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RBSE SS Public Administration study materials
RBSE SS Public Administration study resources

RBSE SS Public Administration practice questions

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Question 1Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which definition of public administration is most closely associated with L. D. White, who described it as the conduct of governmental affairs?

  1. The study of the separation of powers among organs of government
  2. The art and science of management applied to the affairs of the state Correct answer.
  3. The process of formulating public policy through electoral mandates
  4. The execution of public law through the machinery of government

Explanation

White framed public administration as the art and science of management applied to the affairs of the state, stressing both practical skill and systematic knowledge. This definition places administration at the centre of governmental activity rather than confining it to law execution or policy formulation alone.

Question 2Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The 'POSDCORB' formulation, which lists planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting, was developed by which scholar?

  1. Max Weber
  2. Henri Fayol
  3. Luther Gulick Correct answer.
  4. Elton Mayo

Explanation

Gulick coined POSDCORB as a mnemonic for the chief executive's managerial functions in public organisations. It became a standard statement of administrative work in the classical school. Fayol offered a different list of managerial functions, and Weber and Mayo are known for bureaucracy and human relations respectively.

Question 3Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The politics-administration dichotomy, which treats administration as a distinct sphere separate from politics, is most commonly attributed to which writer?

  1. Woodrow Wilson Correct answer.
  2. Frederick Taylor
  3. Herbert Simon
  4. Chester Barnard

Explanation

Wilson's 1887 essay argued that administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics and that administrative questions are not political questions. This position became the classic statement of the dichotomy. Later scholars such as Simon and Appleby challenged the separation.

Question 4Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Woodrow Wilson's essay on the study of administration, widely treated as a founding text of the discipline, was published in which year?

  1. 1859
  2. 1900
  3. 1887 Correct answer.
  4. 1926

Explanation

Wilson's essay appeared in the Political Science Quarterly in 1887, marking an early call for a systematic science of administration. The date is a standard reference point in the disciplinary history of public administration.

Question 5Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which approach to public administration focuses primarily on the behaviour of individuals and groups within organisations, including informal norms and social relationships?

  1. The legal-formal approach
  2. The institutional-structural approach
  3. The human relations approach Correct answer.
  4. The public choice approach

Explanation

The human relations approach, rooted in the Hawthorne studies, treats morale, group norms and informal relationships as central to administrative behaviour. It contrasts with formal-legal and structural accounts that emphasise rules and hierarchy.

Question 6Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

In the study of public administration, the term 'scope' most directly refers to which of the following?

  1. The range of activities and subject matter that the discipline and practice cover Correct answer.
  2. The legal authority of a single administrative agency
  3. The number of staff employed in a ministry
  4. The budget allocated to a department in a fiscal year

Explanation

Scope concerns the boundaries of the field - what activities, institutions and problems public administration studies and performs. It is a question about the extent of the subject, not about one agency's authority, budget or staffing.

Question 7Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which of the following is best described as a distinguishing feature of public administration as compared with private business administration?

  1. It does not need to manage human or financial resources
  2. It is always less efficient in delivering services than private firms
  3. It is conducted without any written rules or procedures
  4. It operates under public accountability and legal constraints that are enforced through political processes Correct answer.

Explanation

Public administration is characterised by accountability to the public through political and legal institutions, alongside statutory constraints on action. This distinguishes it from private management, which answers primarily to owners and markets. Claims of inherent inefficiency or absence of rules misstate the distinction.

Question 8Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

A district officer is required to implement a state welfare scheme while also responding to local elected representatives who want the scheme adapted to their constituents. This situation best illustrates which enduring theme in public administration?

  1. The tension between administrative neutrality and political responsiveness Correct answer.
  2. The redundancy of hierarchical supervision
  3. The complete separation of policy from implementation
  4. The irrelevance of legal frameworks to service delivery

Explanation

The officer must balance impartial application of rules against demands for responsiveness from elected representatives. This is the classic tension between neutral competence and political direction in administrative life. The other options deny features that the scenario actually relies on.

