Difference Between Public and Private Administration

Public Administration
The administration is viewed as the act of effectively managing the matters of a business organization or a state agency. The administration is concerned with the optimum use of information, people, and other resources of the organization in order to attain the ultimate goals of the organization. Public administration is defined as all the processes, individuals, and organizations that are associated with carrying out of laws and other rules that are adopted or issued by legislatures, courts, and executives. In essence, public administration is only concerned with implementing government policy and public policy as defined by the executive branch of government (Boyne, 2002). Any country that has a government will have the concept of public administration. There is no requirement for profit in public administration and this is aimed at ensuring that the public receives the required services as expected. Public policies and programs that are formulated by the state should be implemented in a manner that ensures proper utilization of available resources without overburdening the state. Public administration is mainly concerned with offering services to the general public. The services offered are government services that have little to do with profit making. These are also essential services that the citizens require and they can only receive from state agencies.
Public administration would still continue to offer or perform an activity that is unprofitable and inefficient provided the activity is beneficial to the general public. The key driving factor for public administration is the general well-being of the public. The ultimate beneficiary of public administration is the general public and state. This is because the services and activities are state-sanctioned and there are laws that require the services to be offered. The public sector would still survive even if the agency is using inefficient operations. This is because the agency is backed by the government and it will continue to receive funds even to support its operations. Public administration is governed by laws, traditions, rules, and structural bureaucratic check and balances. This in real sense makes it hard for decisions to be made in the public sector because there are many levels of management that a change has to undergo before it can be approved. Any change in policy or program has to undergo all the required steps of approval and vetting by the various government agencies before it can be passed into law. This makes it hard to have a positive impact on the community when the service is needed the most.
Private Management
Private management is concerned with the operation, management, and organization of the matters of a business enterprise and it is only influenced by the business goals, mission and vision (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013). Private management is mainly interested in making profits that will help the organization grow and make shareholders happy. Any service that is offered in private management is aimed at increasing the organization’s profit margins. All the policies and programs formulated within the private sector are only for the particular organization and there is no need to have external interference before a policy is implemented. Private administration does not need to follow public policies and is aimed at taking care of the interests of the organization, employees, clients, or partners. While public administration is political in nature, private administration is a business activity that is carried out by private individuals or groups in order to earn a profit for the organization. The activities involved in private administration might be similar to those of public administration. The activities include planning, controlling, coordinating, organizing, implementing programs and policies. Private administration operates under the direction of the market-economic conditions. Therefore, all the activities that are undertaken in private administration are aimed at returning a profit for the organization. If an activity is deemed to be unprofitable to the organization or inefficient it will be eliminated. This is because the activity could result in the company shutting down its operations because of inefficient operations.
For private administration, the ultimate beneficiary is the company itself (Buelens & Van den Broeck, 2007). The only additional or external beneficiaries are the shareholders of the company. In private management, decisions are made faster and there are less bureaucratic structures to prevent a decision from being made quickly. Decision making is less of a hassle and some of the decisions are made on the fly without much deliberation.
Decision Making
Decision making is the act of selecting between two or more courses of action. In public administration decision making is bureaucratic in nature and is politically influenced. The role of public administration is the delivery of services to the public and doing this according to the guidelines set out by the government or laws of the state. Decision making in public administration is not easy because there are many influencers that have to be considered before a decision is made. The general public is the major stakeholder in any government business should be considered before major decisions are made. The laws of the state have to be considered to in order to ensure that the decision does not go against the set-out laws. The differences between the public administration and private administration are that the decisions are made at different levels and for different purposes. In private management, decision making is geared towards the making of profits and for the benefit of the organization. However, decision making in public administration is only aimed at improving service delivery to the public and there is no additional incentive towards the decision. Decisions in private management are also structured to improve efficiency and they are made based on analytical information of the organization and benchmarking with other organizations. The decision in public administration is, however, made based on a desire to improve the delivery of services to the public and in most instances, there is no analysis made. The decisions might be made in order to conform to a new law that has been passed.
Human Resource Management
The management of employees is very different in both sectors. According to Bullock, Stritch, and Rainey (2015) in public administration, the hiring of employees takes a long time because there are numerous processes that have to be implemented before the actual position is advertised. Before new employees are hired in public administration, the position has to be created and there are different bodies that have to be consulted before a position is created. Once the position has been created, a vacancy is advertised and the interview process can take months. The long process is because there are numerous individuals who apply for the positions and they have to be vetted before the position is filled. Within the private sector, the hiring of employees is easy because the justification for additional employees is based on business cycles and a need to increase personnel. Managers within the private sector have the ability to hire new personnel without much red tape. The firing of employees within the private sector is easy and managers can offer severance packages to the fired employees at any time. However, in the public sector, there is a lot of red tape that a manager has to deal with that requires extensive documentation, which makes the removal process more complex and time-consuming.
The motivation of the employees is different in public and private administration. In private administration, it is easy to motivate employees because a manager can give bonuses. Within public administration, it is not so easy to offer employees bonuses because managers have to strictly adhere to the budget plans and all funds have to be approved for usage in advance. This restriction makes it hard to motivate employees by using extrinsic motivators in the public sector.
Accountability
Since the money used to run state agencies is generated from fees, taxes, penalties, duties, and other dues paid by the general public administration is highly scrutinized by the general public. Scrutiny is mainly because the general public holds these agencies accountable for how they spend money. Therefore, the public agencies have to ensure that they spend and expense for all the money they receive efficiently and effectively (Marume, Jubenkanda, & Namusi, 2016). Accountability is also measured in how an agency is able to deliver and address questions of social fairness and equity in the delivery of its services to the public. Accountability in public administration is also assured because the activities are governed by a legal framework that ensures there is no abuse of power or unequal treatment of the public.
Private administration, in contrast, is not highly scrutinized by the general public because the organization is only accountable to its board of directors and shareholders. The level of scrutiny that is imposed in private administration is mostly in regards to how the company performed within a given time period and how the company plans to improve its performance. Accountability is also done in private and in most cases, managers only submit reports and there are no harsh inquiries that demand for the justification of the decisions made. There is a lot of leeway given to the managers of private companies in that they can implement strategies without having to justify everything or being accountable to their directors all the time.


References
Boyne, G. A. (2002). Public and private management: what’s the difference? Journal of management studies, 39(1), 97-122.
Buelens, M., & Van den Broeck, H. (2007). An analysis of differences in work motivation between public and private sector organizations. Public Administration Review, 67(1), 65-74.
Bullock, J. B., Stritch, J. M., & Rainey, H. G. (2015). International comparison of public and private employees’ work motives, attitudes, and perceived rewards. Public Administration Review, 75(3), 479-489.
Marume, S., Jubenkanda, R., & Namusi, C. (2016). Similarities and Differences between Public Administration and Business Administration.
Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J. (2013). Public Administration in America. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.