TITLE:

THE ROLES AND CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN A

GLOBALIZING WORLD

Introduction
The recent global debate on globalization and its multi-pronged impact has had a strong echo in
the academic and political discussions in the nature of public administration. There is no doubt
that globalization has brought about a revolutionary shift in the nature and scope of public
administration.

The old public administration model was developed in the context of liberal constitutions and it
was influenced by the contribution of Max Weber, Woodrow Wilson and Frederick Taylor.
Wilson is best known as the father of Public Administration. His idea was to make public
administration a scientific discipline, so to enhance the understanding of methods thorough
which improve efficiency and effectiveness in public policy design and implementation.

From 18th century, transportation and communication started progressing very fast. Goods,
data, technology, services and the economic resources of capital is involved in globalization.
On the other hand, the term public administration means the governmental administration.
Administration is the management of human affairs.

So, when the government controls the management system of human affairs then that is called
the public administration. As proper administration requires the involvement of general public,
administration needs to focus on the demand of public. Due to globalization the society and its
people are changing very rapidly. This change in the behavior of general people is mainly
because of the impact of globalization. And this change is impacting the whole scenario of
public administration. Here we will know the impacts of globalization on public administration.

Concept of Globalization in Public Administration

When we think about Public Administration, we notice that all kind of Administrations are
generally based on Bureaucratic Model of Weber. As example the hierarchical structure, the
division of Labour, unity of Command and span of control. In most of the State, the
government generally follow Weber’s Bureaucratic Model. But because of globalization
organization structure is getting changed.

In modern era Network Structure, Cellular Organization, Virtual Organization, Joint Venture
and Strategic Alliances are some kinds of communication system of an organization. We can
see a lot of significant impacts of globalization in Public Administration. We saw private and
public company working together in the ancient time. Private company used to learn from
public. But at present the scenario is not the same as before. Most of the techniques are
learned from the private organization, corporate system into the government and vice versa.
All of this is happening today because we have seen that globalization is incorporated in
public administration.

Globalization includes lots of things like political, social and cultural dimensions.
Globalization has changed the approach of Public Administration; organizations are
becoming more active. Their response rate has increased. Previously people were required to
wait for a long time in the queue to collect or send money. Now people can use ATM
(Automated Teller Machine). They can use Mobile banking and use different kind of cards to
carry and pay money wherever and whenever they want, they can make the transaction within
2 minutes. Globalization has fastened our business transaction and information passing.
Public administration is changing very rapidly because of globalization and also
administration is getting changed. 3 figures of globalization can be identified economic
political and cultural/Social.

The Origin and Expectations from Globalization

The term ‘Globalization’ has actually been in process since the beginning of history. It has
increased in effects since the dawn of history. But in the last couple of centuries, there has been
a sudden acceleration in the process as we can see. Globalization encompasses a lot of things;
the international flow of ideas and knowledge, the sharing of cultures, global civil society, and
the environmental movement.

Though our concern is mostly about the economic globalization, which entails the closer
economic integration of a country of the world through the increased flow goods and services,
capital, and even labor. Globalization has engulfed the world socially, culturally, economically,
politically as a complex interplay.
Globalization gives different meanings to different people. The idea is broad, to different
perspectives it gives different meaning. If we view the term globalization from an economist's
perspective, we will see it as a step towards the advancement of world market. Political
scientists will view it as a march away from the conventional idea of state. General people and
other people will view globalization as it is run by private sector corporations, not government.
Globalization is generally identified with three different phases. They are: liberalization,
privatization and globalization. Although scholars have a common idea about this, what
globalization is or it would be, they do not agree on the fact whether the current changes in the
international economic environment are caused by globalization.

In a twenty-first century of nation state an expansive, intrusive, and unregulated global

economy are the future parameters of our opportunities and our dangers. Citizens now a days
can easily understand the economic strengths and weaknesses of their societies as products of
specific national political arrangements. This combination of these elements makes it quite
possible that the future globalization will be one of the international conflicts over the economy
system as concerned. We are able to glimpse the character of these contests.

A mix of conflicting visions of general peoples right and interest. The struggles between the
United States and Japan in the Structural Impediments Initiative negotiations in the last
century, also between the United States and Europe over a cultural exception and it was in the
Uruguay Round, also between the United States and Europe over beef hormones and
genetically modified substances in foods, between Japan and China on the linkages between
trade and nuclear weapons; some of the conflicts were heating up on social media contents, on
child labor, on environment, and business all of them shows different national conceptions both
of interest and of the basic norms of a person's regular life.

