Public Administration MCQ Quiz - Objective Question with Answer for Public Administration - Download Free PDF

The correct answer is Sub-Registrar.

Key Points

• The Sub-Registrar is a government official responsible for maintaining records of property transactions and other legal documents at the Taluka level.
• He/she ensures the proper registration of deeds, agreements, and other documents as mandated by the Registration Act, 1908.
• Copies of every registered document are preserved in the Sub-Registrar's office for legal and administrative purposes.
• The Sub-Registrar's primary role involves safeguarding public records and providing certified copies upon request to avoid disputes related to ownership or legal rights.
• They work under the jurisdiction of the Department of Registration and Stamps in their respective state governments.

Additional Information

• Registration Act, 1908
  • This Act governs the process of registering documents related to property transactions, wills, and other legal agreements in India.
  • The primary aim is to provide public notice of transactions and prevent fraud or disputes over ownership.
• Documents Registered by Sub-Registrar
  • Sale deeds, lease agreements, gift deeds, and power of attorney documents.
  • Marriage certificates, wills, and partnership agreements.
• Certified Copies of Registered Documents
  • Individuals can apply for certified copies of registered documents by submitting a request and paying the prescribed fees.
  • These certified copies serve as valid legal evidence in courts and other legal proceedings.
• Taluka Administration
  • The Taluka is an administrative division in India, often headed by a Tehsildar, who manages revenue collection and land records.
  • The Sub-Registrar operates at the Taluka level but focuses exclusively on document registration and record maintenance.

De'Gournay coined the term bureaucracy.

Key Points

• In a parliamentary democracy, bureaucracy provides stability in an often unstable polity.
• Members of Parliament have limited time to deal with administrative matters.
• Bureaucrats must also be very disciplined and follow the regulations in order to protect ethical ideals.
• Bureaucracy's contribution to governmental administration is not minor. 
• It has made administration more efficient, rational, impartial, and consistent.
• Herbert Morrison said, "Bureaucracy is the price of parliamentary democracy."
• Morrison said this to highlight the merit of bureaucracy. 

​Thus, Herbert Morrison said, "Bureaucracy is the price of parliamentary democracy".

Additional Information

• Max Weber described bureaucracy as an institutional approach to applying general rules to specific instances in order to make government operations fair and predictable.
• Ramsay Muir was a British historian, Liberal Party politician, and thinker who made a significant contribution to the development of liberal political philosophy in the 1920s and 1930s through his work on domestic industrial policy and his promotion of the international policy of interdependency.

The correct answer is Deontological Ethics.Key Points

• The Phrase 'Duty for sake of Duty' represents Deontological Ethics.
• It means at least some acts are morally obligated regardless of their consequences for human welfare.
• Eg, the duty of soldier is to follow order of his senior, regardless of his own values.
• This approach was given in Kantian Philosophy.

Additional Information

• Ethical Hedonism. At its simplest, ethical hedonism is the claim that all and only pleasure has positive importance and all and only pain or displeasure has negative importance.
• Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm
• psychological hedonism, in philosophical psychology, the view that all human action is ultimately motivated by desires for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

Duty for the sake of duty.' This moral principle is related to Deontological Ethics.

Key Points

• The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006 by the Government of India to provide seamless, efficient, and accessible public services through electronic governance.
• Vision of NeGP:
•  To make all government services accessible to citizens through digital means.
• Improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in government processes.
• Reduce bureaucratic delays and corruption through ICT (Information and Communication Technology).
• Why Option (iii) is Incorrect?
• Not all e-Governance services are free of cost.
• Some services, like passport application, land record services, and vehicle registration, require nominal service charges.
• However, basic services such as public grievance redressal and general information dissemination are often free.

Important Points

• NeGP comprises 31 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) across different sectors, including:
• Central level services: MCA21 (corporate affairs), Income Tax, Passport & Visa, etc.
• State level services: Land records, Agriculture, Health, e-District, etc.
• Integrated services: e-Courts, e-Procurement, National Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG), etc.
• Major benefits of NeGP:
• Minimizes corruption and delays in government services.
• Reduces paperwork and streamlines processes.
• Improves accessibility of government schemes to rural citizens.
• Supports Digital India initiative for broader IT-enabled governance.
• Key e-Governance Portals under NeGP:
• UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) – Single platform for citizen services.
• DigiLocker – Digital storage of government documents.
• CSC (Common Service Centers) – Public access points for e-services.
• Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) – Ensuring subsidy and service delivery.

