICS: Process by which we clarify right and wrong and act on what we take to be right.
FEDERALISM: Division of governmental power between a central or national government and regional governmental units (such as states), with each having some independent authority over its citizens through constitutional arrangements.
FISCAL POLICY: Public policy concerned with the impact of government taxation and spending on the economy.
FORMAL THEORIES OF ORGANIZATION: Theories stressing formal, structural arrangements within organizations, and "correct" or "scientific" methods to be followed in order to achieve the highest degree of organizational efficiency.
HIERARCHY: A characteristic of formal bureaucratic organizations; a clear vertical "chain of command" in which each unit is subordinate to the one above it and superior to the one below it.
HUMAN RELATIONS THEORIES OF ORGANIZATION: Theories stressing workers' non-economic needs and motivations on the job that seek to identify these needs and how to satisfy them;
focused on working conditions and social and psychological interactions among workers.
LIBERAL DEMOCRACY: A fundamental form of political arrangement, founded on the concepts of popular sovereignty and limited government.
LINE-ITEM BUDGET: Budget format for listing categories of expenditures along with amounts allocated to each.
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO): A management technique designed to facilitate goal and priority-setting, development of plans, resource allocation, monitoring progress towards goals,
evaluating results, and generating and implementing improvements in performance.
MERIT SYSTEM: A professional system of personnel administration, free from political interference, in which selection and progress in the service are based upon the performance, expertise, and technical qualifications of each employee, measured objectively, (often through open, competitive examinations).
MIXED SCANNING: A model of decision making that combines the rational-comprehensive model's emphasis on fundamental choices and long-term consequences with the incrementalists' emphasis on changing only what needs to be changed in the immediate situation.
MODERN ORGANIZATION THEORY: A body of theory emphasizing empirical examination of organizational behavior, interdisciplinary research employing varied approaches, and attempts to arrive at generalizations applicable to many different kinds of organizations.
OMBUDSMAN: Permanent office that receives complaints and acts on behalf of citizens to secure information, request services, or pursue grievances.
PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY: A political and philosophical belief in direct involvement by affected citizens in the processes of governmental decision making; believed by some to be essential
to the existence of democratic government.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL: Specific evaluation with respect to an individual's progress in completing specified tasks.
PERFORMANCE BUDGET: Budget format organized around programs or activities (rather than the objects it purchases), including various performance measurements that indicate the relationship
between work actually done and its cost.
PLANNING-PROGRAMMING-BUDGETING SYSTEM (PPBS): Effort to connect planning, systems analysis, and budgeting in a single exercise.
PLURALISM: A social and political concept stressing the appropriateness of group organization, and diversity of groups and their activities, as a means of protecting broad group interests in society.
POSITION CLASSIFICATION: Analyzing and organizing jobs on the basis of duties, responsibilities, and the knowledge and skills required to perform them.
PRIVATIZATION: Use of non-governmental agencies to provide goods and services previously provided by government, also known as "contracting out."
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: The management and administration of public programs.
REINVENTING GOVERNMENT: The title of a book written by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler in 1992.Term referring to ideas used in government that are entrepreneurial in nature whose purpose is to improve government services.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT: A formal theory of organization developed by Frederick Taylor in the early 1900s; concerned with achieving efficiency in production, rational work procedures, maximum productivity, and profit; focused on management's responsibilities and on "scientifically" developed work procedures, based on "time and motion" studies.
SPAN OF CONTROL: One of the early principles of administration which states that there is an upper limit to the number of subordinates any administrator can directly supervise.
SPOILS SYSTEM: A system based on political loyalty and connections; can also extend to government contracts and the like; usually takes the form of rewarding party supporters with government jobs.
SYSTEMS THEORY: A theory of social organizations, holding that organizations--like other organisms--may behave according to inputs from their environment, outputs resulting from organizational activity, and feedback leading to further inputs; also, change in any one part of a group or organizational system that affects all other parts.
THEORY X and THEORY Y: Theory X assumes that most people hate work, avoid responsibility, prefer to be directed, and have to be controlled and coerced to put out a fair day's work; Theory Y assumes that people will seek responsibility, demonstrate a high degree of imagination, and exercise self-direction if they have a creative, challenging job to which they can become committed.
