A View of Development Administration as an Open System
| Author | A.R. Hoyle |
| Published date | 01 December 1973 |
| Date | 01 December 1973 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002085237303900404 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A
View
of
Development
Administration
as
an
Open
System
UDC
330.114.2:35.06
by
A.R.
HOYLE,
Senior
Lecturer
(Administration),
Canberra
College
of
Advanced
Education
A
great
deal
has
been
written
about
Devel-
opment
Administration
over
the
past
decade
and,
despite
doubts
expressed
as
to
whether
such
a
discipline
exists
(1),
there
appears
to
be
a
consensus
that
the
problems
of
public
administration
in
a
developing
country
are
sufficiently
discrete
from
those
of
the
devel-
oped
world
to
demand
a
new
approach
which
justifies
the
title
of
Development
Adminis-
tration,
rather
than
Administrative
Develop-
ment.
However,
there
have been
few
attempts
to
describe
Development
Administration
in
terms
of the
model
of
the
open
socio-technical
system,
so
well
expounded
by
writers
such
as
Emery,
Miller
and
Rice,
Beer
and
Ashby,
and
this
short
article
attempts
to
show
that for
a’
proper
understanding
of
administration
in
a
developing
country
the
systems
approach
is
not
only
desirable
but
is
in
fact
necessary.
Before
discussing
the
matter
in
any
detail
it
is
desirable
that
the
terms &dquo;
development
administration &dquo;
and
&dquo; open
socio-technical
system &dquo;
be
defined.
Meaning
of
Development
Administration
Schaffer
(2)
in
1969
considered
at
some
length
the
question
of
possible
meanings
of
Development
Administration
and
differentiated
between
public
administration
and
develop-
ment
administration
saying
that &dquo; Public
Ad-
ministration
may
be
taken
as
referring
to
the
content
of
the
Western
experience
of
admin-
istration
and
to
Western
ideas...
(whereas)
development
administration
is
about
develop-
ment
programmes,
policies
and
projects
in
those
conditions
in
which
there
are
unusually
wide
and
new
demands
and
in
which
there
are
peculiarly
low
capacities
and
severe
obstacles
to
meeting
them &dquo;.
Riggs
on
the
other
hand,
in
more
esoteric
fashion,
defines
development
administration
as
&dquo;
an
aspect
of
the
administration
of
discretion
and
the
dialectics
of
development &dquo;
(3)
where
discretion
is
taken
as
meaning &dquo; ...
the
way
in
which
politico-administrative
systems
decide
to
change
their
own
environments
... &dquo;
(4)
and
development
is
in
turn
defined
in
terms
of
increasing
levels
of
&dquo;
diffraction &dquo;
(5).
Gant
in
1966
saw
development
adminis-
tration
as
&dquo; ...
that
aspect
of
public
admin-
istration
in
which
the
focus
of
attention
is
on
organizing
and
administering
public
agen-
cies
in
such
a
way
as
to
stimulate
and
facilitate
defined
programs
of
social
and
economic
pro-
gress...
It
has
the
purpose
of
making
change
attractive
and
possible...
to
the
population
generally
(6) &dquo;
and
Garcia-Zamor
defines
it
as
&dquo; human
participation
in
the
modernization
process &dquo;
(7).
None
of
these
definitions
seem
to
be
ade-
quate.
Schaffer,
Gant
and
Garcia-Zamor
de-
limit
the
field
but
are
imprecise
while
Riggs’s
definition
is
not
only
deficient
in
precision
but
is
also
couched
in
a
difficult
academic
jargon
which
is
meaningless
to
many
practi-
tioners
in
the
work
area.
For
the
purposes
of
this
paper
development
administration
is
defined
as
the
building
of
modern
adminis-
trative
institutions
and
the
development
of
adequate
human
and
material
resources
in
conditions
where
the
ecosystem
is
unfavour-
able
to
the
institutions
and
systems
of
the
developed
world.
(1)
W.J.M.
Mackenzie :
Politics
and
Social
Science,
Pelican
1967,
p.
356.
(2)
B.
Schaffer:
Some
Possible
Meanings
of
Devel-
opment
Administration :
University
of
Sussex
1969.
(3)
F.W.
Riggs:
" The
Idea
of
Development
Ad-
ministration ",
in
E.
Weidner
(ed.) :
Development
Administration
in
Asia :
Duke
1970.
(4)
Ibid.,
p.
29.
(5)
Ibid.,
p.
27.
(6)
G.F.
Gant:
" A
Note
on
Applications
of
Devel-
opment
Administration",
quoted
by
J.C.
Garcia-
Zamor
in
"
Development
Administration
in
the
Com-
monwealth
Caribbean " :
International
Review
of
Ad-
ministrative
Sciences,
Vol.
XXXVI,
No.3/1970.
(7)
Ibid.
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