Additional Information

• Evolution of e-Governance in India:
• NeGP (2006): First structured e-Governance framework.
• Digital India (2015): Expansion of e-Governance with more citizen-centric services.
• Artificial Intelligence & Blockchain Integration: New technologies improving e-Governance efficiency.
• Challenges of e-Governance Implementation:
• Digital divide in rural areas.
• Cybersecurity risks and data privacy concerns.
• Need for infrastructure and digital literacy.

The correct answer is The Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electrical Company

Key Points

• The Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electrical Company is recognized as the birthplace of Human Relations Theory in Administration.
• This theory emerged from the famous Hawthorne Studies conducted by Elton Mayo and his team in the 1920s and 1930s.
• The studies demonstrated the importance of social relations, employee satisfaction, and group dynamics on productivity and work efficiency.
• It emphasized the human aspect of management, highlighting the need for managers to consider workers' emotional and social needs.

Additional Information

• Toyota Motor Corporation: Known for pioneering the Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing, but not related to Human Relations Theory.
• Bell Labs: Renowned for technological innovations and research, unrelated to Human Relations Theory in Administration.
• NASA: Associated with aerospace research and space exploration, not relevant to the development of Human Relations Theory.
• Hawthorne Studies: These experiments highlighted the psychological and social factors affecting employee productivity, leading to the evolution of Human Relations Theory.

The correct answer is Decentralisation of power.

• Panchayati Raj system is based on the principle of Decentralisation of power.
• Panchayati Raj is an important feature of Indian polity ensuring direct participation of common people (Article 243 G – 243 H) in decision making.
• Under DPSP article 40 it’s mentioned that State shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.

• Panchayati Raj system is a system of rural local self-government.
• It was introduced by the 73rd constitutional amendment act,1992.
• In 1882 Lord Rippon provided the democratic framework to local governance. This gave him the title of “father of local self-government in India”.

Important Points

• 24 April is celebrated as National Panchayati Raj day.
• Panchayat was first introduced in Rajasthan.
• Panchayati Raj bill was passed during Narasimha Rao Government.
• The duration of an Elected panchayat is 5 years.
• Election of Panchayat-
  • Before the expiry of the 5-year duration of the current panchayat.
  • In case of dissolution of Panchayat before the expiry of 6 months period.

R stands for Reporting in the acronym 'POSDCORB'.

Important Points

• According to Henry Fayol, the five functional parts that express the scope of administration are planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.
• However, Luther Gulick amended this area of operations that Fayol believed to be under administration and proposed that it be referred to as Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting, or POSDCORB.
• According to Gulick, even though various businesses may engage in diverse types of work, they all engage in POSDCORB activities and all organisations experience common management issues.
  • Planning entails figuring out in broad strokes what has to be done and what approaches should be used to achieve the goal.
  • Organization is the process of creating a formal authority structure through which work is divided, structured, specified, and coordinated.
  • Staffing refers to the hiring, educating, and establishing of employees' working circumstances.
  • Making decisions and giving commands and instructions are all parts of Directing.
  • Bringing together the efforts of multiple departments, sectors, and other areas of the organisation is what is meant by Coordination.
  • Reporting entails telling the executive's superiors inside the organisation of the situation.
  • Budgeting entails financial control, planning, and accounting.
• The study is made more systematic and has unity, certainty, and definiteness thanks to POSDCORB.

Thus we know that R stands for Reporting in the acronym 'POSDCORB'.

Henri Fayol was a mining engineer given a broad theory of corporate administration known as Fayolism. 