Question 9Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

A scholar argues that public administration cannot be a science because administrative decisions involve value choices that cannot be settled by empirical evidence alone. This argument most directly challenges which claim?

  1. That public administration involves budgeting and staffing
  2. That public administration can be a value-neutral, scientific enterprise Correct answer.
  3. That administrative agencies are organised hierarchically
  4. That public servants receive salaries from the state

Explanation

The objection targets the claim that administration can be a purely scientific, value-free activity. If decisions embed value choices, the aspiration to a neutral science of administration is undermined. The other options are descriptive features that the argument does not dispute.

Question 10Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Herbert Simon's critique of classical administrative theory centred on which point?

  1. Budgeting is irrelevant to administrative decision-making
  2. Public administration should be merged with constitutional law
  3. Administrative organisations should abandon hierarchy entirely
  4. Administrative principles are often contradictory and lack scientific status Correct answer.

Explanation

Simon argued that the classical principles, such as unity of command and span of control, conflict with one another and are stated as proverbs rather than tested propositions. His alternative was a decision-focused, empirically grounded science of administration. He did not propose abolishing hierarchy or merging the field with law.

Question 11Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The 'public' element in public administration is most clearly reflected in which feature?

  1. The use of computers in administrative offices
  2. The obligation to serve a collective public interest and account for the use of public resources Correct answer.
  3. The requirement that all employees hold permanent civil service status
  4. The location of offices in capital cities

Explanation

What makes administration public is its orientation to collective purposes and its accountability for public resources and authority. Permanence of tenure, technology and geography are contingent features that do not define the public character of the activity.

Question 12Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which statement best captures the relationship between public administration and public policy?

  1. Administration strictly executes decisions in which it has no formative role
  2. Administration and policy are identical terms with no analytical distinction
  3. Policy is made only by legislatures and never influenced by administrators
  4. Administration both implements policy and shapes it through advice, discretion and feedback Correct answer.

Explanation

Administrators implement policy but also influence it by advising ministers, exercising discretion and feeding back information about results. The relationship is therefore interactive rather than one of pure execution. Treating the two as identical erases a useful analytical distinction.

Question 13Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Max Weber's ideal type of legal-rational bureaucracy is characterised by which set of features?

  1. Charismatic leadership, personal loyalty and absence of written records
  2. Collegial decision-making without any fixed jurisdictions
  3. Rotation of offices by lot among all citizens
  4. Hierarchy, written rules, impersonal application of rules and appointment on merit Correct answer.

Explanation

Weber's ideal type combines hierarchical authority, formal written rules, impersonal and predictable application of those rules, and appointment based on qualification. These features make bureaucracy calculable and distinct from traditional or charismatic authority. The other options describe different bases of authority or non-bureaucratic arrangements.

Question 14Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

A government creates an autonomous agency to deliver a service at arm's length from ministerial control. Which rationale for such delegation is most consistent with public administration theory?

  1. To combine technical expertise and continuity with reduced day-to-day political interference Correct answer.
  2. To transfer all policy-making authority away from elected bodies
  3. To remove the agency from the legal system of the state
  4. To eliminate the need for any accountability to the public

Explanation

Arm's-length bodies are typically justified by the need for specialist expertise, continuity and insulation from short-term political pressure. They remain accountable through frameworks, reporting and review. Delegation does not remove accountability, policy authority or legal jurisdiction.

Question 15Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The phrase 'administration is the government in action' is best understood as emphasising which point?

  1. Administrative action is always superior to legislative action
  2. Policies and laws acquire practical effect only through administrative machinery Correct answer.
  3. Government consists solely of its administrative agencies
  4. Administration is confined to the enactment of statutes by legislatures

Explanation

The phrase stresses that legislation and policy remain intentions until administrative bodies translate them into services, regulation and enforcement. It highlights the executing and operational role of administration within government as a whole. It does not claim that government is nothing but administration or that administration outranks legislatures.

