From its first enunciation by Wilson and Goodnow, scientific

administration, which stressed the separation of administration

from politics and efficiency as the goal of administration, became
the dominant idea in public administration from roughly 1910 to
1940. Taft's Commission on Economy and Efficiency, which was a
model for activities at all levels of government, propagated the
notion of scientific management. By the mid1920s, two textbooks,
Leonard D. White's Introduction to the Study of Public
Administration (1926) and W.F. Willoughby's Principles of Public
Administration (1927), established the dominance of the idea that
scientific principles should govern public administration. (Lynn,
1996:29)

The ''quintessential scientific management statement in public

administration" (Bozeman 1979, 33) was Luther Gulick and Lyndall
Urwick's Papers on the Science of Administration, published in 1937.
Gulick drew heavily on the work of Henri Fayol, a French
industrialist then little known in America, who is credited with
being perhaps the first to devise a theory of management. "What is
the work of the chief executive? What does he do?" Gulick asked.
"The answer,'' he said, following Fayol, "is POSDCORB" (Gulick
1937, 13), which referred to the seven principles of public
administration: planning, organization, staffing, directing,
coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. (Lynn, 1996:29-30)

The seminal contribution is Woodrow Wilson's ''The Study of

Administration" (1887), is taken as the first modern literature of public
administration(Lynn, 1996:27), in which he argued that the objective of
administrative study is to rescue executive methods from the confusion
and costliness of empirical experiment and set them upon foundations
laid deep in stable principle.

Perry and Kraemer (1983) have summarized that the essence of

Woodrow Wilson's famous 1887 essay's foundations are as following:
 (1) government as the primary organizational setting,
(2) the executive function as the proper focus,
(3) the discovery of principles and techniques for more effective
management as a key to developing administrative competence,
and
4) comparison as a method for study and advancement of the field
(Perry and Kraemer, 1983:1).

Laurance E. Lynn has asserted the 'top executives are apt to take an
unduly narrow view of their organizations, invoking principles of
"efficient organization" or "leadership" or "coordination" or the like to
rationalize their attempts to deal with problems'.(Lynn, 1996:78)

"principles" legitimized through "deliberation"(Lynn, 1996:83). Scholars

can compile, clarify, and explicate principles; but because principles
furnish meaning rather than truth, efforts at empirical validation are
generally beside the point" (Bardeach, 1987: 197).

The universality of principles is precisely the point of psychological

preparation and the discovery of meaning as central to managerial
success. (Lynn, 1996; Behn, ). Simon, Waldo admit that the principles of
administration is 'proverbs'.

THE “PRINCIPLES” AND OTHER EARLY WRITINGS

Leonard D. White, in his Introduction to the Study of Public

Administration (1926), was clearly influenced by Taylor in asserting that
management procedures could be studied scientifically to discover the
best method of operation. This was not only White’s view—it was
commonly held by most scholars of public administration of that period.
Together with the politics–administration dichotomy, the quest for
economy and efficiency, and the notion of public administration as a
value-free science, the scientific study of management practices was at
the core of public administration theory.
Other elements of Taylorism appeared in the principles of
administration approach, which became prominent in the 1930s. The
very effort to discover principles was itself derived from the scientific
approach to management, and individual principles reflected Taylor’s
continuing influence on the study of organizations, both public and
private. The writings of Henri Fayol, F. W. Willoughby, and the team of
Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick set forth the essential themes of the
principles approach.6 The major themes were as follows:
1. Unity of command—direction by a single individual at each level of
an organization and at the top of the structure.
2. Hierarchy—the vertical ordering of superior–subordinate relations in
an organization, with a clearly defined chain of command.
3. Functional specialization—division of labor and subject-matter
specialization as a main contributor to work efficiency.
4. Narrow span of control—each supervisor having responsibility for the
activities of a limited number of subordinates.
5. Authority parallel with responsibility—each responsible official
endowed with the authority necessary to direct operations in the
particular organizational unit.
6. Rational organizational arrangement—planning the organization
according to function or purpose, geographic area, process performed,
or people served (clientele). ((Milakovich and Gordon, 2009 :164).

