TUTORIAL LETTER 3
MODEL ANSWERS FOR ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
Year 2020
Semester First semester
Subject DISASTER RISK REDUCTION V
Subject code DRR500
1. DETAILS OF LECTURER / FACILITATOR OF LEARNING
Lecturer/Facilitator of Learning Mr K Matebane
Consultation times 17:00-19:00
Telephone 0764733377
E-mail kmatebane@sbs.ac.za
2. EXAMINATION INFORMATION
Please refer to your examination information for the specific semester.
3. MODEL ANSWERS FOR ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
Question 1 [45]
1.1 Page 4 and 5 of the article [25]
The politics/administration dichotomy approach✓
Protagonists of this approach hold the idea that politics and public management✓
and governance should be separated. ✓
Due to the close interrelationship between the making and the execution of policy, the
opinion currently is that politics and public management cannot be separated and that we
are faced with a politics/administration dichotomy. ✓
Public managers cannot function in a vacuum but have to take the functions and roles of
their political heads into account. ✓
The conventional approach ✓
According to this narrow approach (also called the functional approach✓
), public management and governance is functionally restricted to clerical or ✓
administrative activities✓and refers to activities such as filing, office routine, invoicing, and
Page 1 of 6
, DRR500
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION V
2020 FIRST SEMESTER - TUTORIAL LETTER 3 (MODEL ANSWERS FOR ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS)
general correspondence.✓
The generic administrative approach ✓
This approach view the so-called generic (from the French word “genre”, meaning ‘family’,
‘class’ or ‘group’) ✓ administrative process found in one public institution should also
occur in all other institutions. ✓ This generic administrative process consists of the six
generic functions, namely: policy-making; ✓personnel administration; financing;
organising; methods and procedures; and control. ✓
The business management approach ✓
A tendency developed that if the efficiency of the public sector could be reduced to
business principles, the principles of business management could be applied to the public
sector in order to make the civil service equally efficient. ✓ Some exponents of Public
Management do not share this view, as they are convinced that public management and
governance is more comprehensive, dynamic and efficient than business management.
✓They also believe that the business philosophies of market exploitation do not belong in
the civil service, where the provision of service is of the utmost importance. ✓What may
well be used, are business techniques, that is, the application of instrumental aspects
such as cost/utility analysis, efficiency analysis, cost-effectiveness and productivity
analyses. ✓
The comprehensive approach✓
Proponents of this approach see public management and governance as the total
performance of functions by any civil servant. ✓ In its broadest sense, public management
✓and governance can be defined as the activities of groups co-operating to accomplish
common goals✓. A comprehensive approach therefore sees all work performed by the
civil servant as part of public management and governance. ✓
1.2 Page 6 and 7 of the article [10]
Elements Examples
Organisation✓ such as state departments, ministries,
agencies, public enterprises and local
government✓
Public resources✓ such as laws, money and employees✓
Programmes✓ such as health care, education and
defence✓
Persuasion✓ covers information, statistics, research and
communications✓
Rules✓ include the making of rules – promulgation,
enforcing rules – penalties, and
exemplifying compliance with rules✓
1.3 Page 5 of the article [10]
The collection of functions referring to the management functions of civil servants. These
functions include policy-making and implementation✓, planning, financial management,
Page 2 of 6
