Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant Respects?

Steven Ivan Gonzales Caiňa

Professor Calina

MPA 501 Politics and Administration

16 February 2019

Summary Analysis on the article:

“Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant Respects?”

By Graham T. Allison

Graham T. Allison started the argument in bordering the issue on the definition of Management. He reasons out that many individuals strongly feel about some distinction they believe is marked by a difference between one word and another. He explains that these verbal obstacles virtually prohibit conversation that is both brief and constructive among individuals who have not developed a common language or a mutual understanding of each other’s use of terms. Is "management" different from, broader or narrower than "administration”? To deeply understand the imperative difference of public and private management, I agree with Allison that it should be define first the word management before proceeding in ocean deep. For the purpose of this presentation, Allison follows the Webster meaning of the word management: stating organization and direction of resources to achieve a desired result.

Now the stage is set, moving on the second question: How Are Public and Private Management Alike? Allison state that the character and relative significance of the various functions differ from one time to another in the history or any organization, and between one organization and another. But whether in a public or private setting, the challenge for the general manager is to integrate all these elements so as to achieve results. One of the best ways on achieving results according to Gulick and Ui-wick's classic Papers in the Science of Administration is the POSDCORB that stands for Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. In addition, Allisson offered a composite list of Functions of General Management which are the following:

STRATEGY

1. Establishing Objectives and Priorities for the organization

2. Devising Operational Plans to achieve these objectives

MANAGING INTERNAL COMPONENTS

3. Organizing and Staffing

4. Directing Personnel and the Personnel Management System:

5. Controlling Performance

MANAGING EXTERNAL CONSITITUENCIES

6. Dealing with "External" Units of the organization subject to some common authority

7. Dealing with Independent Organizations

8. Dealing with the Press and Public whose action or approval or acquiescence is required

In Allison’s Functions of General Management, it defines the operations framework which I think both public and private management will be similar one way or the other. But just like Allison said, these common functions of management are not isolated and discrete, but rather integral components separated here for purposes of analysis.

In contrast to the latter question, How Are Public and Private Management Different? Although Allison enumerated numerous Orthogonal lists of differences on his recollection review, in this summary analysis, I choose to focus on the contrast of John T. Dunlop's "impressionistic comparison of government management and private business". I believe it is best discussed using Allison’s operational perspective on How Are the Jobs and Responsibilities of Doug Costle, Director