Question : “The rise of information technology is an opportunity to overcome historical disabilities”. Explain.
(2006)
Answer : The information revolution has also caused a revolution in administration. Now the public service delivery system has been fastened, the transparency and people’s participation has been increased. The awareness of rights and duties of citizen have been improved. This all is the result of information technology. Prior to this historically public administration had many flaws.
Administration was devoid of any transparency and work in isolation from the public. Its working remained a mystery. The people’s participation as well as their awareness level was very low. The public service delivery system was very slow and the administration suffered from under delays and had an important problem of keeping the records in shape of files.
But after the arrival of information technology now the services has been at tremendous rate and the records are easy to keep because of computers. It has enhanced decision making process and worked greatly in the field of policy making. Now due to information technology the awareness and consciousness of general public have improved. With the enactment of right to information in many countries the transparency have taken its roots in administration. The people now are willing to participate in the administrative process which till now has been believed as a historical disability of administration to join people with itself.
There is more accountability and responsibility on the officials, which enhanced the quality of service rendered by them. Due to the information technology the administration really has been able to remove much of its historical reliabilities and is still working on many more.
Question : Discuss the main approach to increase the efficiency of government and public administration.
(2006)
Answer : To cope up with the increasing complexity and pressure of good and efficient service delivery the government and public administration needs to devise new ways and approaches, which can make their work more effective and efficient for this purpose. Many approaches can be used in addition to each other because no approach in isolation with the other, can serve the purpose of making administration more efficient.
First of all the approach needs to address the problem at the policy level. There should be a good mechanism of feedback and information. Government should know what are the ground reality of the country and what are its problems. Which are the target groups and which are the regions where developmental process has not reached. Government should have a good idea of the fields whether agriculture, health or infrastructure and their needs. By devising an approach which can efficiently tell the government about the inputs that the policy need the administration can be used efficiency for providing the services. Now the channels or institutions that can be used as centres of development must be identified. For example for rural development NABARD and cooperative societies can be used as channels.
The government should make a policy which has the alternative course of action incase any mother policy fails. The approach should be such that it has an inherent mechanism of check and incentives. The check will keep the misuse and malpractice away while the incentives will work as motivators. The policy should have well-established channels of feedback, so that its popularity and effectiveness can be easily known. Also the approach should be flexible that can be altered keeping in view the new demands and aspirations.
The approach should be of bottom up type. The grass root penetration is needed where there is a huge amount of stress given on the importance of persons for which the policy is being formulated. They should be involved in the decision-making process and the government should directly ask from them about their problems and needs. The government should strive to engage the common people in the dual process of policy formulation as well as policy implementation. The approach should concentrate on the people’s participation. It should be people centric approach.
For effectively using the civil society, non-governmental organizations and other groups and the government should concentrate on decentralization. The government should devise an approach which delegates some powers at the bottom level.
This will not only make the bottom men responsible but also make him the god of their own future.
If they will do the work effectively then only they will be benefitted.
The other important problem that the approach should address is the mismanagement, red tapism, nepotism, despotism, corruption negligence on the part of government officials, undue delay etc. This can be done by making an inherent checking mechanism. This is the most important part of any approach because it directly affects the policy implementation. In India, implementation has not be efficient and effective due to all these reasons.
Thus it is clear that the government should use and all inclusiv7e, comprehensive approach to make the administration efficient.
Question : In what ways and how can information technology play a crucial role in effective government-citizen interaction in context of good governance?
(2005)
Answer : The information technology is the convergence of communication with computers. The information technology has tremendous impact on the structure and nature of administration. It has led to the downsizing of organizations, eliminating the need for levels for bureaucracy and along chain of command. Organizations become flatter and less hierarchical. The need for information keepers and paper pushers are eliminated. People are replaced by technology and the organisation is able to down-size or rather right size, which is the process of reducing the number of people in the organisation. Thus paving way for good-governance.
It brings in rapid changes in management pattern, such as breakdown of hierarchy in administration and increase in coordinating activity. Computers make coordinating better and cheaper. By using data communication network, it will be possible to track work-down in the office and also to take note of grievances of citizens and computers.
