Introduction to Public Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Waldo stressed that public administration cannot shy away from substantive issues confronting society.

In The Administrative State (1948) Waldo argued that administration is bound up with political theory and values, and in 1968 he convened the Minnowbrook Conference, which launched the New Public Administration with its demand for relevance, values and social equity. For him the discipline had to deal with what government does for society, not only with how it does it.

Focusing solely on administrative processes is the narrow view he criticised. Calling society's problems irrelevant contradicts him directly. Waldo did write historically, but he did not reduce the discipline to historical analysis.

Answer: B

The two alternatives were distribution according to the nature of the service or according to the persons or classes to be dealt with.

The Machinery of Government Committee in Britain, chaired by Lord Haldane, compared two ways of allocating work among departments: by the service to be rendered (health, education, defence) or by the class of persons served (children, the poor, ex-servicemen). It preferred the first, organisation by service or function, because the second would scatter the same kind of work across several departments.

Geographic regions, government agencies, the budget, economic sectors and political parties were not the alternatives the committee set out, so the other three options each replace one or both of its terms.

Answer: B

Graicunas identified 3 types of superior-subordinate relationship.

In 'Relationship in Organization' (1933) V. A. Graicunas classified them as:

1. direct single relationships, between the superior and each subordinate individually;
2. direct group relationships, between the superior and each possible group of subordinates;
3. cross relationships, among the subordinates themselves.

Adding the three gives his formula for the total number of relationships, \(n(2^{n-1} + n - 1)\) for \(n\) subordinates, which rises steeply and was used to argue for a narrow span of control. The other numbers do not correspond to his classification.

Answer: B

The definition is George R. Terry's.

In his Principles of Management Terry defined leadership as the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for mutual objectives. The key words are 'willingly' and 'mutual': the leader gains voluntary co-operation towards shared goals rather than compelling obedience.

Chester Barnard is known for The Functions of the Executive and the acceptance theory of authority; Catheryn Seckler-Hudson and John D. Millett wrote on organisation and management in the public service. None of them is the source of this particular definition.

Answer: A

Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

From 2018 the Government of India advertised posts for lateral entry at the level of Joint Secretary, and later at Director and Deputy Secretary level, with selection made through the UPSC. So the Assertion is a fact.

The stated purpose was to bring in people with specialised knowledge and domain expertise for specific assignments, to supplement the career civil service. That purpose is exactly what the Reason states, so it explains why the decision was taken, which rules out the options that call (R) false or unrelated, and the option that calls (A) false.

Answer: C

The method is the incident (incidence) training method.

The incident method, developed by Paul Pigors, gives trainees a short account of a real happening with most of the facts left out. They question the trainer to find the missing facts, weigh the alternatives and then commit to a decision, so it trains decision-making through solving a live problem. The key follows this reading.

The case study method is close, since the incident method is itself a variant of it, but a case supplies the whole story and asks for analysis, so it is less tied to deciding on incomplete information. The lecture method is one-way teaching, and the syndicate method has small groups work on a common task and report back, which builds discussion and teamwork rather than individual decisions.

Answer: D

All four factors apply, so the answer is (1), (2), (3) and (4).

Classification of services groups posts into classes and grades on the basis of their duties and responsibilities. The factors used are the subject matter or kind of work (1), the kind of supervision received or exercised (2), the simplicity or complexity of the work, that is its difficulty (3), and the qualifications required to do it (4). Posts alike on these counts are placed in the same class and paid on the same scale.

Each of the other options leaves out one of these four, and none of them is dispensable: two posts in the same subject but with very different responsibility or qualifications would not be placed in the same class.

Answer: D

The one that is not a characteristic of neutrality is civil servants participate in election propaganda.

The British idea of a neutral civil service means that permanent officials keep out of party politics and serve any government loyally. Senior civil servants are barred from political activity such as campaigning, which is the opposite of taking part in election propaganda.

The other three are its recognised features or results: the public trusts that the service is non-political; ministers of any party can rely on the loyalty of the permanent officials they inherit; and civil servants keep high morale because promotion depends on merit, not on political favour.

Answer: D

It affects the self-improvement efforts of personnel is not an advantage of the seniority principle but a drawback. If promotion goes by length of service, employees have little reason to improve their skills, so initiative and efficiency can fall.

The other three are accepted advantages. Seniority is objective and easy to apply. It removes internal rivalry for advancement, since the order is known in advance. It also supports general morale by giving every employee a predictable career.

Answer: C

The assertion is true and the reason is false. Public administration is indeed concerned with the management of public programmes, meaning the implementation of laws and policies. But saying that public administration is policy making is not accepted: policy making is chiefly the work of the political executive and legislature, with administrators advising and executing.

Both correct, with or without explanation, is wrong because the reason is false. (A) false and (R) true is wrong because the assertion is correct.