It was partly energized by interest and also partly by ideals, these confrontations do not align
one ideological camp against another but not one civilization against another. But they do not
pit Asian values against the Anglo-American values. But we often seen them to mobilize
conflicting traditions within pluralistic national societies.

Achievement and Failure of Globalization

We can say that globalization is a popular term that is spreading across the world with a
massive force. We can't deny the fact that globalization is as truth as gravity.

In this process, the world culture is becoming closer day by day. Because of the nature of
globalization, everyone in the world getting involved with it, even the people who do not ever
wanted to be. Globalization changes the path of life for people in every nation. Necessary steps
which can resolve the issue must be taken so changes go in a preferable direction. Every
ingredient of our society is influenced by the effect of globalization. Education is providing
scopes with the utilization of knowledge from multiple fields.

The movement of communication is towards a faster and better means of sending and receiving
messages which provide more contexts which is important to intercultural exchanges. Now a
days language is not a problem for the communication between people of different cultures
which is also a necessity in a global society. Globalization helps us to decrease the likelihood
of any kind of financial crises in the future.

Within the limited amount of energy, there is huge importance for the proper utilization of the
resources as an exchange for depleting supplies of the very harmful fossil fuels, and for making
sure that they are available in all the countries across the globe. Sustainability which pertains to
agriculture, puts a great emphasis on the proper implementation of practices that never degrade
any resources that is used to provide crops and livestock. These problems affect the whole
world as it has only fixed number of resources, so global policies should be given importance
for the betterment of the nation.

Impacts of Globalization on the Performance of Governance and

Public Administration
The term globalization refers to the revolutionary changes in the Information and
communication technology which has transformed politics and economics across the globe.
Globalization has provided us with the greater scope of transparency of the activities of the
government. In modern time, all the actions of the government are under scrutiny of the
general public because of the availability of information.
The rise of the global society has brought revolutionary changes in the whole world. The civil
society has been working for the betterment of the general public. They are also trying to
bring the public issues to the front of the media coverage. Mass media coverages also help
administration to perform their duties.
Most of the states in the world is under the concept of ‘welfare state’: In the welfare state it is
the responsibility for the government to ensure the basic development of its people. But
because of globalization government alone isn't able to take any decisions alone. Government
needs to depend on other country’s decision and the globalization affect the decision-making
process and changes the roles of government. Here we can see that for globalization country's
need to depend on other countries.
Also, they do investigate the challenges of outsourcing, multinational companies, the
exploitation of labor also terrorism, dependency, cultural and dominance of a countries
financial organizations, network management and understand the whole system.

Significance of globalization in Public Administration

We see the positive impact of globalization both on the state and society whenever we
discuss the significance of globalization in public administration. For the regulation of the
economy the state is responsible, we all know the importance of states role. We know that
whole Public Administration changed as the effect of globalization and the paradigm shift of
public administration undergone lot of stages and changes. Public administration passed
through a long stage of paradigm shift. Previously it was not considered as a scientific study,
to make it a separate discipline it bearded a lot of struggles.
Previous idea of public administration suggested, state controlled and bureaucrat system
based managed paradigm. But now the idea is Changed now public administration is
becoming more flexible and market-based administration. Weber has suggested heuristic type
public administration which is based on strict adherence of hierarchy, rule-boundedness,
impersonality, also the globalization administration put maximum faith on the
decentralization. Companies now can invest in other countries and make profit. All of these
are now possible because of globalization.

Roles & Challenges of Public Administration in the 21st Century

World
Now I will discuss the roles of globalization in 21st century. We all know that the world is
full of resources. If any country or any nation uses those resources properly then the nation
reaches the pinnacle of success. We need to use the resources as much as possible without
wasting anything. For the better performance of any organization or any office resources
should be used properly. Here we will see some examples of some recent issues.

Nuclear Weapons
We all know. The incident that the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. In the last
Century, we saw the detrimental consequences of using nuclear weapons. After 77 years, the
radiation of the nuclear bombs is still active. But the developed countries still didn't stop the
production of nuclear weapons. Rather they are increasing nuclear weapons to show their
powers. Now nuclear weapon is becoming the parameter of judging a country's power. But it
was expected that countries from different zone will stop producing this heinous work after
seeing the detrimental consequences of this nuclear weapons. Because of globalization
country's want to show themselves more powerful than others.
This bad practice should be stopped as soon as possible. Government is giving much
attention in increasing military powers and nuclear weapons where people isn't getting food
and shelter. We can bring the example of North Korea for better understanding. North Korea
is investing most of their budget in increasing nuclear weapons. But if we see that country's
inner situation, we see that their people are deprived of basic fundamental rights. They aren't
getting enough food; they are deprived of proper electricity and also, they don’t get freedom.
They are deprived of the blessings of modern science and technology. They often don’t get
electricity in the night. But their government isn't working for ensuring a better environment
for the general people. They are using their resources and budgets in making nuclear
weapons. Their government and its administration have failed to show proper functioning and
failed to use men and materials.

