Intelligence and Public Relations
| Published date | 01 January 1936 |
| Author | S. H. Wood |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1936.tb02417.x |
| Date | 01 January 1936 |
Intelligence and Public Relations
By
S.
H.
WOOD
Director
of
Inteltigeme and
Public
Relations OflFcer,
Ministry
of
Health
and Board
of
Education
[To
be
disczcssed at the London Conference, Institute
of
Pfcblic
AdW-nistration,
Febrzcary,
19361
INTELLIGENCE
AND
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
IN
A
GOVERN ME^
DEPARTMENT
The Churacteristics
of
Good
Administrution
I.
A government department, whatever else it may be, consists
of
a
hierarchy
of
officials engaged in the execution
of
large-scale
policy. In
short,
it
is an administrative machine. Machines are
designed to secure mechanical efficiency, and where inanimate objects
are concerned tidy, mechanical efficiency
is
a
delight. Administrative
machines,
however, seldom deal wholly
or
even chiefly with the
in-
animate, but rather with men and women; and
as
the
human
spirit
bloweth where it listeth, tidy administration may very well be, and
often is, bad administration. Good administration depends on the
administrator being acutely conscious
of
the disadvantages
of
the
machine and determining daily to reduce these disadvantages to
a
minimum.
The
machine
must be made,
so
far as possible, to behave
like an individual who has no ulterior motive nor any secret axe to
grind.
When the administrator controls the machine the inner activity
is
creative, though the uutward appearance may be untidy. But when
the machine controls the administrator the result
is
superficial tidiness
and-red
tape.
2.
If
an
administrative machine
is
to be made to behave properly,
it must be integrated and
its
several parts
so
articulated that, when
it
is
set
in motion, all the parts which ought to contribute to the move-
ment do
so
contribute. But the internal integration
of
the machine
is
but a means to an end, and the end
is
always external to the machine.
When, therefore, the machine moves,
it
must
move
towards an
external objective and not merely
go
through motions which amount
to
nothing more than an internal rearrangement
of
its parts. More-
over, the external objective must be the real objective and not
a
figment
of
the administrator’s imagination with which the machine
would find it most convenient to deal. The most common snare which
4=
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