The Impact Of Leadership Style And Organizational Environment On Public Administration Essay

Max Weber was a German sociologist who first described the concept of bureaucracy, an ideal form of organizational structure. He defines bureaucratic administration as the exercise of control on the

The management of an organization plays an integral part in determining the direction and performance of the organization. The manner in which the management of an organization is handled has a profound effect on the organization. The success of an organization is dependent upon a flexible and skilled management and workforce. The management of an organization is responsible for shaping up the organizational behavior and ultimately the culture within the organization. Public management faces a multiple of challenges and opportunities, how the management deals with these issues translates to efficiency in management. The personal judgments and skills of public managers can make a significant impact in public management. If

One way to see public administration in action is by attending a city council meeting, whether it be in an urban or rural area, public administration still has a part in each event. As Kettl (2018; p. 244) referenced in his book, there is not a civil system that would be sustainable without strong leadership. This paper will discuss the author’s description, observation, and reflection during a city council meeting.

There are several different leadership styles used within the public services. Therefore there are many varied suggestions that define someone as being a strong leader. However a ‘leadership style’ is a unique style that people recognise to encourage or influence other people in a way others do not so that they admire and want to be like. A team leader’s role in the public services is to provide instruction and direction and guidance and leadership this is to help inspire and encourage the team to reach their goals and aims. They have to keep the team focused on there current task or tasks and be able to communicate within their group

Kernaghan, K. 2000. The Post-Bureaucratic Organization and Public Services Values. Interational Review of Administrative Sciences 66. 2000, pp. 92-93.

Public Administration is a fairly new concept in comparison to other disciplines. It is a combination of at least 10 different humanities, and has become an important staple within federal, state and local governments/organizations. The Columbia and Challenger tragedies that befell the NASA space program allow for a great opportunity to apply Public Administration concepts to the real world. There were many issues that surrounded each accident and it’s not possible to place a definitive blame on anyone. It’s important to recognize the various theories within Public Administration that help explain the way an organization is run. The theory that organizations should ignore their constituency as well as abstain from voicing their concerns with those in politics undermines the idea of democracy and allows for these agencies to neglect their purpose as a societal vanguard.

However, despite Max Weber’s theory that bureaucracies are like iron “iron cages” that are a efficient form of administration. Prior to modern government reform patronage, spoils, and bribery were just part of the political environment for Public Administrators. In today’s, modern government Public Administrators are hired based on the merit and technical qualifications that secure the individual can carry out the duties of the office. However, Public Administrators are forced to work in a hierarchical organization

On a macro level, public administration and business management are similar in their overall functions. “At the broadest level, some organizational theorists contend that administration is administration whatever its setting, and that the problems of organizing people, leading them and supplying them with resources to do their jobs are always the same (Kettl, 2012, p. 38).” In his paper, “Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant Respects?,” Graham T. Allison explains that in comparing public and administration and business management, “it is possible to identify a set of general management functions (Allison, 2012, p. 4).” Regardless of their end goal, each administration must form strategies by setting goals, priorities and creating procedures. Public and private organizations must manage internal components by organizing staff, defining job responsibilities, hiring and managing personnel and creating budgets. Furthermore, they must manage external constituencies such as other agencies, the press and public (Allison, 2012, p. 5). His observations stem from Wallace Sayre’s famous words, “public and private management are fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects (DiIlulio, 1993).”

Leadership Evaluation and Philosophy: An Appraisal of Angela Merkel’s Leadership during the Euro Crisis and My Leadership Philosophy

What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the supportive, directive, and participative styles of leadership? Substantiate your response.

The classical approach to public administration was focused on finding the best way to perform and manage tasks. This classical approach to Public Administration is often associated with Weber, Wilson, Taylor, and Gulick. Under the classical approach was four areas of focus which was the Bureaucratic, Scientific, Administrative, and Managerial approach. Each area represented the four main theorists that the classical approach was associated with. Max Weber's bureaucratic approach focused on the rational-legal model which viewed bureaucracy from a rational view and argued that bureaucracy is the most efficient and rational way in which one can organize the human activity and that hierarchies are necessary to maintain

Max Weber was born in 1864, he studied economics and was successful in this going on to be a professor of political economy at the University of Freiburg and later being appointed the chair in economics at Heidelberg until he suffered a mental breakdown in 1897. After this he went on to study sociology. It wasn’t until after his death that all of his work was to be organised and published including his work on bureaucracy. People have linked Weber’s bureaucracy to Fayol’s principles management that I mentioned earlier because they both deal with organisation structure. Weber had defined 3 types of authority as:

In the following paragraphs, I will explain the dominant theory in public administration practice and elaborate on the major theoretical assumptions of the Old Public Administration. As stated in the question, the world has transformed through globalization, information technology, and devolution of authority since the latter part of the last century. The dominant theory in public administration has been replaced from the traditional rule-based, authority-driven processes of the Old Public Administration with market-based, competition-driven tactics in the New Public Management, beginning in the 1980s (Kettl, 2000, p. 3). This was an effort to privatize government and streamline public administration to maximize efficiency and productivity. Heavily relying on market mechanisms to guide public programs, public administrators in the New Public Management are encouraged to “steer, not row,” meaning they should not bear the burden of delivering services, but instead define programs that others will carry out, through contracting or other means (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2011, p. 13). Core values of the New Public Management include using private sector and business approaches to the public sector, squeezing as many services as possible from smaller revenues, market style incentives, providing customers more choices, and focusing on outputs and outcomes instead of mainly processes.

Max Weber is known as the father of Bureaucratic Management Theory, he analyzed bureaucracy as the most logical and rational structure for large organizations. Weber’s significant impact on sociological hypothesis comes from his interest for objectivity in grant and from his examination of the intentions behind human activity.