As an opening point in an attempt to distinguish administration and management, administration has been defined by Theo Haimann as the overall determination of policies, setting of major objectives, the identification of general purposes and laying down of broad programmes and projects. Management has been defined as the process of planning organising directing and controlling to accomplish organisational objectives through the coordinated use of human and material resources. Administration and management can also be distinguished by the following aspects which include nature of work, types of functions scope, level of authority nature of status, main functions, skills/abilities, decision making among others.However in light of all these differentiating factors above some authors still insists that there is no difference between management and administration thus the words can be used interchangeably.
For the basis of comparison I have chosen a public company. Firstly administration being viewed as a group of people consists of owners who invests capital and receive profits from an organisation i.e. shareholders in a public company and to the contrary management viewed as a group of people represents managerial personnel who use their specialised knowledge to fulfil the objectives of an organisation and are paid for their services i.e.
Board of directors.Moreover, on nature of work performed by the two, administration is concerned about determination of specific objectives and major policies and lays down the broad areas within which those objectives are to be achieved whilst management is concerned with putting into action the broad policies and plans laid Simplex down by the administration. For example in a public company shareholders makes major decisions at annual general meetings and management will latter on execute the decisions that come out from the AGMs.In addition differentiating administration and management body type of function, administration has been viewed by many scholars as a determinative function i.e.
a decision making function whereas management is the executive function i.e. executes decisions made by administration. Furthermore, in terms of level of authority, administration is made up of top level superiors who do top level activities, whilst management is made up of middle and low level superiors. in a public company administration consists of those who make strategic decisions i.e.
top brass and management consists of those who make operational and tactical decisions i.e. lower and middle level managers.Using skills/abilities as comparison basis administration have or need to have administrative rather than technical abilities and also conceptual skills whereas management requires human and technical. Some scholars have further differentiated the two on the basis of main functions of each. Administration main functions are planning and organising whereas management main functions are motivating and controlling.
The above conclusion of differentiating the two on the basis of main functions came from the argument by some scholars who argues that admin handles business aspects such as financial aspects whereas management handles staff and employees therefore there is a need for an administrator and a manager as different posts in a public company.Management and administration has also been distinguished by scope of each. Administration takes major decisions of a public company as a whole for example takeovers whereas management takes decisions without framework set by administration and also can be of a particular department or part of an of a company or example HR manager. Taking a tour to the outside of the public company (international environment administration is said to be popular with government, military, education and religious organisations whereas management is applicable to business organisations only i.e.
these who are for profit making and as a matter of fact it can’t be applied to the non-profit organisations above.In the light of the above point therefore decisions made by administration are influenced by public opinion, government policies, and social factors among others whilst management decisions are influenced by values, opinions and beliefs of managers. Management and administration can also be distinguished by quickness in execution of work. “In the process of admin bureaucratic superiority and red tape are important to make sure decisions are worth executing whereas process of management is free from bureaucratic wrangles i.e.
work performance can be achieved quickly” R K Singla 2006. However on the other hand some scholars have argued that there is no difference between management and administration.According to William Newman (1978) he defines administration as guidance, leadership and control of the efforts of the groups towards some common goals which cannot be substantially distinguished from definitions of management. For Simplex example according to George R Terry (1968), he defines management as a distinct process consisting of planning, organising, actuating and controlling to determine and accomplish the objectives by the use of people and resources.McFarland (1974) has the view that administration and management are the same and the difference which exists between the two terms is insignificant in practice.
He argued that: “In government agencies, administration is preferred over management, although in recent years, the term management has widely used in government agencies.” This therefore makes it clear that the terms are synonymous since government agencies are said to be using the terms interchangeably. Efforts to overhaul government administration have been seen by the blending of two aspects supporting the use of both administration and management interchangeably.Some scholars further argued that practically there is no difference between the administration and management. Every manager is concerned with both administrative management function and operative management function.
However managers who are higher up in the hierarchy denote more time on administration function and lower level denotes more time on directing and controlling workers performance that is management. Furthermore some scholars argued that administration is a subset of management in all that is administration is also management but all that is management is not administration.Scholars to support that are Breach, Kimball, Richman, and Copen among others. However this had been clashed by Americans experts like Florence, Lansburg, Hamanna, McFarland, and Spriegel among others who argue that administration is superior to management as the latter has only a peripheral role in determination of objectives and policies. For example in some public companies an administration post is higher than managerial posts.
