Administration can be defined as any action or series of action that is taken to reach a particular goal. It is basically the systematic use of resources to make anything happen.
According to Frederic k Lane Administration is organizing and maintaining human and fiscal resources to attain a group’s goals.
Public administration is a very wide approach and different writers have different views on public administration. For a layman we can say that public administration is the management of all those rules and regulation in such a way to utilize it for people. Public administration considers managing the resources for the public welfare in large. L D White defined public administration as all those operation having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement, while according to Woodrow Wilson public administration is a detailed and systematic application of law. Public administration includes all the three branches i.e. executive, legislative and judiciary. It helps in proper formation and implementation of public policy.
With the change in time a considerable shift can be seen in the way Public Administration functions. In ancient time all the rules and regulations were made by monarchs and these were maintained by the persons appointed by the monarchs but with the change in time we can see a systematic approach in bureaucracy. Proper legal framework is implemented to regulate the functioning of every department and bureaucracy. The officials are now answerable to the common people. This new approach to public administration can be seen because of various factors. The world is changing globally. Different countries are interacting with each other on different levels like trade, finance, technology and are sharing the ideas and processes. The interaction with different people of different countries leads to an increase in awareness among people about their rights and choices. The term that is used for the globalizing world is Globalization. Thus globalization is a process which leads to the interconnectedness of various economies. The various states are now dependent on each other. According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, globalization is a shift of economy from a particular nation to the international level. This globalization has deeply affected the way public administration functions.
IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION
Different countries reacted differently to this wave of globalization. According to the proponents the globalization leads to the overall development of any country due to expansion of trade, investment, products, market and technology which results in high living standard, reduction in poverty. While some people say that there are many negative effects of globalization like lack of proper jobs for unskilled, rift between rich and poor, environmental problems. These problems mainly arise in the developing nations. Globalization affects public administration because it creates the pressure because of various global institutions, information technology and the pressure of increasing the productivity and efficiency of any policy. Impact of globalization can be seen in different spheres. Some of the spheres are-
Economical changes- the impact of market forces on public administration came up with certain ill effects. The privatization of public enterprises by the administrators has many repercussions. There was a sudden shift in the financial gap between the laborers and the owners. There were many other repercussions like decreased employment, reduced quality of service etc. Because of privatization the power shifted from the hands of the government to the private entities. The globalization lead to the privatization of the market which is a risky step for the developing nations because there is a risk of disruption and threat to the interest of the consumer plans.
Women empowerment- the globalization surely gave some good results in the field of women empowerment. The increase technology has resulted in the quality of service delivered by the executives. There is transparency in the procedure followed to improve the standard of living of women. The laws are transparent and the administrators are answerable to the people. Before globalization the common citizens were treated as goods by some administrators but with the onset of globalizing world the bureaucrats have started respecting people and the feelings of people. So there is a complete shift in the attitude of administrators that how they see any issue related to women.
Social sectors- this is another area in which certain ill effects of globalization can be seen. With the onset of globalizing era the social sectors like health, education have moved out of the hands of the state which resulted in market monopolies.
Environmental effects- the major backdrop of globalization can be seen on the environment. The natural resources and minerals are exploited by the countries so that they can survive in this globalizing world.
CHALLENGES FACED
The global institutions are exerting immense pressure on the developing nations. These global institutions are basically the formalized institutions that have global jurisdiction and power over the individual countries over certain areas. The aid that these global institutions provide to these developing countries has wider repercussions. The aid includes financial help, military help. The countries start depending politically on these institutions. In 1995 David Korten observed that “Bank-approved consultants often rewrite a country’s fiscal policy, trade policy, labor laws, civil service requirements, environmental regulations, health care arrangements, resettlement requirements, energy policy, procurement rules and budgetary policies”. It is observed that in most of the developing countries common people do not have the choice of determining their priorities about policy references. The stabilization process and structural adjustment that most of the developing countries are adopting is also resulting in the negation of local democracy. Now the upcoming challenge is to give strength to the political processes by developing the system of governance that is effective.
WAYS TO BRING A CHANGE
The effective system of government can be only achieved by crating processes for better human interaction, redesigning public policies and organizations and expanding the conditions for dialogue, change, and problem solving. The future challenges for the public administrators is to develop capacity for consciously learning and undergoing change by critically reflecting upon their actions, and continuously engaging in renewal by becoming an active participant in the global environment. Government departments that works as the community service providers should work in collaboration with the community based bodies where there is a high level of delegation of function. Some of the examples of such services include law enforcement, health, public education and many more. They must work in effective partnership with those delivering the service, especially if professional expertise and a capacity for innovation, commitment to quality of service in meeting changing needs in the community are to be encouraged and appropriately supported.
There is lack of coordination among different governmental agencies, which is becoming one of the hindrances in proper administration. To prevent this, the concept of ‘interoperability’ was introduced in the Minnowbrook Conference III. This idea is basically taken from the engineering science. Interoperability is the idea of working together by considering all the political, social and other organization factors that can impact the outcome. And in this era of Information Technology this process can be easily accomplished by the creation of connected networks. There is a need of ‘collaborative government’ that can act as the shield against all those bureaucratic delays and government slackening. Administrative reforms can’t be achieved overnight; it is a process in which the public bureaucracy plays a critical role. The methodology is as important as the public bureaucracy so it becomes very important to develop a methodology after proper analysis and argumentation.
CONCLUSION
Every technique and process comes with some abysmal. This process of globalization cannot be reversed now but we should come out of the fear that there is no alternative for globalization. There is no doubt that globalization has helped a lot in promoting foreign exchange flows, Foreign Direct Investment, technological advancements etc. there were many attempts of evolving a process that can help in achieving uniform approach in promoting delivery mechanisms and service values. Because of uniqueness in culture and environment, different results of globalization can be seen in the developed countries and developing countries. Especially, in the developing countries, it came with some serious repercussions, but the most important repercussions that we need to emphasize on are the isolation, imbalances and inequality that this process of globalization has created. These repercussions can be improved by the process of social cohesion and cooperation between both the state and market. The social cohesion and cooperation cannot be achieved my market or state alone. This will result in the formation of some hybrid organizations that are the mixture of state and market. The changed ambience in which administration operates needs an interactive relationship between the State, market and civil society so as to achieve Good Governance and an accountable, transparent and efficient provision of goods and services. The transformation should be done keeping in mind the global justice and humane development. The basic aim of any process should be global peace, justice and welfare of people.