Introduction to Public Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The factor that is not a determinant of span of control is informal relations.

The standard determinants of how many subordinates one supervisor can control are the nature of the work (how uniform or routine the functions are), the ability and personality of the leader and the subordinates, the geographical location or dispersal of the work, the time the supervisor has, and the age and stability of the organisation.

Functional uniformity, the leader's ability and geographical location are all on that list. Informal relations among employees are part of the human relations side of organisation, but they are not counted among the determinants of the span.

Answer: D

The incorrect statement is D: classical theory does not give adequate attention to formal and informal groups.

Classical (administrative management) theory, associated with Taylor, Fayol, Gulick and Urwick and, in its structural form, Weber, treats the organisation as a formal structure built on universal principles such as division of labour, unity of command, span of control and POSDCORB. It paid little attention to informal groups, which the Hawthorne studies and the human relations school brought in later. So D reverses the theory's position.

Statements B and C describe the theory correctly. Statement A, that 'classical' is the name Simon gave it, could not be confirmed: Simon is known for attacking these principles as 'proverbs of administration', but I found no source showing he coined the label. D is the one statement that is certainly wrong, which fits the key.

Answer: B

The correct code is (2) and (4).

Janet and Robert Denhardt's New Public Service holds that public servants should serve citizens, not customers (2), and that the public interest is the aim, to be built through shared dialogue, not a by-product of individual choices (4).

Statement (1), serving the customer, and statement (3), emphasis on productivity, are the language of New Public Management, the approach the New Public Service was written to answer. So any code including (1) or (3) is wrong.

Answer: B

The approach is the institutional approach.

The institutional (structural) approach, the earliest approach in the discipline, studies public administration through the formal institutions of government: the constitution, the executive, departments, legislatures and courts, their legal powers and their relations with each other.

The behavioural approach studies how people actually behave in organisations. The structural-functional approach analyses the functions that structures perform in a social system. The ecological approach studies administration in relation to its environment. None centres on the institutions of government as such.

Answer: B

Direct supervision of a subordinate by a superior is line authority.

Line authority runs down the chain of command: each superior has the right to give orders to, and is responsible for, the subordinates directly below. It is the relationship of command and control that connects the top of an organisation to its operating level, and it is the basis of the scalar principle.

Staff authority is advisory: staff units such as planning or research cells advise line officers but do not command them. Auxiliary (or housekeeping) agencies, such as personnel or purchase departments, provide common services to the line. Neither involves direct supervision of subordinates in the line of command, so the options built on staff or auxiliary authority are wrong.

Answer: D

The keyed answer is high level conferences.

The key treats ability of superiors, skill of subordinates and singleness of purpose as conditions or factors on which good internal coordination depends: capable leaders, capable staff and a common aim. A high level conference is different in kind. It is a device or technique that a head of department uses to bring the parts of the organisation together, along with committees, liaison officers and staff meetings.

That is the distinction between a factor and a technique that the keyed answer rests on. I could not trace the exact textbook list of factors the paper follows, so the question depends on that list; conferences are a standard technique of coordination, which fits the key.

Answer: C

The definition is of leadership.

James D. Mooney and Alan C. Reiley, in their analysis of the principles of organisation, described leadership as the form that authority assumes when it enters into process. Authority is the right to command that comes with a position; leadership is that authority in action, guiding and directing the work of others.

Communication is the transmission of information and understanding, coordination is the orderly arrangement of group effort to achieve unity of action, and motivation is what moves people to act. Each is related to authority, but the phrase 'the form authority assumes when it enters into process' is the classical definition of leadership.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

(A) is true: publicness is not one simple property, because a body can be public in several respects at once, such as ownership, funding, control and the purpose it serves. (R) is also true: public administration differs from private administration in the locus (which agency), the focus (the public interest) and the access (openness) that it has.

The key holds that (R) lists the dimensions in which public and private administration differ, which is a different statement from saying why publicness itself is complex-structured, so (R) is true but not the explanation. This is a matter of judgement, because one can also read the three dimensions as the structure of the concept; I follow the key. Codes C and D are wrong because both statements are true.

Answer: C

The keyed answer is fitting each person harmoniously into the working group.

The key follows a textbook definition of supervision as the direct guidance of employees that gets each worker to see his place in the team and to work with the others for the purpose of the organisation. On that view supervision is about integrating the individual into the group, which is why the key prefers this option.

Checking compliance with instructions (A), detecting wrongdoing (B) and controlling staff (D) are also things supervisors do, and some texts list them as purposes of supervision. I could not identify the exact source of the definition the key uses, so this question rests on the keyed textbook reading and the other three options should not be called wrong in general.

Answer: C

Lateral entry is normally considered for higher level positions.

Lateral entry brings in specialists from outside the regular service, from the private sector, academia or other organisations, directly at senior or middle-to-senior levels, to supply expertise that the career service lacks. In India the government invited applications from 2018 for lateral entry at the level of Joint Secretary, and later at Director and Deputy Secretary, in central ministries.

Lower positions are filled by regular direct recruitment of young entrants, which is the normal career-service route. Lateral entry is useful precisely where specialised, mature expertise is needed, which is at higher levels.