 Key Points

• Fayol's work was one of the first comprehensive statements of a general theory of management.
• In his work General and Industrial Management (1949), he describes managerial functions.
• Henri Fayol identifies five managerial functions: 
  • ​Planning: Managers must plan for the future, set strategic objectives, and ensure that future goals are met.
  • Organizing: Managers must efficiently organize their employees as well as the structure and align the organization's activities.
  • Command: Managers must oversee employees' everyday work and motivate them to attain company objectives.
  • Coordination: Managers must synchronize the company's procedures and operations. 
  • Control: Managers must ensure that company actions are consistent with the organization's overall policies and goals.
• ​Henri Fayol proposed that these functions were universal and that every manager carried out these tasks on a daily basis.
• Henri Fayol in his article, What are Henri Fayol's 14 Management Principles? also defined 14 broad management and organizational concepts. 

Thus, Henry Fayol's functions of administration in correct order is Planning ►Organising►  Command► Coordination► Control. 

Additional Information

• Henry Fayol's works are: 
  • Industrial and General Administration(1930). 
  • General and Industrial Management (1949). 

Hawthorne's experiments are associated with the Human Relation Theory of Organisation.

Important Points

• At the beginning of the 20th century, companies were using scientific approaches to improve worker productivity.
• But that all began to change in 1924 with the start of the Hawthorne Studies, a 9-year research program at Western Electric Companies.
• The program, in which Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger played a major role, concluded that an organization’s undocumented social system was a powerful motivator of employee behavior.
• The Hawthorne Studies led to the development of the Human Relations Movement in business management.
  • The experiment was about measuring the impact of different working conditions by the company itself (such as levels of lighting, payment systems, and hours of work) on the output of the employees.
  • The researchers concluded that variations in output were not caused by changing physical conditions or material rewards only but partly by the experiments themselves.
  • The special treatment required by experimental participation convinced workers that management had a particular interest in them. This raised morale and led to increased productivity.
  • The term ‘Hawthorne effect’ is now widely used to refer to the behavior-modifying effects of being the subject of social investigation.
  • The researchers concluded that the supervisory style greatly affected worker productivity.
  • These results were, of course, a major blow to the position of scientific management, which held that employees were motivated by individual economic interests.
  • The Hawthorne studies drew attention to social needs as an additional source of motivation.
  • Economic incentives were now viewed as one factor, but not the sole factor to which employees responded.

Scientific management is a management theory that examines and combines workflows.

Key Points

• Louis Brandeis popularized the term scientific management.
• Taylorism is the name given to scientific management after the name of Frederick Winslow Taylor.
• It was one of the first attempts to use science in process engineering and management. 
• Its major goal is to increase economic efficiency, particularly worker productivity.
• Taylor coined the terms "shop management" and "process management" to describe his method.

Thus, Higher industrial efficiency is the goal of Scientific Management. 

Additional Information

• Frederick Winslow Taylor is the father of scientific management. 
• Work of F. W. Taylor:  A Piece-rate System (1895), Shop management (1903), On the Art of Cutting Metals (1906), The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) and Concrete costs (1912). 

De'Gournay coined the term bureaucracy.

Key Points

• In a parliamentary democracy, bureaucracy provides stability in an often unstable polity.
• Members of Parliament have limited time to deal with administrative matters.
• Bureaucrats must also be very disciplined and follow the regulations in order to protect ethical ideals.
• Bureaucracy's contribution to governmental administration is not minor. 
• It has made administration more efficient, rational, impartial, and consistent.
• Herbert Morrison said, "Bureaucracy is the price of parliamentary democracy."
• Morrison said this to highlight the merit of bureaucracy. 

​Thus, Herbert Morrison said, "Bureaucracy is the price of parliamentary democracy".

Additional Information

• Max Weber described bureaucracy as an institutional approach to applying general rules to specific instances in order to make government operations fair and predictable.
• Ramsay Muir was a British historian, Liberal Party politician, and thinker who made a significant contribution to the development of liberal political philosophy in the 1920s and 1930s through his work on domestic industrial policy and his promotion of the international policy of interdependency.

The correct answer is option no 3 1927-1937.

Public administration is a broad field that covers the administrative services needed to help build and strengthen society.

