Doctor of Public Administration Foundation University

1. The Concept of
Administration and
Organization
Josefino “Penn” T. Larena AB, CPS, MPA

2. A: WHAT IS ADMINISTRATION
First definition: “Administration can be defined as the activities of
groups cooperating to accomplish common goals”.
There are particular key elements of administration.
Cooperative: the word cooperative is the first key element in this
definition. Human activity is cooperative if it has the effects that
would be absent if the cooperation did not take place.

4. • It seems that a new element is introduced, that is the concept of
means.
Means: The means are the ways by which something is done or
obtained
• A division of labor is necessary among the members of the group
to accomplish a common goal.

5. • There is also a need for an authority structure to control and
coordinate the activities of the individuals involved.
** division of labor and authority structure are means (among
others) for carrying out prescribed ends.
• Cooperation and any other method is also a means used in the
administration.

6. C: Characteristics of Formal Organization
•The most prominent characteristic of organizations
is the conscious deliberate human effort to establish
and operate them for the accomplishment of pre-
determined goals.
-- In other words, organizations are deliberately
created by human decisions for the purpose of
accomplishing predetermined goals.
-- the goal may change from one organization to
another.

7. • Another important feature of formal organizations
is the structured relations among its members.
• -- Organizations are established for accomplishing
specific objectives and these objectives are
accomplished through the efforts and
contributions of a number of people who are
members of that organization.
• -- The relations among the individuals have to be
structured or planned in a way which will facilitate
goal accomplishment.

8.  you need an organization to accomplish desired
goals because you have to relate the individuals
to each other and coordinate their activities.
 Without relating the members of the group to
each other, without planning their activities it is
not possible to accomplish the common
objectives.
 without organization there will be chaos.

9.  In this sense, in formal organizations, the
relations among the members are
structured, their activities as members of
the organization are ordered.
 In other words, the relations among the
members are orderly and members of the
organization perform specific roles within
the organization according to pre-
determined rules and regulations.

10. • Another important characteristic of formal
organization is that their members are
selected on the basis of their individual
qualifications.
-- Since each organization has predetermined,
specific goals to accomplish and
accomplishment of goals requires a variety of
activities, the individuals who contribute their
physical and mental activities have to be
selected by taking into consideration the
activities necessary for goal accomplishment.

11.  The formal organization will use money
and other material resources to
accomplish their objectives. Therefore
another characteristic of formal
organization is the use of money and
other material resources in accordance
with the goals of the organization.
 A final characteristic of formal
organization is that the interactions of
the organization with its environment is
regulated to the extend required by the
nature of its goals.

12. D. ORGANIZATION AS SYSTEM
•In its broadest sense, the concept of
“organization” is almost synonymous
with that of “system”.
•in this understanding, the concept
of organization refers to any
situation where there are a number
of elements which are bound
together and stand in some relation
to one another.
* Organization as a system has the
following characteristics:

13. 1. there are a number of elements
2. these elements of a system are interrelated
among themselves in an orderly or ordered manner.
-- this means that their relationship is not chaotic or
completely random.
-- there is some kind of pattern in these
relationships so that a change in one element of the
system leads to predictable changes in other
elements.
3. A system may be related to some other systems
or be a part of some larger systems.

14. -- If organization is regarded as structure
then administration becomes a process.
-- If organization is concerned with the formal
aspects of administration, administration is the
directing process carried on within the
organizational setting.

15.  ** The terms “administration” and
“management”, are generally used
synonymously meaning the same thing.
 --But the term “management” is
generally identified with private sector
organizations.
 -- the term”administration”, on the
other hand, is used with reference to
public organizations.
 -- Managing a private organization is
completely different from administering
a public organization.

16.  -- Public or private organizations are social
units established for accomplishing
predetermined objectives.
 -- in accomplishing their objectives
organizations both employ the very same
techniques and processes. In this sense
administration is a universal phenomenon.
 -- But this does not necessarily mean that
there are no differences between public and
private organizations with regard to their
administration.

17. Thank you & God bless