| Traditional Public Administration Limitations | Behavioral & Human Relations Solutions | Examples |
| Rigid bureaucracy → Strict hierarchy, impersonal rules | Flexible decision-making → Simon’s bounded rationality | Decentralization(Panchayati Raj) |
| Machine-like view of workers → Focused only on efficiency | Social & psychological needs matter → Mayo’s Hawthorne Studies | Teamwork & participative management |
| Only financial motivation (Taylorism) | Intrinsic motivation matters → Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, McGregor’s Theory X & Y | Citizen-centric governance in IAS |
| Assumed fully rational decisions | Bounded rationality → Limited information & cognitive capacity | Nudge Theory in policymaking |
| Ignored informal networks → Focused on formal structures only | Informal organizations matter → Barnard’s cooperation & trust | Disaster relief coordination (Kerala floods, 2018) |
| Neglected employee well-being → Led to dissatisfaction | Employee welfare & leadership → Focus on morale & incentives | Performance-linked incentives in PSUs |
The public choice approach to public administration started in the 1960s. Vincent Ostrom suggested using economic methods and behavioral assumptions to analyze administration. Thus, public choice approach emphasises the following :
- Consumer Oriented Approach : It lays emphasis on the element of choice, with the citizen in the role of consumer. It sees citizens as rational decision-makers who act in their self-interest. It stresses aligning government actions with citizen preferences and values.
- Institutional pluralism, that is, plurality of agencies to promote consumers’ preferences
- Democratic Decentralization: Dispersal of decision making authority to stimulate healthy and democratic competition among government agencies.
- Popular participation in administration and Debureaucratization.
- Political approach to public administration by locating public administration within the domain of politics
The public-choice approach is opposed to: (i) Centralized bureaucratic system of administration; (ii) Centralized system of planning and policy-making; (iii) Dichotomy between politics and administration; (iv) Non-committal bureaucracy; and (v) Monocentric, hierarchical bureaucratic administration.
