Administrative Decentralization Introduction T

The history of public administration and management theory is one of changing understandings of the relationship between employees and managers, between the organization and the community, and between organizations. It is not a history in which theories are built incrementally, or additively, simply by adding new information to what has gone before. Instead, theories seem to be led by changes in political thought and cultural values, which influence the way in which relationships are conceptualized.

One current trend is toward a belief that decentralization is more efficient and effective than centralized administration. This is led by the political changes of the past election (although at a deeper level, it began with Ronald Reagan's election in the early 1980s), as well as changes in management theory typified by quality circles and quality management organizations. There is a distrust of bureaucracy and a sense that leadership from the center is too often out of touch with the peripheries, and too often insulated from everyday realities, whether in public or private organizations.

Therefore, the intent in this paper is to explore the issue of decentralization in public administration and in the private sector in order to understand its advantages and disadvantages.

Administrative and Management Theory

In such a short paper, it is nearly impossible to give any solid sense of the history of administrative, manage

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rate world. It would not be accurate to view that corporate world as being comprised of myriads of specialized and separate entities. Instead, the trend continues toward a very few, very large multinational corporations which provide a number of decentralized services. The situation actually seems more like the government than unlike it, with the multinationals operating somewhat like small, independent countries with incomes and budgets larger than many of the smaller nationstates. It would also be specious to deny that basic philosophy and goals are established at the top; it is unlikely that a subsidiary division of Ford Motor Co. in another country would be allowed, for example, to subsume the profit motive to greater interests of developing sustainable agriculture, for example, or working on smallscale industry. Thus, the parts of the large corporations operate within constraints, too, with the primary one being the everpresent demand to make a profit. On the other hand, there is new management and organizational theory in both the public and private sectors which sets aside some of the old goals, such as efficiency and profit, in order to respond to new demands. The book by Osborne and Gaebler (1992) typifies this

Category: Government - A