Factor III: Transferability of Administrative Practices Across Sectors

A third important factor that facilitated the adoption of performance measurement in the public sector was that there was a general belief in the possibility of seamlessly transferring administrative practices across sectors. As noted earlier, scientific management practices had originally been developed for use in private sector contexts. However, the New York Bureau did not view this as a problem. It believed that the task of the public administrator ought to be no different than that of any other administrator. Hence, the belief was that the one best approach (scientifically determined) for carrying out a particular set of tasks would apply equally well in both sectors.

At the time, the belief in the transferability of techniques and methods across sectors was a generally accepted belief that had originated in Woodrow Wilson's classic article, titled The Study of Public Administration (1887). Wilson proposed that the task of any administrator, regardless of sector, involves the selection of appropriate means to accomplish given ends. This does not mean that Wilson and the New York Bureau ignored the role of politics. Rather, politics was recognized as a threat to efficient administration. In his article, Wilson therefore promoted the need to separate and draw a clear line between politics and administration. According to Wilson, legislatures should decide on what they want to get done (i.e., they make public policy), and administrative units should implement policy, using the most efficient administrative means. (This is referred to as the administration–politics dichotomy.) The proponents of scientific management and the municipal reform movement saw great potential in improving government efficiency as long as administrators could be protected from politicians. As noted by Kettl (2000), proponents of the adoption of scientific management principles in the public sector saw “virtually no barriers to the ability to improve government—if only government administrators could be protected from political meddling” (p. 9).

Questions to Consider

As noted above, an important factor that explains the Bureau’s willingness to promote scientific management principles is that it believed in the possibility of separating politics from administration. To what extent do you believe that this is possible (i.e., can a distinct line be drawn)?

Also, an implication of the focus placed on program execution is that the scope of the performance movement becomes limited to finding ways to improve the way government programs were implemented. That is, the sole focus is on efficiency. Furthermore, the previous section (the section on Taylor’s contributions) suggests that actual use of performance measurement was only for the purpose of determining whether a particular task could be performed more efficiently. In Lesson 1, we learned that there are several additional reasons for measuring performance, such as ensuring transparency and accountability and making allocation decisions across different programs. Why do you think that the use of performance measurement was so limited at the time?

Again, please note that you are not required to submit anything in response to the above questions. They are provided to help you assess your understanding of the content and guide you toward learning new knowledge about the content.