The Committe on Administrative Parctices
| Date | 01 December 1949 |
| Published date | 01 December 1949 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1949.tb02711.x |
Notes
The
Committee on Administrative Practices
At
the Congress of the International
Institute of Administrative Sciences held
in Berne in
1947,
many delegates ex-
pressed an interest in having the
Institute take steps to further the ex-
change of information
on
the latest and
most effective administrative practices.
In
response, the Bureau of the Institute
decided to create the Committee on
Administrative Practices.
COMMITTEE
MEMBERSHIP
In
selecting members for the Com-
mittee, an attempt has been made to find
the official in each country and inter-
national organisation who is most directly
concerned with administrative manage-
ment and improvement; officials who
not only have prominence and stature in
their governments, but who also have
enough interest and energy to take
advantage
of
the contributions which
the operations of the Committee can
make. Unless officials are
in
a central
position and able to channel information
from their colleagues within their gov-
ernments to the members of the Com-
mittee, and vice versa,
it
would not be
possible to make effective use of
information gained from the experience
of others in solving common problems.
At present the Committee consists
of
27
officials representing
19
countries and
six
international organisations.
In
ad-
dition, there are four
ex
o$icio
members.
The chairman is
Mr.
Donald
C.
Stone,
Director of Administration, ‘Economic
Co-operation Administration, Washing-
ton, D.C.
The Committee is steadily adding new
members, and it is hoped before too long
to have representatives from all countries
and international organisations which
are
in
a position to participate in the
work
of
the Committee.
EXCHANGE
OF
INFORMATION
The primary concern of the
Com-
mittee is the distribution of documents
describing successful and current ad-
ministrative improvement. The
Com-
mittee does not engage in a mass distri-
bution of generalised or
“
academic
”
materials on public administration
per
se.
Instead, it is emphasising the distribution
of information which
will
aid busy
officials in coping with urgent problems
which they encounter in their everyday
work.
Members of the Committee are
interested in learning what the ex-
periences of others have been in meeting
common problems of administration.
They want to know primarily
how
they
went about finding the solution.
How
did they identify the problem and
analyse
it?
What techniques did they
use? A memorandum
or
report des-
cribing some progressive step one
country is taking in handling its ad-
ministrative affairs may stimulate officials
in other countries to work
out
some
comparable solution suitable to their
particular situation.
During this first year of its work,
members of the Committee have ex-
changed with each other information
on
such subjects as work measurement
programmes
;
training conferences
on
organisation and methods work
;
the
use
of
office machines and appliances in
government offices
;
the preparation of
a reference manual on the organisation,
activities, and officials of a national
government
;
training and development
of employees as a responsibility of
supervisors
;
a management survey done
for the
U.N.
;
and a study recently made
by the Hoover Commission
on
re-
organisation of the
U.S.
Federal Gov-
ernment.
Each member
of
the Committee is
responsible for being on the
lookout
for
improvements in organisation and
methods,
or
for practices which have
worked with especial success and which
might be
of
interest to other countries
or
international agencies. Memoranda
describing these proposals
or
tested
practices are circulated
to
the other
members
of
the Committee with a short
covering note giving some background
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