Administration Unraveled

Governing Authority (Board of Directors, Owner etc.) is responsible for the enterprise and should exert control of its' General Interest through Governing Objectives and to assure conformity with accepted standards of proper business conduct, customs, conventions and societies legal degrees of freedom and constraints such as laws, statutes, ordinances regulations etc.


The Governing Authority should be functional and operative and not just ceremonial and must possess the capability to determine and guide the General Interest of the enterprise. They should not simultaneously serve as members of the Administration. These are mutually exclusive responsibilities and accountabilities.


Governing Objectives are the means through which Governing Authority regulates and audits the compliance of Administration and Management with the General Interest of the enterprise. Ethical standards of business conduct should be specifically established through Governing Objectives. Profit should not be the only objective of the enterprise.


Administration is a system of principle and process and not one of formula and numbers. It is the means through which the functions necessary to develop, operate or analyze an enterprise including those that use formula and numbers are accomplished. These include management, financial, accounting, manufacturing, commercial, technical, personnel, security and whatever else may be necessary for the intended purpose. Administration is useful in all manner of human society for all varieties of enterprise such as public, business, military, hospital, education etc. Its' use for the design, operation or analysis of an enterprise will yield the best possible result consistent with the abilities and diligence of the designer, operator or analyst. At least 32 principles and related processes should be consciously and appropriately considered in establishing, operating or analyzing an enterprise. Most developers, operators and analysts of enterprises are not or have not been consciously aware of the 32 administration principles and related processes. Relevant principles not consciously considered in developing and operating an enterprise will naturally, rationally and unavoidably self-implement with random, undefined and unintentional results.


Superior enterprise leadership is unlikely if based only on technical or professional "on the job" proficiencies without a sound philosophy of administration. An enterprise professional has a sound philosophy of administration and a broad fundamental basis for effective thinking.


Bureaucracy, the name given to the hierarchical organization of specialties that results from the progressive sub-division of authority and work, is a natural, rational and unavoidable enterprise characteristic that is possessed in variably significant and substantial degrees by all formal enterprises.


The more closely that Webers' ideal, monocratic bureaucracy is approximated in the design and operation of an enterprise the greater will be the ability of the Governing Authority, Administration and Management to serve the General Interest of the enterprise. Most employees will become Indifferent. They will eventually exchange their work for the available compensation and gratification and develop a benign indifference to enterprise objectives in the unilateral bargain.


Administration and Management are not interchangeable. Administration delegates and distributes Authority and Objectives to Management. Management guides and directs the operation of the enterprise for the implementation of objectives through the principles of the Administrative Process.


There is good regulation, bad regulation, under regulation and over regulation but there is no such condition as too much good regulation in the conduct of human affairs.