Environment Pollution
Developed Countries affects the nature badly by emitting CO2 and using plastic products
mostly. We see the developed countries are polluting the environment most. They make
industries and nuclear plants and also, they do use plastics and emits the environment. They
do lot of scientific researches and throw the wastage and chemicals in the air and water. Thus,
they are polluting the environment.
Today they are successful and developed rich country because of industrialization. They earn
lots of foreign currency by exporting their industrial products. But they also do harm to the
sea lives and also the animals of the forest intentionally or unintentionally. But whenever
they see any developing country making industry or emitting CO2 they forbid and restrict
them to do so. They give prescription of ethics and morality but they themselves never follow
those or never try to follow them.
Government of developing countries should work for the country's betterment and also
should use the resources properly without harming the environment. But nowadays many
countries do not care about the environment. But government as well as the bureaucrats of a
country should come forward to resolve the issue. So, we can say that environment protection
is a challenge for the government in this globalizing world
Election System and Democracy
Modern Election System is facing challenges as people are losing believes in EVM system
and even US elections also got challenged as opposition objected that the EVM can be
hacked. In the previous centuries we have seen a lot of debate taking place to ensure the
accuracy of election method. We see in many countries that the opposition party objects that
the election was impacted by the ruling party and the people in general couldn’t cast their
votes properly.
This scenario still didn’t change though many measurements have been taken. Many
politicians didn’t want to lose their power and as a result they polluted the voting system and
didn’t allow normal people to cast their vote. We have also seen this kind of objections in
Bangladeshi elections. People can't participate in the election and opposition party keep
demanding the rights of voting of general people. As a result, democracy and election method
is a big question in Bangladesh. In the US elections we have also seen this kind of problems
in last couple of elections.
Opposition party said that the election is not acceptable. They objected that Russian hackers
changed the result of election. We can say that lot of countries across the globe isn't satisfied
with this procedure. Couple of weeks back we have seen the sanction of Pakistani Prime
minister. No prime minister of Pakistan could ever finish their time period. So, it is a big
issue need to be solved as soon as possible otherwise whole administration system will
collapse. Elected representatives play a vital role in the proper functioning of civil services
so, if they aren't selected properly administration system may not be able to run properly.

Public And Private Organization

If we come to the comparison of Private university and Public University, we will see that
private university is progressing day by day. In present context private Universities offer
much wider scope in research but if you look at the public universities you will see that the
scope is becoming narrow. Most of the private universities was established in 90's decade and
around 2000 but they are getting positions in world rankings. How this scenario was created?
If you look at the University of Dhaka, students are not getting hall accommodation, they are
not getting nutritious foods. Authority is failing badly to ensure congenial atmosphere where
the students can study. Who is liable for these Consequences? Whose fault is this? This is not
a fault of a particular person; this is a fault of the system.
In private universities students are provided with all kind of facilities. They get the proper
environment where they can discover their latent creative talents. They also get wider scope
of joining in extra curriculum activities as well as cultural activities. They also get the
opportunity of research, and they also get the congenial atmosphere to study. Their library
and lab facilities are high in quality. Their accommodation system and teaching method is
also student friendly. Though this kind of facilities are also available in public universities
but the scenario is different. The administration and management are often seen getting
involved in corruption. In recent times, we can see the recruitment process often lead us to
doubt as many some of the universities were seen promoting nepotism. Ethical and moral
behaviors should be practiced to run an organization efficiently and effectively.
University administration should use their resources and manpower wisely. Because they are
dealing with the future of a country. If the future of a country gets destroyed in education
system the nation will not be able to shine. Public universities get a huge amount of share
from the budget, so if they can use the amount properly student will get congenial
atmosphere, an atmosphere where they will be able to express themself and shine.
In this globalizing world if an organization wastes its resources and the administration of that
organization is unable to stop corruption and wastage it will slowly but surely destroy the
whole organization. For better performance and to make an organization efficient and
effective proper leadership is needed. Ethical and moral behaviors should also be introduced.