Some aggregated principles are:

1. An organization is a system of hierarchy under
which there is a vertical division of authority and a
definite assignment of duties in various
organizational units
 2. For a clare-cut of athurity relationship, unity of
commond should exist, under which a person in the
performance of his duties, receive orders only from
one superior.
3. Thre should be a rational division of work anong
various positions and persons working in the
organization.
4. There should be a limited number of immediate
subordinates working undre an execitive, so that an
efficitve supervision may be exerceised over them.
5. There should be delegation of authority and
responsibility anong the various levels of an
organization
6. Authority and responsibility should be
commensurate with each orther, i.e., there shouldbe
a balance between the two at all organizational
levels.
7. There should be coordination amongst the various
parts of the organization, which would provide unity
of action in pursuit of a common purpose.

Old Public Administration

• Public administration is politically neutral, valuing the idea of neutral
competence.
• The focus of government is the direct delivery of services. The best
organizational structure is a centralized bureaucracy.
• Programs are implemented through top-down control mechanisms,
limiting discretion as much as possible.

+ Bureaucracies seek to be closed systems to the extent possible, thus

limiting citizen involvement.
• Efficiency and rationality are the most important values in public
organizations.
• Public administrators do not play a central role in policy making and
governance; rather, they are charged with the efficient implementation
of public objectives.
• The job of public administrators is described by Gulick’s POSDCORB
(1937, 13).

Bureaucracies seek to be closed systems to the extent possible,

thus limiting citizen involvement. • Efficiency and rationality are the
most important values in public organizations. • Public administrators do
not play a central role in policy making and governance; rather, they are
charged with the efficient implementation of public objectives. • The job
of public administrators is described by Gulick’s POSDCORB (1937,
13). Bureaucracies seek to be closed systems to the extent possible, thus
limiting citizen involvement. • Efficiency and rationality are the most
important values in public organizations. • Public administrators do not
play a central role in policy making and governance; rather, they are
charged with the efficient implementation of public objectives. • The job
of public administrators is described by Gulick’s POSDCORB (1937,
13).

1. The field has shifted focus in significant measurefrom the

management of agencies to policy issues. 2. Social equity has been
added to efficiency and economyasthe rationale or justification for policy
positions. 3. Ethics, honesty, and responsibility in government have
returned again to the lexicon of public administration. 4. The
Minnowbrook perspectiveargued that, as public needs
change,government agencies often outlive their purposes. 5. Change, not
growth,has cometobeunderstood as the morecriticaltheoretical issue. 6.
Effective public administration has cometobedefined in the context of an
active and participative citizenry. 7. Implementation movedcenterstage
in studiesofdecision making in the1950s and 1960s, but in the 1970s it
cametobebetter understood that the more difficult challenge is to carry
out decisions. 8. Correctness of the rational modeland the usefulness of
the strictconcept of hierarchy has been severely challenged. 9.
Whilepluralismcontinuestobewidelyacceptedasausefuldeviceforexplainin
gtheexercise of public power, it has ceased to be the standardfor the
practice of public administration.
In an introduction to asymposium on asecondconference (Minnowbrook
II) Frederickson (1989, 97)summarized nine major themes developed at
the first Minnowbrook Conference that had became important aspects of
publicadministration . :
1. The field has shifted focus in significant measure from the
management of agencies to policy issues.
2. Social equity has been added to efficiency and economy as the
rationale or justification for policy positions.
3. Ethics, honesty, and responsibility in government have returned again
to the lexicon of public administration.
4. The Minnowbrook perspective argued that, as public needs
change,government agencies often outlive their purposes.
5. Change, not growth,has cometobeunderstood as the
morecriticaltheoretical issue.
6. Effective public administration has come to be defined in the context
of an active and participative citizenry.
7. Implementation moved center stage in studies of decision making in
the1950s and 1960s, but in the 1970s it came to be better understood
that the more difficult challenge is to carry out decisions.
8. Correctness of the rational model and the usefulness of the strict
concept of hierarchy has been severely challenged.
9.While pluralism continues to be widely accepted as a useful device for
explaining the exercise of public power, it has ceased to be the
standard for the practice of public administration.