This topic covers the various theories that have been developed to explain the workings of public administration, including classical, behavioral, and institutional theories.
History of Public Administration: This topic covers the evolution of public administration from ancient times to modern times, including the contributions of various scholars and thinkers.
Classical Organizational Theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of hierarchical structures, division of labor, specialization, and maintenance of authority.
Scientific Management: This theory focuses on improving efficiency and productivity through the use of scientific methods.
Administrative Management: This theory posits that effective management is achieved through the coordination of all organizational activities, including planning, organizing, staff, directing, and controlling.
Human Relations Theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of social relationships in the workplace, including interpersonal communication, motivation, and job satisfaction.
Behavioral Approach: This approach studies employee behavior in the workplace, including motivation, job performance, leadership, and communication.
Systems Theory: This theory emphasizes the interdependence and interconnectedness of all organizational components, including people, processes, and inputs/outputs.
Contingency Theory: This theory posits that effective management depends on the context in which it operates, including organizational culture, size, and environmental factors.
New Public Management: This approach aims to improve public sector efficiency and effectiveness by adopting private sector management practices, including market-based approaches, competition, and performance evaluation.
Governance: This term refers to the mechanisms and processes through which public values are defined, public policies are formulated and implemented, and government is held accountable to citizens.
Democratic Theory: This theory focuses on the relationship between government and citizens, emphasizing democratic values such as participation, representation, and accountability.
Public Choice Theory: This theory applies economic principles to public decision-making, including the behavior of voters, interest groups, and government officials.
Network Theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of collaboration and cooperation among multiple actors in the policy-making process, including government agencies, interest groups, and citizens.
Institutional Theory: This theory examines the structures and processes that shape organizations and institutions, including norms, values, and rules.
Critical Theory: This theoretical perspective focuses on power relations, inequality, and social justice in public administration, emphasizing the need for transformative change.
Classical Theory: This model holds that Public Administration is a precise Science and requires a lot of specialization, and executives should work in a rigid bureaucratic structure while dealing with policies.
Behavioral Theory: This theory emphasizes individual behavior and motivation, and its focus is to examine the behavior of individuals and groups in public organizations while promoting positive behavior.
Systems Theory: This theory adopts a holistic approach to Public Administration by considering public organizations as a complex system of interdependent elements that constitute a whole.
Participatory Theory: This theory advocates for active and direct participation by citizens in public decision-making and service delivery, making citizens the focal point of public administration.
New Public Management Theory: This theory aims at refining public administration by adopting certain private-sector methods, which include results-oriented management, performance measurement, and accountability.
Critical Theory: Critical theory takes a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze and critically evaluate Public Administration, emphasizing the need for genuine participation by all stakeholders due to its social, economic, and political implications.
Public Choice Theory: This theory assumes that public administrators are essentially self-interested, and they hold all roles to benefit themselves. Consequently, public administration is expected to act and make decisions in alignment with their interests.