1.0 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION.

1.1 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION FROM MODERN PERSPECTIVE.

Public Administration is concerned with the management of public programs, which interact with the residents of the community or region. Those who work in it should share a commitment to offer public service. Public administration can be defined as a management of men and materials in the accomplishment of identifiable purpose. It is the science of how a country can be ruled. It is a government central instrument for dealing with general social problem; it is also the management of resources to achieve government’s goals and objectives.

The main function of public administration is to implement government policy. The implementation of programs. With economic and social development programs, distribution of national resources can be done effectively and can be optimally. In public administration have three branches like legislative is making a law, executive was implement the law beside judicial was enforce the law. (Fazimah Hayati, 2005)

  1.2 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION FROM CLASSICALS PERSPECTIVE (VARIOUS SCHOLARS).

1.2.1 Woodrow Wilson

Wilson also studied public administration, which he called "government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government, and is of course as old as government itself”. He believed that by studying public administration governmental efficiency could be increased. Wilson was concerned with the implementation of government. He faulted political leaders who focused on philosophical issues and the nature of government and dismissed the critical issues of government administration as mere "practical detail". He thought such attitudes represented the requirements of smaller countries and populations. By his day, he thought, "it is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one. He thought it time "to straighten the paths of government, to make its business less unbusiness like, to strengthen and purify its organization, and it to crown its dutifulness". He complained that studies of administration drew principally on the history of Continental Europe and an American equivalent was required. He summarized the growth of such foreign states as Prussia, France, and England, highlighting the events that led to advances in administration.

By contrast, he thought the United States required greater compromise because of the diversity of public opinion and the difficulty of forming a majority opinion. Thus practical reform to the government is necessarily slow. Yet Wilson insisted that "administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics" and that "general laws which direct these things to be done are as obviously outside of and above administration." He likens administration to a machine that functions independent of the changing mood of its leaders. Such a line of demarcation is intended to focus responsibility for actions taken on the people or persons in charge. As Wilson put it, "public attention must be easily directed, in each case of good or bad administration, to just the man deserving of praise or blame. There is no danger in power, if only it be not irresponsible. If it be divided, dealt out in share to many, it is obscured..." Essentially, the items under the discretion of administration must be limited in scope, as to not block, nullify, obfuscate, or modify the implementation of governmental decree made by the executive branch.

1.2.2 L.D. White

According to L. D. White, Administration was a ‘process common to all group effort, public or private, civil or military, large scale or small scale’.

Public administration is "centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behaviour of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct. Generally Public Administration has been used in two senses. In the wider sense it includes all the activities of the government whether falling in the sphere of legislature, executive or judicial branch of the government, in the narrow sense Public Administration is concerned with the activities of the executive branch only.

1.2.3 Dwight Waldo

POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of Management and Public Administration that reflects the classic view of administrative management. Largely drawn from the work of French industrialist Henri Fayol, it first appeared in a 1937 staff paper by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick written for the Brownlow Committee. The acronym stands for steps in the administrative process:Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.

In Gulick's own words, the elements of POSDCORB are as follows:

Ø  Planning, that is working out in broad outline the things that need to be done and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise;

Example in Malaysia, there was a planning of each department. For example, imigration department has its own planning to efficient to make a request of passport can be made within 24hours.

Ø  Organizing, that is the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which work subdivisions are arranged, defined, and co-ordinate for the defined objective;

Example in Malaysia, all the department under government has its own objectives. For example, Department of Welfare objective is to help the poor people and to increase the citizen welfare

Ø  Staffing, that is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining favorable conditions of work;

Example in Malaysia, all the staffing is involve Public Administration Commission, or SPA. Staff in government agencies has been made by the SPA. For example, the Civil Engineer position has vacancy at Department of Public Work, SPA will find a candidates and will appoint anyone who qualified with the position.

Ø  Directing, that is the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and general orders and instructions and serving as the leader of the enterprise;

Example in Malaysia,  Head of Department has their job by directing and make decision to their department. There was a general orders and instruction given to their staff to reach their objectives.

Ø  Co-ordinating, that is the all important duty of interrelating the various parts of the work;

Example in Malaysia, in Prime Minister office, there was a various sub-department that control and organized their task. For example, in Prime Minister office, there are Economic Planning Unit, Education Service Commission, Judicial and legal training Institutes and many more. All of the sub-department has their own task.

Ø  Reporting, that is keeping those to whom the executive is responsible informed as to what is going on, which thus includes keeping himself and his subordinates informed through records, research, and inspection;

Example in Malaysia, Malaysian Audit and tax department has their responsibility to check of every department agencies to make sure that all of the government agent are using government funding wisely.

Ø  Budgeting, with all that goes with budgeting in the form of planning, accounting and control. Example in Malaysia, Malaysian Budget 2012 has been proposed by Prime Minister Of Malaysia to the benefit of Malaysian citizen.