Public Management and Administration - Owen E.hughes

28 Public Management and Administration
advance of rationality, and impersonality are aspects of both. As Behn argues
(2001, pp. 40–1):
Wilson, Taylor and Weber all strove to improve efficiency. And, although efficiency is
a value in itself, it has another advantage. This efficiency is impersonal. By separating
administration from politics, by applying science to the design of its administrative
processes, and by employing bureaucratic organizations to implement these processes,
government would ensure not only that its policies were fair but also that their implementation
was fair.
The ideas of ‘one best way’ and systematic control were a perfect fit with rigid
hierarchy, process and precedent. Weber mentioned the work of Taylor
favourably. He argued (Gerth and Mills, 1970, p. 261):
With the help of appropriate methods of measurement, the optimum profitability of the
individual worker is calculated like that of any material means of production. On the basis
of this calculation, the American system of ‘scientific management’ enjoys the greatest
triumphs in the rational conditioning and training of work performances.
Standardization of tasks and fitting workers to them was perfect for the traditional
model of administration. Even the measurement of performance by stopwatch
was common in the organization and methods branch of large public
bureaucracies. As Bozeman argues (1979, pp. 33–4):
Scientific management did not waste away in textbooks; it was highly influential in the
practice of public administration and in government research … . The influence of public
administration and public administrationists reached its zenith as the faith in scientific
management and the scientific principles spread and established itself as the prevailing
orthodoxy.
Taylor remains important for public administration, as his theory of scientific
management became a key influence on what followed in the management of
public and private sectors. Although particular points could be disputed – the
crude theory of personal motivation, time-and-motion studies – the idea that
management could be systematic remained important in the public sector and
clearly fitted very well with the theory of bureaucracy. As Stillman argues
(1991, p. 110), ‘it all fits neatly together: a strong, effective administrative
system could flourish if politics was restricted to its proper sphere, if scientific
methods were applied, and if economy and efficiency were societal goals’.
Human relations
Another theory, ‘human relations’, is often contrasted with scientific management.
The focus of human relations is more on the social context at work rather
than regarding the worker as an automaton responsive only to financial incentives.
The human relations school had its roots in social psychology, and