Key Points

• The Evolution of Public Administration has mainly gone through six stages.
• PERIOD I (1887-1926) Politics–Administration Dichotomy
• PERIOD II (1927-1937) Golden Era of Principles
• PERIOD III (1938-1947) Period of Challenge
• PERIOD IV (1948-1970) Phase of Identity Crisis
• PERIOD V (1971-1980) Public Administration as Public Administration
• PERIOD VI (1980 Onward) Reinventing Public Administration in Market Era.

Additional Information

•  Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the father of the discipline of public administration, in his article entitled “The Study of Administration,” published in the Political Science Quarterly in 1887.
• He emphasized the need for studying public administration as a discipline apart from politics.

Hence PERIOD II (1927-1937)  is considered the "Golden era of principles" in the development of Public Administration.

The correct answer is I, III.

Key Points Political Direction:

• The Minister has the power of direction, control and supervi­sion.
• He has full authority to manage and direct his Department. His writ runs throughout the sections and branches of the Department.
• He lays down the policy and looks to its implemen­tation. He issues directives to the departmental, officials.
• No important decision can be taken without bringing the matter to his notice.

Executive Legislation:

• The executive exercises power of legislation which is termed ‘Delegated Legislation’.
• The Legislature passes an Act in a skeleton form and empowers the executive to fill in the details. The rules framed by the executive have the force of law.
• The scope of administrative law making is very wide in the modern social welfare states. These administrative rules determine the authority of the different officials in the department.

Recruitment System:

• Another important means of executive control over adminis­tration is recruitment system. Generally, recruitment to civil service is placed in the hands of Public Service Commission—an independent body.
• The general rules of recruitment are laid down by the Government. The qualifications, experience, age, etc., required for different posts are determined by the executive.
• It has also the power to exclude certain posts from the pur­view of the Public Service Commission. To the higher posts of the civil service, the executive has a free hand.
• The ministers select their own secretaries and heads of departments. Thus through their appointees, they exercise full control over the administration of the department.

Budgetary System:

• The budgetary system which determines the total financial and personnel resources which no department may exceed gives the executive an effective means of control over administration. The civil servant has to work within the budgetary allocation.
• He cannot spend a single penny without the proper sanction from the higher authorities. The money is to be spent according to the financial rules. Proper accounts are to be maintained which are subject to audit. Under an effective budgetary system, the administration is under the constant control of the executive.

De'Gournay created the term bureaucracy.

Key Points

• Bureaucracy has universalistic criteria such as Division of labour, hierarchy, unity of command, task specialisation, merit-based staffing and promotion, rules and regulations, formal communication systems etc. 
• The colonial bureaucracy mostly served maintenance responsibilities, such as maintaining law and order, collecting taxes and revenue, and so on. 
• Colonial bureaucracy is also known as Ruling bureaucracy.
• The colonial administration suppressed the independence movement on several occasions. 
• The concept of developmental administration was not well understood at the time.
• The bureaucracy was fundamentally a policing/tax-collecting mechanism, far from being a citizen-friendly administration.
• Colonial bureaucracy has performed the Ruling of the masses.

Thus, the Ruling bureaucracy type of bureaucracy is found in colonial rule.

Additional Information

•  Morstein Marx divides bureaucracy into four types:
  • Guardian Bureaucracy
  • Caste bureaucracy
  • Patronage bureaucracy
  • Merit bureaucracy

The correct answer is - 'Reaction'

Key Points

• Herbert Simon made key contributions to enhance our understanding of the decision-making process.
• In fact, he pioneered the field of decision support systems.
• According to (Simon 1960) and his later work with (Newell 1972), decision-making is a process with distinct stages. 
• He suggested for the first time the decision-making model of human beings. 
• His model of decision-making has three stages:
  • ​Intelligence which deals with the problem identification and the data collection on the problem.
  • Design which deals with the generation of alternative solutions to the problem at hand.
  • Choice which is selecting the ‘best’ solution from amongst the alternative solutions using some criterion. 
• ​The figure given below depicts Simon’s decision-making model clearly:

​

Based on the above points, we can conclude that 'Reaction' step does not find place in Simon's Decision Making Model.​