It will facilitate administrative decentralization i.e., delegation and autonomy, wide use of information technology is likely to affect the administrative culture by making people’s access to information about public administration easy, bringing the functioning of bureaucrats under gaze of effective public scrutiny, by helping the people to assess the merit and attitude of public servants towards the people. Appreciation of the needs of the people by public servants will be greatly facilitated through IT.
Administrative culture basically refers to the nature and style of public administration. IT would be instrument for transforming the nature and style of India’s public administration into a participative culture, taking the people as partners in development administration.
This administrative culture would be less affected by traditional inefficiency and corruption in public service management. It will greatly improve citizens – administrative relationship. Out of very large number of possibilities of IT application for good governance are:
Question : What is Information Technology? Describe its impact on Public Administration.
(2004)
Answer : Application of Information Technology in public administration has brought about perceptible difference the way people get services. It has been realised at large the Information Technology has gradually entered in public life through improvement in quality of services rendered by the government.
Information technology for some time was used as synonymous to computers. But with the rapid advancement in various information delivery system such as Radio, TV, Telephone, Fax and of course computers and computer networks, information technology refers to the entire gamut of media and devices used to transmit and process information for use by various target groups in the society. IT has, therefore, been rightly termed as Information and Communication Revolution. Information Technology is the industry, which through the use of computers and other supporting equipment helps in the spread of knowledge.
Information Technology has integrated the world by the use of Internet. It is now possible to download information from any part of the world.
The information technology is the convergence of communication with computers. The information technology has tremendous impact on the structure and nature of administration.
It has led to downsizing of organizations, eliminating the need for levels of bureaucracy and along chain of command. Organizations become flatter and less hierarchical. The need for information keepers and file pushers is eliminated. People are replaced by technology and the organisation is able to downsize or rather right size, which is the process of reducing the no. ofpeople in the organisation.
The impact of it is felt mainly at the middle management level. In the traditional administrative process in India the middle management level constitutes the mainstay of bureaucracy. Downsizing of government departments and directorates would create a new administrative culture by doing away with the middle management.
It brings rapid changes in management pattern such as breakdown of hierarchy in administration and increase in coordinating activity. Computers make coordinating better and cheaper. By using data communication network, it will be possible to track work down in the office and also to take note of grievances of citizens and computers. It will facilitate administrative decentralization i.e., delegation and autonomy.
IT will lead to administrative and management revolution. The file pushing processes will be done away with, and data processing and decision-making will be done quickly and cheaply. Administrative efficiency will improve the standard of services rendered.
Freely available information would also go a long way in acting as a deferent for administrative corruption. India’s present C.V.C. has observed that by putting up names of corrupt officers on the website has helped build up public opinion against practice for administrative corruption.
Wide use of IT is likely to affect the administrative culture by making people’s access to information about public administration easy, bringing the functioning of bureaucrats under gaze of effective pubic scrutiny, by helping the people to assess the merit and attitude of public servant towards the people. Appreciation of the needs of the people by public servants will be greatly facilitated through IT.
Thus, IT must play a role at all levels of management, which is both pervasive and persistent. The benefits derived from IT should not be confined to a particular group or level of management. Efforts at all levels of management should be systematically synchronized and coordinated. Emphasis should be made on IT training rather IT education.
Question : Work study and work-measurement in Indian Administration.
(2000)
Answer : Work study is the application of detailed analysis of works to achieve higher productivity. Its objectives is to discover, through systematic methods and a scientific approach, simpler, easier more effective and more economical ways of work activity. The term may be used in narrow or a wide sense. In its restrained sense, it is only a systematic and rational technique of analyzing work. Work study in this sense, embrace in two distinct yet independent techniques of method study and work measurement. Method study aims at improving methods of work resulting in more effective use of staff, equipment, stationery, space etc.
Work measurement is concerned with the “work content.” Of the task, it assesses human effectiveness. It involves measurement of the amount of time required in the performance of work to determine manpower needs. In its wider connotation, the term work-study comprises all systematic activities concerned with the investigation, recording, measurement and improvement work.
