Improving the Effectiveness of Public Managers: Can MBO Help?

Public Administration studies of bureaucracy provide valuable perspective but little specific guidance to an administrator who wants to improve his effectiveness. Present study differs in as much as it looks at administrative behaviour in terms of elements of operational managerial process – that is goal setting, staff-commitment, monitoring and control. This paper first discusses why current administrative behaviour, managerial process that is, would detract from managerial effectiveness and then goes on to present as alternative, the framework of “Management by Objectives.” In the context of public programmes, the current managerial process and MBO process are contrasted on the touchstone of optimal-sharing of managerial responsibilities between two consecutive levels of managerial hierarchy. Obvious objections to applicability of MBO to governmental organizations are countered. The context of the study is FP programme organization in one large north Indian state. But the discussion is pertinent, feels the author, to any governmental programme. The MBO framework presented is, it must be noted, context-free, and those concerned with governmental programmes per se, either as practitioners or as researchers are invited to reflect over the potential and applicability of this paper’s presentation to their particular concerns.