Question 16Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which of the following best illustrates the exercise of administrative discretion?

  1. A department prints forms using a standard template
  2. A junior officer follows a rule that leaves no room for judgement
  3. A licensing officer applies statutory criteria to decide whether a particular applicant meets them Correct answer.
  4. A clerk files documents in the order in which they arrive

Explanation

Discretion arises where officials must interpret and apply general criteria to particular cases, exercising judgement within legal limits. Routine filing, mechanical rule-following and standard printing leave little or no room for such judgement.

Question 17Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

The New Public Management movement of the 1980s and 1990s is associated with which set of ideas?

  1. Expansion of centralised rule-making and detailed procedural control
  2. Rejection of performance indicators in favour of seniority-based promotion
  3. Market-style competition, performance measurement and managerial autonomy Correct answer.
  4. Reliance on charismatic leadership and personal patronage

Explanation

New Public Management imported private-sector techniques such as competition, explicit performance targets and devolved managerial responsibility. It sought to shift from input controls to results-based accountability. The other options describe traditional bureaucratic or patronage arrangements that NPM opposed.

Question 18Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

A ministry's rules are applied uniformly to all applicants, but citizens complain that the rules ignore exceptional hardship. This criticism most directly concerns which characteristic of bureaucratic administration?

  1. Its use of written records and files
  2. Its reliance on qualified staff appointed on merit
  3. Its hierarchical chain of command
  4. Its emphasis on impersonal, rule-based treatment that can produce rigidity Correct answer.

Explanation

The complaint targets the impersonality and rule-bound character of bureaucracy, which secures equal treatment but may be insensitive to exceptional cases. Merit appointment, record-keeping and hierarchy are separate features and are not the source of the rigidity described.

Question 19Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which argument is most often used to defend the study of public administration as a distinct discipline rather than a branch of political science?

  1. It rejects all connection with political institutions
  2. It avoids empirical methods entirely
  3. It studies only the internal finances of private firms
  4. It has its own focus on managerial processes, organisational behaviour and implementation Correct answer.

Explanation

The case for disciplinary distinctness rests on administration's particular concern with management, organisation and implementation, which political science does not address systematically. This does not require severing links with political science or rejecting empirical inquiry.

Question 20Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

A government requires an agency to publish service standards and report performance against them each year. Which value does this practice primarily serve?

  1. Secrecy in administrative decision-making
  2. Efficiency through reduced record-keeping
  3. Accountability and transparency in the exercise of public authority Correct answer.
  4. Autonomy of officials from public scrutiny

Explanation

Published standards and periodic performance reporting allow the public and legislatures to hold agencies to account. They embody transparency and answerability for the use of public power and money. The practice increases rather than reduces disclosure and record-keeping.

Question 21Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which of the following best explains why the scope of public administration has expanded in modern states?

  1. Governments have taken on wider responsibilities for welfare, regulation and public services Correct answer.
  2. Legislatures have steadily reduced the functions assigned to executives
  3. Administrative agencies have ceased to deliver services directly
  4. The discipline has abandoned its interest in organisational questions

Explanation

The growth of the welfare and regulatory state has drawn governments into education, health, social security, economic regulation and infrastructure, widening administrative activity. The expansion reflects added responsibilities, not a withdrawal of functions or loss of disciplinary interest.

Question 22Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Critics argue that the politics-administration dichotomy fails as a description of administrative reality. Which evidence most strongly supports this criticism?

  1. Public organisations are structured hierarchically
  2. Administrative agencies maintain personnel records and payroll systems
  3. Senior officials routinely advise on policy design and exercise discretion that alters policy outcomes Correct answer.
  4. Civil servants receive fixed salaries under written rules

Explanation

The dichotomy holds that administration is separate from politics, so evidence that officials shape policy through advice and discretion directly contradicts it. Record-keeping, hierarchy and salary rules are compatible with the dichotomy and do not test it.

