Public administration is one discipline that has played an important significant role in designating new names for instructional programs. Public administration scope not only epitomized certain value positions, but structure reshuffles through new public management, hence paving new curriculum directions. For modern organizations, six generic functions of public administration focus not on administrative functions as an academic study only, but on how public administration improves management and applicability of its techniques to enhance operations and new coherent work culture in organizations for effective service delivery.
READ: Scope of public administration
Generic functions indicate their niche importance in today’s environment and contribute massively to educating students to acquire a more profound understanding of the key processes to effectively manage public services institutions. The purpose of these functions has been for enhancing the quality of life of citizens being taken care of by public administrators who play a vital role in both democracies (Read; characteristic’s of a democracy), organizational bureaucracy, including Government and state. Therefore the core curriculum of public administration programs in the world at most institutions of higher learning, courses are designed around critical aspects.
These aspects are based on six generic functions of public administration namely: Planning, organizing, staffing, developing, controlling, operating, reporting, and budgeting, commonly called ‘POSDCORB’, coined by Luther Gulick. These functions are widely used in the field of both management and public administration.
READ: Difference Between Management and Public Administration
Aspects of generic functions are generally considered important for the development and improvement of the skills, regulations, rules, and formal procedures that are necessary for effective management of public services: Read; Woodrow Wilson’s contribution to PA and 30 Importance’s of public administration.
This curriculum of public administration is coined around the development of the imperatives of public management approach to modern public administration built with principles considered the core defining factor of great importance to the economic values of efficiency, effectiveness and productivity in the public sector.
READ: Pillars of public administration
To conclude, the intention in this regard has been noted that the six functions of public administration were put in place for the purpose of improving public administration into a business-like based model but managed by officials skilled in business, human resource management and economics. In some countries such as Nigeria, public administrated functions explained in our guide have introduced an “anchor subject” in the broader public administration curriculum.
In other instances such as Uganda, it was even made a major subject to learn the importance of public administration in organizations, hence why it has become a program offered at the major learning institutions to supposedly maintain congruency with the contemporary trends in the ever-changing environment of African public administration.
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