In the field of public administration there are many different theories that try to explain public administration and how it is linked to other fields of study and if it is in fact linked to any other fields or whether it is independent. Some theories say public administration should be on its own and independent from other government sectors. The other side of the argument says that public administration cannot stand alone and needs to be integrated with other sectors of governance.

Woodrow Wilson was one of the first people who started to study public administration when he published his article which was named “The study of public Administration”, in June of 1887. His theory for public administration was that it is should be completely independent from the study of politics and that the two should not be mixed. According to Wilson public administration should be separate from politics so that it is not affected by the negativity that takes place within the political field. This theory can be seen as quite flawed as public administration is part of the social field of politics.

Henry Fayol had a theory that there should always be a set structure within the organisational culture of public administration. He had 14 principles of management that he related to public administration. The 14 principles were as follows: Division of work, authority, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interests to general interests, remuneration, centralisation, scalar chain, order, equity, stability of tenure, initiative, and spirit of cooperation. Henry Fayol related these 14 principles with public administration and how to manage it.

Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick were 2 theorists that believed that public administration and management of businesses should be combined which could work within the public and private sector. They created an acronym that helped outline the functions of public administration very well, POSDCORB (Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting) They also agreed with the 14 principles of Henry Fayol, as they saw it as a good way to solve problems of management. They played a big role in developing the study of public administration.

Max Weber had the theory of the bureaucratic model. His model believed in a set organisational structure within a hierarchy.

In 2012 Books were not delivered to government schools in Limpopo. This is a failure of public services. This means that there was a lack of good public administration and management.

A number of the previously names theories could’ve been used when dealing with the situation in the “Final Limpopo verdict” which might have changed the outcome. There are certain public administration theories that were not used in this case.

In the “Final Limpopo verdict” they did not make use of Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick theories. In the verdict they say that the administration department is solely responsible for handling the ordering and supplying of textbooks to school and that no other department should be involved with this process. This goes against the theories of Gulick and Urwick that believe public administration is not independent and should be integrated with other departments.

The Limpopo province public administration departments also could’ve made use of Gulick and Urwick’s outlined Acronym, POSDCORB (Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting) This would’ve given a clean plan of action and would’ve laid out the steps in order to complete the task properly. If they had followed this they would’ve had clean guidelines and the books would’ve been ordered and supplied efficiently.

Another person’s theory that was not used was Henry Fayol’s 14 principles to management. No one was given clear tasks to do and authority over those tasks was not put into place. If the 14 principles were followed work would’ve been delegated properly and the public administration sector along with integrated sectors would’ve done the project properly and the schools would’ve received their books.

There are many ways in which public administration can be carried out. Each theory has its benefits and draw backs. It is important to try take the best out of each one.[i]