Administration and Leadership in East Africa
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1969.tb00359.x |
| Date | 01 January 1969 |
| Published date | 01 January 1969 |
| Author | W. Warrell Bowring |
Administration and Leadership
in East Africa
By W.
WARRELL
BOWRING
Mr.
Warrell Bowring served in the Administration of
Tanganyika/Tanzania
from
1951
and
was on
the
staff of
the
Institute
of
Public Administration,
Dar
es Salaam
from 1963
to
1968.
IN most developing countries there are training institutions for senior
civil servants and it seems that there is a wide measure of agreement
about the subjects to be taught and the methods of instruction. Attitude
training poses more awkward problems and is often ignored, in the belief
that the service itself performs this function by impressing the new entrant
with its own particular values.
If
however senior administrators are required
to exercise powers of initiative and to show above-average qualities of
leadership a more positive approach to developing these qualities has to be
adopted. This is possible, provided the leadership function can be defined
and there is an understanding of the role the administrator is required to
play.
Urwick has defined leadership as the quality of behaviour in individuals
by which others are drawn to accept their advice.' But this definition when
related to the administrative officer in the civil services of East Africa poses
the question: "who are the others"? Are they the subordinates cadre in the
bureaucracy or are they the public at large? Whereas it is to be expected
that senior civil servants should perform a management function within
their own department, the influencing of public opinion is a political role
which one might have supposed could be better filled by popular local
leaders or representative institutions. It is important to know the extent to
which the administrative officeris still required to assume a political role and
to appreciate the problems which arise in attempting to introduce changes
in his functions. It is obvious that any question of filling this dual role does
not arise when the officer is serving in a ministry complete with effective
communications, systematic controls, and direction from above. It is when
these refinements are missing that initiative is required to perform the
administrative function of converting policy decisions into action. It is the
administrative officer in the district in direct contact with the public who
must do this until such time as he is replaced by other leaders who can
cause plans to be implemented and can provide an effective channel of
communication between government and governed. These were the duties
undertaken by the colonial administrator and, it seems, in many cases
inherited by his successors of the present day.
IHis
own
adaptation
of
adefinition
made
by C. Barnard. L. Urwick, Leadership
in the Twentieth Century (Pitman, 1957), p. 38. •
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