Question 23Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

A scholar claims that public administration is both a science and an art. Which interpretation best captures this claim?

  1. It uses systematic knowledge and method while also requiring practical judgement and skill in particular situations Correct answer.
  2. It is a science only when practised by trained economists
  3. It is purely an art with no accumulated body of systematic knowledge
  4. It is a natural science whose findings are experimentally verified in laboratories

Explanation

The claim reconciles systematic bodies of knowledge and method with the practical, context-dependent judgement that administration demands. It is not a claim of laboratory natural science, nor a denial of systematic knowledge, nor a restriction of science to economists.

Question 24Meaning, Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Which statement most accurately distinguishes the 'old' institutional public administration from later behavioural approaches?

  1. The old approach emphasised formal structures and legal rules, while behavioural approaches studied actual behaviour and informal processes Correct answer.
  2. Both approaches rejected empirical observation of administrative behaviour
  3. The old approach studied informal groups, while behavioural approaches studied statutes and constitutions
  4. The old approach ignored organisation altogether, while behavioural approaches studied only budgets

Explanation

Traditional institutional study concentrated on formal organisation, statutes and prescribed procedures. Behavioural approaches shifted attention to what officials and groups actually do, including informal norms and decision processes. The remaining options invert the two approaches or misdescribe their methods.

Question 25Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Which scholar is most closely associated with the classical bureaucratic model that emphasizes hierarchy, written rules, and impersonal office-holding?

  1. Max Weber Correct answer.
  2. Herbert Simon
  3. Chester Barnard
  4. Elton Mayo

Explanation

Weber's ideal-type bureaucracy describes a legal-rational authority structure built on hierarchy, written rules, defined jurisdiction, and impersonal application of norms. This ideal type became the foundation of classical administrative theory. Mayo, Simon, and Barnard belong to later behavioural and decisional traditions.

Question 26Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Woodrow Wilson's 1887 essay is conventionally treated as a landmark in the study of public administration mainly because it argued for which position?

  1. Administration should be abolished in favour of market contracting
  2. Administration should be fused with partisan politics to ensure responsiveness
  3. Administration should be separated from politics and studied as a distinct field Correct answer.
  4. Administration should be studied only through judicial case law

Explanation

Wilson argued that administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics and that a science of administration should be developed to make government efficient and businesslike. This politics-administration dichotomy became a founding premise of the discipline. Later scholars such as Waldo and Appleby challenged the separation.

Question 27Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The classical approach to public administration is best characterized by which combination of features?

  1. Hierarchy, division of work, formal rules, and emphasis on efficiency Correct answer.
  2. Behavioural analysis of motivation and group dynamics
  3. Discourse analysis of administrative language and meaning
  4. Decentralized networks, informal norms, and emphasis on participation

Explanation

The classical approach, associated with Taylor, Fayol, Gulick, and Weber, stresses structure, hierarchy, specialization, and economy in the use of resources. Efficiency and formal organization are its central values. The other options describe human relations, behavioural, or post-positivist approaches.

Question 28Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The Hawthorne studies, conducted at the Western Electric plant, contributed to administrative thought primarily by drawing attention to which factor?

  1. The legal basis of administrative authority
  2. Budgetary control techniques
  3. The formal chain of command
  4. Informal social relations and worker morale Correct answer.

Explanation

The Hawthorne experiments, associated with Elton Mayo and colleagues, revealed that informal groups, attention, and morale affect productivity. This shifted attention from purely structural prescriptions to human factors in organizations. It gave rise to the human relations school in administration.

Question 29Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Herbert Simon's critique of classical administrative theory centred on which claim?

  1. Administration must remain strictly separate from policy
  2. Workers are motivated solely by economic incentives
  3. Hierarchy is the only reliable basis for coordination
  4. Administrative principles are often contradictory and administrators face bounded rationality Correct answer.

