Public Administration Optional · Paper I · Administrative Theory

Administrative Thought Notes · PYQs

Free notes and every UPSC previous year question for Administrative Thought, Unit 02 of Paper I: the official syllabus, 8 topic-wise notes in syllabus order, and all 112 questions from 1987 to 2026 grouped by sub-topic.

8

Free notes

112

Questions listed

44

Asked since 2013

1987–2026

Years covered

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Syllabus Free notes Previous year questions All Public Administration units

Official UPSC syllabus

Administrative Thought: syllabus

The syllabus text as UPSC notifies it for Paper I of Public Administration Optional. Every note and question on this page maps to it.

Scientific Management and Scientific Management movement; Classical Theory; Weber’s bureaucratic model – its critique and post-Weberian Developments; Dynamic Administration (Mary Parker Follett); Human Relations School (Elton Mayo and others); Functions of the Executive (C.I. Barnard); Simon’s decision-making theory; Participative Management (R. Likert, C. Argyris, D. McGregor).

Free practice

Previous year questions: Administrative Thought

All 112 questions UPSC has set from this unit between 1987 and 2026, grouped by syllabus sub-topic and sorted newest first. Questions from 2013 onwards are shown; earlier ones open on a tap.

How often UPSC asks each sub-topic

Sub-topicQuestionsSince 2013Last asked
Scientific Management1362026
Classical Theory1542025
Dwight Waldo222018
Weber’s bureaucratic model2072026
Karl Marx112014
Mary Parker Follett952025
Human Relations School1132022
C. I. Barnard1152023
Systems Approach102011
Simon’s decision-making theory1742021
Behavioural Approach112021
Likert, Argyris, McGregor962026
Miscellaneous201997

Scientific Management

13 questions · 6 since 2013 · last asked 2026
Read the notes: Scientific Management and the Scientific Management Movement

Asked since 2013 · 6

  • 2026The ideas of Frederick Taylor remain highly relevant in today’s business world, in both the public and private sectors, including the ‘gig economy’. Comment.
  • 2024Scientific Management and Human Relations theory are two distinct approaches for improving efficiency and production. Explain.
  • 2021Fayol and Taylor had different management perspectives, while having similar goal of organizational efficiency. Comment.
  • 2020Principles of analysis and principles of action were not differentiated in Taylor’s scientific management. Comment
  • 2016“Taylorism is considered very controversial despite its popularity.” (Stephen P. Waring) Comment.
  • 2014“Taylor’s ideas need modification in the context of post-industrial economies in contemporary era.” Justify with reasons.
Show 7 earlier questions (before 2013)

1987–2012 · 7 questions

  • 2012In what respects is Taylor’s ‘Scientific Management’ or classical motivational theory different from the classical organizational theory expounded by Gulick, Urwick etc?
  • 2012What light does Antonio Gramsci’s critique of Taylorism throw on its socio-psychological underpinnings?
  • 2009“Taylor’s contribution was not a set of general principles for organising work efficiency, but a set of operating procedures that could be employed in each concrete situation to secure their application.”
  • 2007“Taylor’s scientific management ignored social and psychological factors.” Comment.
  • 1994“Taylor’s Scientific Management already offered a ‘humanistic’ theory of motivation, with its democratic and participatory emphases, that was hardly improved on by Elton Mayo and others.” Comment.
  • 1992‘Taylor’s Scientific Management had a major influence on the growing reform and economy movements in Public Administration.’ Comment.
  • 1987‘Scientific Management is a primitive tool for industrial polyarchies.’ (Dahl). Explain.