Question : “Work study succeeds because it is systematic in investigating a problem and also in developing a solution for it.” Explain. Also discuss the components of work study and their usefulness.
(1998)
Answer : Work study is the application of detailed analysis of work to achieve higher productivity. Its objective is to discover, through systematic methods and a scientific approach, simpler, easier, more effective and more economical ways of work activity. The term may be used in narrow or a wide sense. In its restricted sense, it is only a systematic and rational technique of analyzing work. The term is used “to embrace the techniques of method study and work measurement which is employed to ensure the best possible use of human and material resources in carrying out a specified activity.” Work study in this sense, embraces two distinct yet independent techniques of Method study and work measurement. Method study aims at improving methods of work resulting in more effective use of staff, equipment, stationary, space etc. Work measurement is concerned with the ‘work content’ of task, it assesses human effectiveness. It involves measurement of the amount of time required in the performance of work to determine manpower needs. In its wider connotation, the term ‘work study’ comprises all systematic activities concerned with the investigating, recording, measurement and improvement of work.” In this sense, work study covers all aspect of work having a bearing on utilization of available resources, and may include such studies as organization analysis, method study, work measurement, work simplification, forms of work investigation. The Special Reorganization Unit of the Union Ministry of Finance uses the term in the wider sense.
Typical work study assignments involve three main elements: Method Study, Work Measurement and Organization Analysis. In the S.R.U., work study, in practice, consists of three interrelated elements: (1) The study of methods of doing work or the way in which work is performed in order to find simplifications and improvements. The results of these studies are reflected in the elimination of uneconomical and ineffective work procedures through abolition or replacement with more rational and simpler methods. This area of activity may be referred to as Method Study. (2) The evaluation of staff needs by analyzing the amount of work output according to fair and objective criteria for both individual and unit performance. This method includes work measurement and the development of performance standards; and (3) The analysis of the functioning of the existing organizational structure and the development of an organization pattern best suited to achieve the advantages of improved work procedures.
Question : Bring out the importance of Organization and Methods (O&M). Do you think that there should be a separate O&M organization?
(1997)
Answer : Organization and Methods (O & M) includes the study of the entire process management, planning, organizing, coordinating, motivating, directing and controlling. It is a study by whole-time staff of the organization of public bodies and of the office procedures they adopt. The two elements of O&M work are organization and methods. One of the important tasks of O &M work is to conduct reviews of an organization with a view to streamlining it. However, O&M work is confined to improving only the ‘internal’ structure of the unit concerned.
As regards methods, the O&M units are expected to carry out reviews, procedures and system of doing work in order to improve them and in doing so they adopt the well known techniques of work simplification and work measurement. The usual function of O & M are:
The purpose of O &M office is to assist line officials to improve management. O&M work helps reduce costs, saves man-power, simplifies procedure, saves material, speeds operation and improves organization. These are achieved through research and development, training, investigation, coordination of management improvement programmes, dissemination of information and publication.
O & M provides machinery for a constant attempt to public administration by keeping under critical review the organization and its various branches and methods of work followed therein. By providing a machinery for frequent review of government organization and methods it helps to keep both the structure of government offices and the procedure adopted by them up-to-date, in tune with changing circumstances. By functioning as centres of management research, as it were, O & M units help to accumulate a wealth of experience which can be drawn upon whenever required.
There is some divergence of practices in the administrative placement of O &M units in government organization. Specialisation in work activity has also encouraged special organization arrangement to meet functional requirements. Whatever the organisational arrangement, it is agreed that O & M service must be so placed that results will receive proper attention during implementation at the decision points, so that the research programme can be guided in the desired direction.
Political scientists seems to favour the location of the O & M agency, in the office of the chief Agency on the theory that it makes possible a wider breadth view point and avoid the functional bias likely if the activity is assigned to one of the more specialized governmental agencies. As a result different organizational arrangements involving specialized and departmentalised O & M units are being used. This seems to be the direction in which India is also moving.