Explanation

Simon argued that the proverbs of administration are mutually inconsistent and that real decision-makers operate under bounded rationality with satisficing rather than maximizing. His work redirected the field toward decision-making analysis. This became a foundation of the behavioural movement.

Question 30Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Frederick Winslow Taylor's scientific management is most directly associated with which administrative idea?

  1. Time-and-motion study to standardize tasks for efficiency Correct answer.
  2. Decentralization of authority to field offices
  3. Representative bureaucracy to mirror society
  4. Collective bargaining to raise wages

Explanation

Taylor used time-and-motion studies to find the one best way of performing tasks, separating planning from execution and standardizing work. His aim was productive efficiency through scientific selection and training of workers. This approach influenced early public administration's efficiency orientation.

Question 31Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

POSDCORB, the acronym summarizing the functions of a chief executive, was developed by which author?

  1. Luther Gulick Correct answer.
  2. Paul Appleby
  3. Henri Fayol
  4. Mary Parker Follett

Explanation

Gulick introduced POSDCORB, standing for planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. It appeared in the 1937 volume Papers on the Science of Administration, edited with Lyndall Urwick. The acronym became a standard summary of executive functions in classical literature.

Question 32Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Mary Parker Follett's contribution to administrative thought is best summarized by which emphasis?

  1. Integration of interests and the constructive use of conflict in organizations Correct answer.
  2. Strict adherence to scalar hierarchy and unity of command
  3. Application of judicial precedent to administrative decisions
  4. Elimination of all informal groups from the workplace

Explanation

Follett argued that conflict can be resolved through integration, producing solutions that satisfy both parties rather than mere domination or compromise. She also stressed participation and the psychology of consent in organizations. Her ideas anticipated later participatory and human-relations approaches.

Question 33Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The politics-administration dichotomy was later criticized on the ground that

  1. legislatures never delegate rule-making authority
  2. administrators inevitably exercise discretion and shape policy through implementation Correct answer.
  3. civil servants are legally barred from any advisory role
  4. administrative agencies have no contact with elected officials

Explanation

Critics such as Waldo and Appleby showed that administrators make value-laden choices through discretion, rule-making, and implementation, so administration cannot be neatly severed from politics. The dichotomy was thus weakened as an empirical description. It survives mainly as a normative ideal.

Question 34Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Which movement in public administration is most associated with the phrase 'government should steer rather than row'?

  1. New Public Management Correct answer.
  2. Classical Weberian bureaucracy
  3. The politics-administration dichotomy
  4. The human relations school

Explanation

New Public Management, associated with Osborne and Gaebler's reinventing government ideas, distinguishes steering from rowing and favours contracting, competition, and performance measurement. It borrows private-sector techniques to improve public service delivery. The metaphor captures the separation of policy direction from service provision.

Question 35Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The New Public Service perspective, associated with Denhardt and Denhardt, differs from New Public Management chiefly by emphasizing which value?

  1. Reducing public accountability to the simplest possible metric
  2. Serving citizens through democratic participation rather than treating them as customers Correct answer.
  3. Maximizing market competition among public agencies
  4. Replacing elected officials with professional administrators

Explanation

The New Public Service holds that the public interest is a shared, deliberative outcome and that citizens should be engaged rather than treated as customers. It stresses democratic values, citizenship, and service over market efficiency alone. NPM, by contrast, leans on competition, choice, and performance incentives.

Question 36Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The behavioural approach to public administration, exemplified by Simon and later by March, is distinguished by its focus on

  1. comparative study of ancient administrative systems
  2. how individuals and groups actually make decisions under real constraints Correct answer.
  3. legal interpretation of statutes by courts
  4. prescribing the one best organizational structure

Explanation

The behavioural approach studies actual behaviour, decision processes, and cognitive limits rather than formal prescriptions. Simon's bounded rationality and March's work on ambiguity and routines exemplify this orientation. It seeks empirical description and explanation of administrative behaviour.