Classical Theory

15 questions · 4 since 2013 · last asked 2025
Read the notes: Classical Theory of Administration

Asked since 2013 · 4

  • 2025Is Herbert Simon justified in criticizing some principles of administration as proverbs? Analyse.
  • 2022Classical Organisation Theory formed the bedrock for the modern organisation theories. Analyse.
  • 2013“The design of the physical structure, the anatomy of the organization came first, and was indeed the principal consideration.” “An organisation is a system of inter-related social behaviours of participants,” Analyse these statements and evaluate the contributions of the respective approaches to administration theory.
  • 2013Structural theory is, by and large, grounded in classical principles of efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Explain.
Show 11 earlier questions (before 2013)

1987–2010 · 11 questions

  • 2010Explain the ‘Peter Principle’ in respect of promotion policy in a hierarchical organisation.
  • 2006Discuss the main approaches to increase the efficiency of government and public administration.
  • 2006Critically examine the Classical Science of Administration with special reference to its criticism by Dwight Waldo and Robert Dahl.
  • 2005“The failure of classical science of administration lies in its capacity to confront theory with evidence.” Discuss.
  • 1996In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Comment.
  • 1996Although the theory of V.A. Graicunas is admittedly crude, it is useful as reference against which variations between organisations as well as within organisation can be examined. Comment.
  • 1990Compare the relative merits of the classical theory of organisation and the systems approach.
  • 1989Elucidate whether increasing organizational size gives rise to dialectical forces having opposite organization effects.
  • 1988“Managing means looking ahead, which makes the process of prevoyance a central business activity.” (Henry Fayol). Comment.
  • 1987Describe the institutional and organisational consequences of delegation of authority.
  • 1987‘The law of Graicunas about the span of relationships in an organisation states a partial truth; Comment.

Dwight Waldo

2 questions · 2 since 2013 · last asked 2018
Read the notes: Classical Theory of Administration

Asked since 2013 · 2

  • 2018Dwight Waldo in his book, The Administrative State emphatically mentions that the roots of administrative theory lie in political theory. Critically examine Waldo’s contention.
  • 2015Waldo’s ‘The Administrative State’ provides a fundamental challenge to some of the orthodox premises. Explain.

Weber’s bureaucratic model

20 questions · 7 since 2013 · last asked 2026
Read the notes: Weber’s Bureaucratic Model

Asked since 2013 · 7

  • 2026Bureaucratic features have remained constant in organisations despite the development of different forms under NPM and Public Governance approaches. Give reasons for the persistence of these bureaucratic features.
  • 2025Bureaucracy constitutes the imaginary state and is the spiritualism of the State. Explain.
  • 2022Weber’s construct of bureaucracy has served a great heuristic purpose in furthering research in the field of Comparative Public Administration. Do you agree with the statement ? Give reasons.
  • 2021Neo-Weberian State involves changing the model of operation of administrative structures into a model focussed on meeting citizens’ needs. Discuss.
  • 2019“Bureau pathology denigrates competence in organizations.” Explain.
  • 2018“The concepts of rationality and efficiency are intertwined in the bureaucratic analysis of Max Weber.” Comment.
  • 2015“Weberian model of bureaucracy lacks emotional validity when applied to modern democratic administration.” Comment.
Show 13 earlier questions (before 2013)

1988–2012 · 13 questions

  • 2012‘In the canonization of this abstract idea of ‘staatsraison’ are inseparably woven the sure instincts of the bureaucracy for the conditions which preserve its own power in the State’ (Weber). Explain.
  • 2009Consider the statements below: “Technically, the bureaucracy represents the purest type of legal-rational authority.”; “Bureaucracy does not represent the only type of legal authority.” Identify the theoretical context and analyse the above statements.
  • 2004Weber’s ideas of impersonal detachment and esprit de corps are incompatible. Explain.
  • 2004“Bureaucracy can exist only where the whole service of the state is removed from the common political of the people, its chiefs as well as rank and file. Its motives, its objectives, its policy, its standards must be bureaucratic.” – Discuss.
  • 2003“Weberian model of bureaucracy lacks empirical validity when applied to modern democratic administration.” Examine.
  • 2001Critically examine the models of Max Weber and Chester I Barnard with reference to ‘bureaucratic authority’.
  • 1999“It is not weak but strong bureaucracy that creates concern in democracy.” Comment.
  • 1997“Once fully established, bureaucracy is among those social structures which are the hardest to destroy.” Comment.
  • 1996Bureaucracy is “a system of government the control of which is so completely in the hands of officials that their power jeopardizes the liberties of ordinary citizens.” Comment.
  • 1993“The transition to a study of the negatives aspects of bureaucracy is afforded by the application of Veblen’s concept of trained incapacity.” Examine.
  • 1992‘Bureaucracy thrives under the cloak of ministerial responsibility in a parliamentary democracy; Comment.
  • 1989For charisma to be transformed into a permanent routine structure, it is necessary that its anti-economic character should be altered. (Weber). Comment.
  • 1988“Hierarchy of authority and the system of rules ensure depersonalization and efficiency.” (Max Weber). Comment.