Globalization and Development (Consequences)

The corruption of Padma Bridge harmed our economy very badly. Because of the corruption
Padma bridge construction was stopped and foreign organization stopped showing interest in
this project. Though Bangladesh started the construction of Padma Bridge, it hasn’t finished
yet. But it could have started before 5/6 years. We lost the economic growth in these 6 years.
Corruption didn’t allow us to grow our economy for these years.
The tragedy of Rana Plaza showed us how much detrimental it can be if we don't ensure the
practice of the principle's ethics and morality in the organization. If the management of this
private organization functioned properly Bangladesh would never lose their market value in
foreign countries. But because of this incident we faced a lot of issues. And even many
countries were about to stop importing ready-made garments. We all know that our economy
is hugely depended on ready-made garments. It is one of the great mediums of earning
foreign currencies. But because of the collapse of Rana Plaza everything got stuck at that
time. But the scenario is changed now.
The stoppage of Padma Bridge construction impacted our Economy very badly and because
of the tragedy of Rana Plaza we were denied GSP by United States of America.

Modern Technology and Administration Process

Modern technologies are now used to fight unethical practices of an organization either
public or private. Corruption identification became very easy because of information and
technology system. Official activities are becoming more transparent as general people are
given access to official information.
In a survey of 1,90,000 people, conducted by Transparency International in 2019, it was
seen that 51% people Indian people had paid bribe in a calendar year. Previously we have
discussed about the large-scale corruption and management failure (Padma Bridge, Rana
Plaza), This large-scale corruption is a matter of discuss separately.

But the practice of petty corruption slowly eats away the administration process slowly but
surely. By the features of technology red tape can also be cut through automation of
bureaucratic process. As modern technology is providing us with the opportunity of doing
everything online, people aren't required to meet with the officials face to face. They can
even make transaction within 2 minutes. It reduced the opportunities for accepting bribes.
Digital process in tax filling also reduced the tax evasion. Governments are trying to
introduce e-governance system. But complete e-governance system can only be introduced in
developed countries.
As people are required to do everything electronically, they have to have the capability of
using technological devices. Government can't force people to do everything online without
ensuring everyone is capable of using electronic devices. In developed countries it is possible
to ask their citizen to do everything in electronic way. But most of the countries in the world
are still below poverty line, so this isn't possible worldwide.
Modern technology can help us to get prevention from corruption and it can be used as anti-
corruption tool. we often see rumors and unethical contents in social media which leads to
unethical practices.
So, Technology can help us to be ethical and it can also lead us to do something unethical
depending on how you are using the resources in 21st Century.

Empowering Citizen
Globalization has provided the scope of openly participation of general public in government
services. People from all walks of life can access the database of a government. They can
know which one is correct and which one is wrong. People are getting benefit from the e-
governance system. Now people are conscious of their right. Through media and government
portal they are previously alert for their services.
Nowadays people are participating in all sorts of government activities. Education for all is a
motive of Bangladeshi government, they are also working on women empowerment,
consumer rights, human rights also environment protection and decentralization; people can
participate in all of them. Introduction to the electronic procedure of government activities
has brought a revolutionary change in the relation between citizen and administration and the
services are now delivered very fast, other works are possible to be done speedy, people are
getting access in resources, overall public harassment is reduced significantly.
Empowering the citizen has become a key option for a government to remove corruption
from public administration.

National Emergency Service

National emergency service is a gift of modern technology. People from all walks of life can
get service from it. It also helps the administration to give better service to people when they
require it most. Bangladesh launched this service in 2017.
Bangladeshi national helpline number is- 999. This number is for getting help in any kind of
emergency. The emergency can be accident, crime, fire or any kind of medical issues. This is
a toll-free number and people from anywhere can use this helpline to get help. Bangladeshi
helpline unit receives almost 30,000 calls daily. As a gift of modern technology, people get
benefit from it and it also helps the administration process to run smoothly.

Conclusion
Public administration faced lots of struggles since the beginning. Globalization put the most
powerful impact on public administration. Globalization impacted not only in the field of
governmental organization but also it impacted the universities, social organization, private
sectors and overall, all the sectors where administration and management are present. If we
want to make effective reform, political and bureaucratic institutions should work hand in hand.
Lots of actions have been taken to serve the public better. Administration process previously
was hard to understand. Now it is simplified to understand the procedure, electronic
communication is introduced and charter of citizen rights has been established. The impact of
globalization has changed the outlook, attitude, dimension of public administration across the
globe. But the nature of impact has not been the same for all the countries.
 References

1) Bidyut C., & P. Chand, (2012), Public Administration in a Globalizing world,

Globalization and public administration (1st ed.), SAGE Publications PVT. Ltd;

New Delhi.

2) Nayak, A., Chakravati, K. and Rajib, P. (2006). Globalization process in India:

a history prospective since independence. South Asian Journal of Management, 12Q.

3) Meetika S. (2009). Globalisation and public administration: a study of the term

‘Globalisation’, its nature, meaning, characteristics and impact on public administration

Available on: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1508013