Question 37Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The systems approach in public administration, associated with writers such as Katz and Kahn, treats an organization primarily as

  1. an open system interacting with its environment through inputs, throughputs, and outputs Correct answer.
  2. a closed machine governed only by internal rules
  3. a collection of unrelated individuals acting randomly
  4. a legal fiction with no empirical properties

Explanation

Systems theory views organizations as open systems that take inputs from the environment, transform them through internal processes, and produce outputs with feedback. This highlights interdependence and adaptation. It contrasts with the closed-system assumptions of classical theory.

Question 38Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The ecological approach to public administration, especially as developed by Fred Riggs, is concerned with

  1. the interaction between administrative systems and their social, economic, and cultural environments Correct answer.
  2. the measurement of office floor space and furniture
  3. the ecological impact of government buildings on the environment
  4. the application of biological evolution to civil service pay scales

Explanation

Riggs developed ecological and prismatic models to explain how administration in developing societies is shaped by its social, economic, and cultural setting. The approach stresses that administrative forms cannot be transplanted without regard to context. It gave rise to comparative and development administration.

Question 39Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

In Riggs's prismatic model, the concept of 'formalism' refers to

  1. the ceremonial opening of administrative offices
  2. the strict enforcement of written procedures
  3. the use of formal titles in official correspondence
  4. a gap between formally prescribed rules and actual administrative behaviour Correct answer.

Explanation

Riggs used formalism to describe the discrepancy between the formal, often imported, rules of a prismatic society and the informal practices that actually govern behaviour. It is a central feature of his analysis of transitional societies. High formalism signals weak congruence between prescription and practice.

Question 40Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The public choice approach applies which set of assumptions to the study of public administration?

  1. Class-based struggle as the sole driver of administrative change
  2. Altruistic officials who always place the public interest above personal gain
  3. Rational self-interested actors, including bureaucrats, pursuing utility in political markets Correct answer.
  4. Divine authority as the basis of administrative legitimacy

Explanation

Public choice theory, associated with Buchanan, Tullock, and Niskanen, extends economic assumptions of self-interest to political and administrative actors. It analyses bureaucrats as budget-maximizers and studies voting, coalitions, and incentives. This produced critiques of bureaucratic expansion and proposals for competition and choice.

Question 41Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

A state government introduces performance contracts and competitive tendering for municipal services, while also creating citizen advisory panels to deliberate on service priorities. Which pair of approaches does this reform most clearly combine?

  1. Classical bureaucracy and scientific management
  2. New Public Management and New Public Service Correct answer.
  3. Public choice and Weberian legal-rational theory
  4. Human relations and the ecological approach

Explanation

Performance contracts and competitive tendering are signature NPM tools that stress efficiency and market-like discipline. Citizen advisory panels reflect the New Public Service emphasis on democratic participation and deliberation. Combining them shows how contemporary reforms blend managerial and democratic strands.

Question 42Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

The Minnowbrook conferences of 1968 and 1988 are significant in the evolution of public administration because they

  1. established the politics-administration dichotomy as doctrine
  2. created the first civil service examination system
  3. introduced scientific management to government
  4. stimulated the New Public Administration with its emphasis on social equity and relevance Correct answer.

Explanation

The first Minnowbrook conference, convened by Dwight Waldo in 1968, gave rise to the New Public Administration, which stressed social equity, relevance, and change. The 1988 conference revisited those themes in a changed managerial climate. Together they mark a normative turn in the discipline.

Question 43Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

Chester Barnard's concept of the 'zone of indifference' explains which aspect of administrative authority?

