Comparative Public Administration
February 12, 2025
Introduction Statistics show that only 49 percent of all Fortune 1000 companies have women on their senior management and that too restricted to one or two of them. This is also the case with 45 percent of boards that have minimal presence of women on the boards. However, recent cutting edge research has shown that […]
How does Top Down Management Work and how does Flatter Management Work? Traditionally, managers were used to the Top Down Hierarchical and Command and Control organizations where orders were sent from above and the managers had to implement them with little autonomy or agency for their individual decision making abilities. Further, team management in such […]
In stock market there is strong relationship between risk and return. Greater the risk, greater the return generally! In financial terminology risk management is the process of identifying and assessing the risk and then developing strategies to manage and minimize the same while maximizing the returns. Every investment demands a certain amount of risk and […]
The Phenomenon of Failed States The previous articles discussed how state formation and state development takes place in the world. Though there are many examples of states that have managed to develop and progress, there are an equal number of states that have regressed and lapsed into chaotic conditions. These states where governance is absent […]
In a business setting mangers are put to test when they face the challenge of resolving an ethical dilemma. Often certain situations do not fall in the ambit of procedures or the official code of conduct and this is when the managers feel the heat. The problem with ethical decision making is that a decision […]
The line agency in its traditional form exists as departments. Departments are the fundamental unit of administrative organizations and carries out all the functions. There are different shortcoming and problems associated with this structure as well but before we dwell into that, we shall make an attempt to understand the basic principles on which the organization of departments is based.
The organization of departments is based on four principles:
The above mentioned principles are not the sole criteria for the basis of organizations, aspects like traditions and history also play a role. Generally, the governments look at a combination of one or more principles and considerations to base the departments on. The most relevant however has been the functional principle or the Scientific Principle of Organization. With increase in specialization of functions, it only makes sense to have organizations based on them. Let us read about some of the features of this principle:
The departments are further divided into divisions which is the vertical division based on the broader functions to be performed by the department. The horizontal division is done for other specific activities to be carried out under that division.
The horizontal method of dividing the work within the organization is preferred in comparison to the vertical segregation. The arguments given for the same are:
The departments are generally divided into two divisions (there may be more), the division of Primary Activities and the Division of Secondary or Institutional Activities about which we read earlier.
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