Public Administration Questions With
Answers Update
Key disciplines for classical theory - Answer -✔✔engineering and economics
Beliefs of classical theory - Answer -✔✔1) organizations exist to accomplish production-
related and economic goals
2) one best way to organize for production can be identified through scientific inquiry
3) production is maximized through specialization and division of labor
4) people and orgs act according to rational economic principles
Key concerns for classical theory - Answer -✔✔rooted in industrial revolution... large
scale production, coordination and control of large number of employees, control costs
and maintain trained and motivated workforce.
Classical Theorists - Answer -✔✔Adam *Smith*, Frederick *Taylor*, Max *Weber*,
Henri *Fayol*, and Luther *Gulick*
Smith - Answer -✔✔"Division of Labour" The wealth of nations: optimal organization for
a factory is specialization (small tasks for total production). Leads to greater effiency
Taylor - Answer -✔✔"Scientific Management" involved time and motion studies to find
the one best way to preform a task, then plan and control all orgs operations, (best way
to organize a firm)
Weber - Answer -✔✔Id's the characteristics of the pure form of bureaucracy:
1) Fixed jurisdictional rules
2) Hierarchy
3) Training for officials
4) official activities are full time vocation
5) officials enjoy a higher status level than the "governed" are generally appointed,
salaried and tenured
Fayol - Answer -✔✔Conceps of management are universally applicable to all types of
orgs but the optimal level of each depends on the situation
Gulick - Answer -✔✔Provided guiding principles for management, *POSDCORB* , also
called for unity of command and careful consideration of span of control
POSDCORB - Answer -✔✔planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating,
reporting and budgeting
, Neoclassical theory - Answer -✔✔reaction to classical theory, criticizing primarily the
simplistic mechanistic views of that theory. It isn't unified school of thought.
Key authors of neoclassical theory - Answer -✔✔Simon, Merton, Cyert and March
Merton - Answer -✔✔"The Economy of Incentives" Argues that employees must be
induced to cooperate. Rewards and punishments alone aren't enough... also need to
change attitudes so incentives are effective
Simon - Answer -✔✔*"The Proverbs of administration" attacks Fayol and Gulick for
posting principles of management that in reality are often inconsistent, conflicting and
inapplicable, focused on devision making in two ways.* First, integrating *quantitative
methods* such as operations research into org decision making. Second, *he studied
process orgs use to make decisions*
Selznick - Answer -✔✔Refutes Classical notion that organizations consist simply of
positions that need to be controlled. Argues that *employees' goals may not align with
the org's goals*. Best known for "cooperation"- proves of an org subsuming external
elements to prevent them from becoming a threat to the org
Cyert and March - Answer -✔✔colleagues of Simon building on his "bounded rationality"
and "satisficing" concepts, who posited "satisficing" as a truer representation of org
decision making than economically rational behavior. View org decision making through
coalitions
Human Resource (Org Behavior) Theory - Answer -✔✔Focuses on individual employee
or group of employees within the org (micro perspective)
Key assumptions of Human Resource (org behavior) theory - Answer -✔✔most
optimistic of the theories
1) orgs exist to serve human needs
2) orgs and people need each other
3) When the fit between the individual and org is poor both will suffer
4) A good fit benefits both
Mayo - Answer -✔✔Hawthorne experiments (Western Electric Company)
Key Authors of Human Resource Theory - Answer -✔✔Mayo, Maslow
Follet - Answer -✔✔Participatory leadership... employers and employees cooperate to
assess situations and make decisions. Tather than autocrativ or micromanagement
style, decisions spring from mutual definitions of the problem
Maslow - Answer -✔✔Hirarchy of needs assumes that
1)all humans have needs that underlie motivation
Answers Update
Key disciplines for classical theory - Answer -✔✔engineering and economics
Beliefs of classical theory - Answer -✔✔1) organizations exist to accomplish production-
related and economic goals
2) one best way to organize for production can be identified through scientific inquiry
3) production is maximized through specialization and division of labor
4) people and orgs act according to rational economic principles
Key concerns for classical theory - Answer -✔✔rooted in industrial revolution... large
scale production, coordination and control of large number of employees, control costs
and maintain trained and motivated workforce.
Classical Theorists - Answer -✔✔Adam *Smith*, Frederick *Taylor*, Max *Weber*,
Henri *Fayol*, and Luther *Gulick*
Smith - Answer -✔✔"Division of Labour" The wealth of nations: optimal organization for
a factory is specialization (small tasks for total production). Leads to greater effiency
Taylor - Answer -✔✔"Scientific Management" involved time and motion studies to find
the one best way to preform a task, then plan and control all orgs operations, (best way
to organize a firm)
Weber - Answer -✔✔Id's the characteristics of the pure form of bureaucracy:
1) Fixed jurisdictional rules
2) Hierarchy
3) Training for officials
4) official activities are full time vocation
5) officials enjoy a higher status level than the "governed" are generally appointed,
salaried and tenured
Fayol - Answer -✔✔Conceps of management are universally applicable to all types of
orgs but the optimal level of each depends on the situation
Gulick - Answer -✔✔Provided guiding principles for management, *POSDCORB* , also
called for unity of command and careful consideration of span of control
POSDCORB - Answer -✔✔planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating,
reporting and budgeting
, Neoclassical theory - Answer -✔✔reaction to classical theory, criticizing primarily the
simplistic mechanistic views of that theory. It isn't unified school of thought.
Key authors of neoclassical theory - Answer -✔✔Simon, Merton, Cyert and March
Merton - Answer -✔✔"The Economy of Incentives" Argues that employees must be
induced to cooperate. Rewards and punishments alone aren't enough... also need to
change attitudes so incentives are effective
Simon - Answer -✔✔*"The Proverbs of administration" attacks Fayol and Gulick for
posting principles of management that in reality are often inconsistent, conflicting and
inapplicable, focused on devision making in two ways.* First, integrating *quantitative
methods* such as operations research into org decision making. Second, *he studied
process orgs use to make decisions*
Selznick - Answer -✔✔Refutes Classical notion that organizations consist simply of
positions that need to be controlled. Argues that *employees' goals may not align with
the org's goals*. Best known for "cooperation"- proves of an org subsuming external
elements to prevent them from becoming a threat to the org
Cyert and March - Answer -✔✔colleagues of Simon building on his "bounded rationality"
and "satisficing" concepts, who posited "satisficing" as a truer representation of org
decision making than economically rational behavior. View org decision making through
coalitions
Human Resource (Org Behavior) Theory - Answer -✔✔Focuses on individual employee
or group of employees within the org (micro perspective)
Key assumptions of Human Resource (org behavior) theory - Answer -✔✔most
optimistic of the theories
1) orgs exist to serve human needs
2) orgs and people need each other
3) When the fit between the individual and org is poor both will suffer
4) A good fit benefits both
Mayo - Answer -✔✔Hawthorne experiments (Western Electric Company)
Key Authors of Human Resource Theory - Answer -✔✔Mayo, Maslow
Follet - Answer -✔✔Participatory leadership... employers and employees cooperate to
assess situations and make decisions. Tather than autocrativ or micromanagement
style, decisions spring from mutual definitions of the problem
Maslow - Answer -✔✔Hirarchy of needs assumes that
1)all humans have needs that underlie motivation