Karl Marx

1 question · 1 since 2013 · last asked 2014
Read the notes: Weber’s Bureaucratic Model

Asked since 2013 · 1

  • 2014“Karl Marx’s interpretation of bureaucracy was rooted in the history of the nature of the State”. Evaluate.

Mary Parker Follett

9 questions · 5 since 2013 · last asked 2025
Read the notes: Dynamic Administration of Mary Parker Follett

Asked since 2013 · 5

  • 2025Mary Parker Follett pioneered the evolution of socio-psychological approach to the study of organizations. Explain.
  • 2023Follett firmly advocated for cultivating interdependence and collaboration among individuals as the key to resolving conflicts and establishing more harmonious and all encompassing social structures. Discuss.
  • 2019Mary Parker Follett traced the foundational value of business and enterprise on her way to understand the organism of governmental machinery. Comment.
  • 2017“Conflict is the appearance of differences— differences of opinions and of interests”. (Mary Parker Follett). Comment
  • 2015“Follett’s work was not directed towards the resolution of the conflict of ideas, but towards the resolution of structural conflicts between workers and capitalists.” In the light of the statement critically evaluate Follett’s idea of dynamic administration.
Show 4 earlier questions (before 2013)

2005–2011 · 4 questions

  • 2011Critically examine conflict resolution according to M.P. Follett. Explain how McGregor took forward her ideas to the context of complex organizations.
  • 2008“Mary Parker Follett was for ahead of her times.” Discuss.
  • 2006“The main problem with Mary Parker Follett’s work is that her idealism is showing.” Explain.
  • 2005In Follett’s view, “authority belongs to the job and stays with the job.” Explain.

Human Relations School

11 questions · 3 since 2013 · last asked 2022
Read the notes: Human Relations School

Asked since 2013 · 3

  • 2022Human relationists postulate that ‘what is important to a worker and what influences his/her productivity level may not be the organisational chart but his or her associations with other workers’. Is it more relevant today?
  • 2020“Productivity is not the result of working conditions but the result of emotional response of workers to work performed.” Are Elton Mayo’s findings relevant in contemporary organizations?
  • 2017“What is distinctive about the Classical and Human Relations Schools of administration is their complementarity to each other “. Analyse
Show 8 earlier questions (before 2013)

1988–2006 · 8 questions

  • 2006To what extent has the human relations movement contributed to the knowledge and practice within the field of personnel administration?
  • 2002Explain the contribution of George Elton Mayo to the development of the Human Relations School. How did behavioural scientists modify his basic findings?
  • 1997Examine the basic postulates of the Human Relations Theory and show how far it differs from the classical theory of organizations.
  • 1993“The Hawthorne researches demonstrate the need to analyse organisations as living social structures.” Comment.
  • 1992Evaluate the contributions of George Elton Mayo to Administrative organization. Do you consider his contributions as great innovations of modem times?
  • 1990‘Mayo was a behavioural scientist long before the term became popular.’ Comment.
  • 1989“From Taylorism to Mayoism the organisation theory has travelled a long road in quest of Organisational Effectiveness.” Comment.
  • 1988“Many problems of Worker-Management co-operation were the results of the emotionally based attitudes of the workers rather than objective difficulties in the situation.” (Elton Mayo). Comment.

