Emerging Trends of Public Administration

1. Emerging Trends in Public Administration
Concept ofNew Public Administration The term new public administration simply means that
there was a public administration which was old. Literally this is correct. But the fact is that with
the change of all the major and minor aspects of society the administration of society has
undergone changes, because the public administration is to cope with the changes. Otherwise it
cannot meet the basic necessities of society.
In our analysis of the evolution of public administration, we have already noted that towards the
end of the sixties of the last century people experienced in administration developed, new
paradigms of public administration were devised, and these were suggested to meet the new
challenges of society. It has been suggested that the administrators must find out new methods of
administration, otherwise the administrative structure will not be in a position to keep the
momentum of change.
Whatever may the form of government be, there must exist an administration. This is a
fundamental notion and from this comes the notion of new public administration. It is to be noted
here that the concept of new public administration first arose in America. Nicholas Henry says
that in 1968 some enthusiastic administrators took an initiative to hold a conference for finding
out ways which would be capable of dealing with new changes plaguing the administration of
American society.
CONCEPT AND ELEMENTS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE
Meaning and Objective:
The public administration has introduced a new concept-good governance. The term good
governance is difficult to define. But this difficulty does not stand on the way of its explanation
and pursuance. From the 1980s America is making continuous efforts to achieve lofty ideal of
good governance and, at the beginning of twenty first century, the concept of good governance
has become an integral part of public administration. Nicholas Henry says that the present era
(the twenty-first century) may appropriately be called an era of good governance.

2. The ideal of good governance is yet to be achieved but continuous efforts are being made. Good
governance is today regarded as a paradigm of public administration. Why? It is said that the
public administration must be employed to achieve the governance which will come to the
benefit of the largest number, if not all members of the body politic.
The term governance has two meanings-one is narrow and the other is broad. The former means
that simply to administer or rule the state in accordance with law or constitution. But in the
present era governance is used in broader sense. The public administration must be engaged in
developing a backward nation and in the present century a sizeable part of this task falls upon the
public administration.
The purpose of administration shall always be to achieve development. How much development
has been achieved that shall be decided by the yardstick of performance. The good governance
means not merely administration, but the administration aims at development, how much perfor-
mance has been achieved.
Governance is a comprehensive term which encompasses both general administration and all-
round progress of the body politic. Hence we can say that good governance includes both good
administration and-along with it-progress. But the meaning of the term does not end here. It
embraces many other things such as alertness, activities and constructive thought for the people.
Here constructive means development of society. Good governance also includes people’s
participation in both developmental and administrative functions of society.
This is the age of globalisation and liberalisation and, hence, there are both interactions and
collaboration between national and international organisations doing various types of jobs. Good
governance must see that the collaboration among both national and international institutions has
been ensured and this collaboration has come to the maximum amount of benefit of the body
politic.

3. Good governance also means the attainment of ideals of democracy and participation of people
in all activities of state. That is, participatory administration finds its fullest realisation in a
society which is governed properly. It also assumes that a good and effective rapport has come to
exist between governmental institutions and non-governmental institutions-both national and
international as well as MNCs and NGOs.
In this age of globalisation all these have key roles to play in the development process of a
prismatic society (to use the term of Fred Riggs). At present a developing nation must receive
foreign aid in its various forms. But the foreign aid is not to be treated as Aladdin’s lamp which
can do everything itself. The proper or effective use of foreign aid is a crucial issue and its
proper use depends upon the public administration. This question also falls under the purview of
good governance.
Recent Trends In public Administration
New Trends in Public Administration: Reflecting on Challenges and Harnessing
Opportunities
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an
organization.
By Carolyn Mattocks
July 29, 2016
Public administration is a social science that is similar to history as it enables youthto assess the past
in order to create solutions to resolve issues in the present and in the future. In their book
titled, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decisionmakers, Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest
R. May discuss using history as a tool to make it more relevant to current trends. The discipline of
public administration has its own historical context embedded within American government and
political science. Public administration is the practicality of these two disciplines which has been
demonstrated through presidential administrations, Congressional decision making, strategic
planning and citizen focus.
One major question in public administration is how can you reflect on challenges and harness
opportunities? Thinking in time helps the public administrator implement current trends which
include new governance, new leadership styles, generational change and succession planning,
strategic and performance measurement, citizen focus, reorganized work structure and process, e-
government and e-democracy, service delivery, innovation, ethicsand transparency. These trends were
highlighted by Arizona State University Professor James Svara. The need to improve sustainability, along

4. with the persistent fiscalcrisis, makes each of these trends relevant to cause the public administrator
to think in time in order to implement these trends.
New leadership styles are the pivotal trend that will help government maintain sustainability and
prevent fiscal crisis. There are many types of leadership styles that has caused formal authority to
become almost obsolete and has led to innovative styles, such as transformational, change agent,
facilitative and situational. Each of these innovative leadership styles is effective. But the key to
leadership style is leadership ability.
In John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, he identifies 21 laws of leadership in order
to produce effective results. These laws are applicable to the public sector. However, the three laws
that could make a new leadership effective are leadership ability, influence and empowerment.
Without an effective leadership style, the government loses its efficiency and sustainability because
of the “maze” of bureaucracy. A system of bureaucracy causes a lack of innovation and places
limitations on governance, strategic/performance measurement, ethics and transparency.
The transformational leadership style is new and innovative enough to help the government
structure maintain sustainability and improve the fiscal crisis. When implemented within a
bureaucratic system, the transformational leadership style will help strengthen the relationship
between management and staff. This type of leadership style enables the follower to be motivated
and inspired and provides challenging tasks which enable them to feel like a contributor.
Embedded within the transformational leadership are the elements of individualized consideration,
intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and idealized influence. Each of these
characteristics is what makes the transformational leadership style effective. The individualized
consideration is when the leader keeps communication open and places challenges before the
followers. Intellectual stimulation is where the leader challenges assumptions, takes risks, stimulates
creativity and turns unexpected situations into opportunities.
Inspirational motivation is where the leader articulates a vision that is appealing and challenges
followers with high standards. Idealized influence is where the leader becomes a role model for high
ethical behavior. This new leadership style implemented within government structure motivates the
organization to follow aspects of Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline: building a shared vision and team
learning, which leads to a commitment of thinking together, which leads to exemplary leadership
such as modeling, creating challenges, keeping people inspired to achieve the mission, and creating a
learning organization.
This leadership style which has been very effective in the nonprofit and private sectors and the
federal sector could utilize benchmarking by examining some of the best strategies. The following
benchmarking articles help to exemplify why transformational leadership can make leadership more
effective in order to produce a government that is accountable and efficient.
 Bernard M. Bass examines how transformational leadership relates to the creation and maintenance of the
learning organization.
 Peng Wang and Joseph Rode explore relationships within the transformational leadership style as it relates to
leadership and employee creativity. The researchers use a multi-level linear model to demonstrate the effects
of transformational leadership.
 Bobbi Watt Geer, Jill K. Maher and Michele T. Cole identify the issue of managing nonprofit organizations
through transformational leadership and its application to nonprofit accountability.
 Fred O. Walumbwa and Chad A. Hartnell use the variable of performance and its relationship to the
employee’s ability to be creative, innovative and inspiring.