In an ideal world, there’s clear differences between business administration and public administration. The former’s main concern is the business itself. When it comes to business administration, the goal is to advance the goals and aims of the enterprise that the people work for. In the case of business administration, the priorities of the businesses come first. Though they tend to say otherwise, most businesses care more about their own profit and health than the health of the general public.
With public administration, the primary concern is the public at large. Their goal is to look after the safety and welfare of people in general. The government is an example of public administration. The government is not supposed to manage or handle society in a way that pushes benefits for only a handful of people or sectors; it’s supposed to oversee society so that most of the people in the given society are able to get by in a relatively decent and humane manner.
However, recently, it appears as if the boundaries between business administration and public administration have weakened. The passage of the CARES Act highlights the ways in which the government tends to work for big business but not for regular, individual people.
However, perhaps public administration and business administration were never so separate in the United States to begin with. Some historians have put forward the thesis that America has always governed more out of business interests than out of concern for the ordinary citizen.
The biggest single (and most basic) difference between business and public administration is that the former relates to the private sector, whereas the latter is concerned with the public sector.
As the name implies, business administration deals with the operation of a business, a corporate entity concerned with making a profit. Public administration, on the other hand, is related to the implementation of policy goals by government departments and nonprofit organizations such as charities. If business administration is primarily concerned with the bottom line, with making a profit, the focus of public administration is on delivering certain policy objectives.
To be sure, business and public administration share similar concerns. Both disciplines, for instance, are generally concerned with maximizing efficiency. In the case of the private sector, however, such efficiency is deemed essential for improving the bottom line, whereas in the public and nonprofit sector, it is considered an essential prerequisite to ensuring that policy goals are implemented smoothly.
In recent years, however, the distinction between business and public administration has become somewhat blurred, as governments, in a bid to save money, have attempted to apply the disciplines of business to the operation of the public sector.
Although the overriding objectives of the public sector remain the same, the methods they use to achieve those objectives greatly resemble those of the private sector in generating a profit. The hiring of business executives by government departments in order to improve overall levels of efficiency is one way in which the values...
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of the public sector have become increasingly commercialized.
There is a difference between business administration and public administration. A person who specializes in business administration will focus on the operation of a business. This is often in the private sector. Business administration involves marketing and finance. It may also involve how to make a company more competitive with other businesses and how to increase sales and profits.
A person who specializes in public administration will focus on working in the non-profit sector or in government. Public administration will focus on dealing with public policy. It also will focus on financial management and may involve some application of various laws. A form of public administration that involves the government may involve administering various programs designed to help the citizens of a region or a state. A form of public administration that involves a non-profit group may involve running a charity.
One reason why some people prefer to be involved in public administration instead of business administration is that public administration generally focuses on improving society. It is less focused on profits. Some people find that kind of work more rewarding.
Further Reading
Probably the major difference between business administration and public administration lies in the difference in the organizations and purposes being administered.
Business administration involves the administering of a business, an entity that, by definition, has been created with the goal of making a profit for its owners or investors or both. Business administration, therefore, focuses on those decisions that will contribute to the realization of this goal: how to obtain resources efficiently and at lowest possible cost; how to produce goods or services and how to market them effectively to identified markets; how to manage personnel so as to support production and distribution while minimizing costs; and so forth.
Public administration, on the other hand, infers administering services for "the public" - that is, all citizens of a community. The goal is to provide services supporting the lifestyle needs and wants of the community, not to make a profit. Public administration is usually financed by taxation, which may increase or decrease with impacts on the amount or type of services that can be provided. Products and services are provided to a much wider market - all citizens - but there still is consideration of how to do so economically and efficiently.