MPA Introduction 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which organizational principle, advocated by Henri Fayol, states that each employee should receive orders from only one superior?
- Division of labor
- Unity of command (Correct answer)
- Scalar chain
- Esprit de corps
Correct answer: Unity of command
Unity of command holds that reporting to multiple superiors creates confusion and conflict, so each employee should have a single direct supervisor.
Question 2: POSDCORB, a classic framework describing the work of an executive, was developed by which public administration scholar?
- Frederick Winslow Taylor
- Max Weber
- Luther Gulick (Correct answer)
- Herbert Simon
Correct answer: Luther Gulick
Luther Gulick coined POSDCORB (Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting) in his 1937 Papers on the Science of Administration.
Question 3: Which term describes the phenomenon where agencies continually expand their budgets and staff even when organizational goals have been accomplished?
- Parkinson's Law
- Peter Principle
- Gresham's Law
- Niskanen's Budget Maximization (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Niskanen's Budget Maximization
William Niskanen's budget-maximizing model argues that bureaucrats rationally seek to expand their agency's budget to increase their own prestige and resources.
Question 4: In U.S. intergovernmental relations, a 'block grant' differs from a 'categorical grant' primarily because block grants:
- Require matching funds from state governments
- Give states broad discretion in how funds are spent within a policy area (Correct answer)
- Are administered directly by the federal government
- Target only urban municipalities
Correct answer: Give states broad discretion in how funds are spent within a policy area
Block grants provide funds for broad functional areas (e.g., community development) with few federal strings, while categorical grants specify exact uses.
Question 5: The 'iron triangle' in U.S. politics refers to the mutually reinforcing relationships among which three actors?
- President, Congress, and Supreme Court
- Congressional committees, interest groups, and federal agencies (Correct answer)
- Federal agencies, state governments, and local governments
- Political parties, media, and think tanks
Correct answer: Congressional committees, interest groups, and federal agencies
Iron triangles describe the closed policy subsystems where congressional committees, bureaucratic agencies, and interest groups mutually support each other's goals.
Question 6: Which concept describes the difficulty a principal (e.g., legislature) faces in ensuring that an agent (e.g., agency) acts in the principal's interest?
- Collective action problem
- Bounded rationality
- Principal-agent problem (Correct answer)
- Adverse selection
Correct answer: Principal-agent problem
The principal-agent problem arises from information asymmetry and differing goals between the party delegating authority and the party executing that authority.
Question 7: According to Herbert Simon's critique of classical administration principles, most traditional principles are best described as:
- Empirically tested laws of administration
- Proverbs that often contradict each other (Correct answer)
- Universal rules applicable in all cultures
- Mathematically derived optimization formulas
Correct answer: Proverbs that often contradict each other
Simon argued in 'The Proverbs of Administration' (1946) that classical principles like span of control come in contradictory pairs and lack scientific validity.
MPA Introduction 3
Which organizational principle, advocated by Henri Fayol, states that each employee should receive orders from only one superior?