  1. The physical territory controlled by an agency
  2. The group of employees indifferent to promotion
  3. The range of orders a subordinate will accept without questioning their legitimacy Correct answer.
  4. The budget area exempt from legislative oversight

Explanation

Barnard argued that authority is accepted rather than merely imposed, and that each subordinate has a zone within which orders are obeyed without critical scrutiny. Widening that zone depends on inducements, communication, and legitimacy. This acceptance theory shifted attention from formal position to consent.

Question 44Evolution and Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

A researcher compares how district officers in two states interpret identical central directives, focusing on shared meanings, symbols, and everyday language in the workplace. This study is best described as following which approach?

  1. The interpretive or post-positivist approach Correct answer.
  2. Scientific management
  3. The classical structural approach
  4. The public choice approach

Explanation

An interpretive approach examines how actors construct meaning through symbols, language, and interaction rather than assuming a single objective reality. Studying how identical directives are understood differently fits this tradition. It contrasts with structural, managerial, and rational-choice approaches.

Question 45Organization: Principles, Hierarchy, Line and Staff, Delegation and Decentralization

Which principle of organization holds that every subordinate should be accountable to only one superior at a time?

  1. Unity of command Correct answer.
  2. Delegation of authority
  3. Span of control
  4. Unity of direction

Explanation

Unity of command requires that each employee receive orders from and report to a single superior, preventing conflicting instructions and divided loyalty. Unity of direction is different: it concerns one head and one plan for a group of activities with the same objective.

Question 46Organization: Principles, Hierarchy, Line and Staff, Delegation and Decentralization

In line and staff organization, which characteristic distinguishes staff positions from line positions?

  1. Staff positions are always located at the lowest level of the hierarchy
  2. Staff positions are created only in private enterprises
  3. Staff positions provide advice and support to line managers Correct answer.
  4. Staff positions carry direct command over operating units

Explanation

Line positions form the direct chain of command and carry authority to issue orders along the scalar chain. Staff positions exist to advise, assist and service line managers, and they normally lack command authority over operating units.

Question 47Organization: Principles, Hierarchy, Line and Staff, Delegation and Decentralization

A department head transfers part of her authority to a subordinate while remaining answerable for the outcome. This process is best described as:

  1. Divisionalization
  2. Delegation Correct answer.
  3. Decentralization
  4. Deconcentration

Explanation

Delegation is the downward transfer of authority from a superior to a subordinate for the performance of specific tasks, with the superior retaining ultimate accountability. Decentralization is a broader organizational pattern of dispersing authority throughout the structure.

Question 48Organization: Principles, Hierarchy, Line and Staff, Delegation and Decentralization

According to the scalar principle of organization, authority in a formal hierarchy should flow:

  1. From subordinates upward to the top
  2. In an unbroken line from the top to the bottom Correct answer.
  3. Only through staff advisory channels
  4. Equally among all units at each level

Explanation

The scalar principle requires a clear, unbroken chain of authority from the chief executive down to the lowest operative level. This chain clarifies who reports to whom and supports orderly communication and accountability.

Question 49Organization: Principles, Hierarchy, Line and Staff, Delegation and Decentralization

Which term refers to the number of subordinates who can be effectively supervised by one superior?

  1. Chain of command
  2. Scalar chain
  3. Grade structure
  4. Span of control Correct answer.

Explanation

Span of control, also called span of supervision or span of management, denotes how many subordinates one superior can effectively direct. A narrow span produces a tall hierarchy, while a wide span produces a flatter structure.

Question 50Organization: Principles, Hierarchy, Line and Staff, Delegation and Decentralization

Which of the following is an advantage commonly claimed for decentralization in public administration?

  1. It reduces the workload of top-level management Correct answer.
  2. It eliminates the need for coordination among units
  3. It removes the accountability of field officers
  4. It concentrates all decision-making in the headquarters

Explanation

Decentralization relieves top management of routine decisions by pushing them to lower levels, allowing senior officers to concentrate on policy and planning. It also encourages initiative and quicker responses at the point of service delivery.