C. I. Barnard

11 questions · 5 since 2013 · last asked 2023
Read the notes: Functions of the Executive

Asked since 2013 · 5

  • 2023Efficiency, in the specialized sense, is an organization’s capacity to offer effective inducements in sufficient quantity to maintain the equilibrium of the system. Analyze.
  • 2022Barnard posits the zone of indifference as the human condition that animates authority relationships and cooperation in modern organisations. Examine.
  • 2019“Chester Barnard in ‘The Functions of the Executive’ injected ‘the social’ in the study of organization. Explain in this context how the executive is expected to play a much greater role than a manager.”
  • 2017“Executive positions imply a complex morality and require a high capacity of responsibility”– (Chester Barnard). Comment.
  • 2015“Contemporary Organisational theory seems further afield of Chester Barnard’s Functions of the Executive than of organisational ecology.” Examine the statement in the light of ecological elements in Barnard’s thought.
Show 6 earlier questions (before 2013)

1996–2009 · 6 questions

  • 2009“The Barnard – Simon Theory of Organisation is essentially a theory of motivation. “Comment.
  • 2005“Organisation is a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons. “Comment.
  • 2001‘The inculcation of belief in the real existence of a common purpose is an essential executive function; Comment.
  • 2000….. “a more thorough consideration leads to the understanding that communication, authority, specialisation and purpose are all aspects compre-hended in coordination.”- (Chester I. Barnard) Comment.
  • 1998Why is it that the behavioural approach to the study of organisations is a continuous phenomenon? Discuss Chester Barnard’s contributions to this approach.
  • 1996Show how Barnard while analysing the multiplicity of satisfactions, clearly identifies four specific inducements.

Systems Approach

1 question · 0 since 2013 · last asked 2011
Read the notes: Functions of the Executive

2011 · 1 question

  • 2011The Systems Approach is relevant even today for organisational analysis. Discuss how Chester Barnard and David Easton adopted this approach in their respective areas of study.

Simon’s decision-making theory

17 questions · 4 since 2013 · last asked 2021
Read the notes: Simon’s Decision-Making Theory

Asked since 2013 · 4

  • 2021Two-dimensional taxonomy was used by Herbert Simon to describe the degree to which decisions are programmed or non-programmed.” Explain.
  • 2020Administrative man bridges the psychological man and the rational man. Explain.
  • 2018“Herbert Simon’s book Administrative Behavior presents a synthesis of the classical and behavioural approaches to the study of Public Administration.” Explain.
  • 2013“Decisions are not made by ‘organizations’, but by ‘human beings’ behaving as members of organizations.” How do Bernard and Simon conceptualize the relation between the decisions of the individual employee and the organizational authority?
Show 13 earlier questions (before 2013)

1987–2012 · 13 questions

  • 2012‘Three features characterize Simon’s original view of bounded rationality: search for alternatives, satisficing, and aspiration adaptation.’ Elucidate.
  • 2010“Simon’s identifying decision-making as the core field of public administration appears logically acceptable but his positivist underpinning is problematic.” Critically examine the statement.
  • 2006“Simon’s work has had major implications for the study of public administration and the practice of public administration professionalism.” Comment.
  • 2001The ‘decision-making scheme’ and ‘satisfying model’ of Herbert A Simon is the major component of administrative theory. Comment.
  • 2000“Administrative efficiency is enhanced by keeping at a minimum the number of organizational levels through which a matter must pass before it is acted upon.” –(Herbert A. Simon) Comment.
  • 1999“The basic question in the relationship between political and permanent executives is the separation of facts and values at the operational level.” Comment.
  • 1995“The study of decision-making is proceeding in so many directions that we can lose sight of the basic administrative processes that Barnard and Simon were trying to describe and that so many men have been trying to improve.” Elucidate.
  • 1994“As March and Simon point out, there seems to exist a ‘Gresham’s Law’ of decision-making.” Explain.
  • 1993“Though somewhat unwittingly, Herbert Simon and James March have provided, the muscle and the flesh to the Weberian (bureaucratic) skeleton. “Comment.
  • 1992‘Simon explains that decision-making basically involves choice between alternative plans of action and choice in turn, involves facts and values.’ Comment.
  • 1989Argue for and against the Simonian perspective that the “decisional science envelopes decisional structure, decisions and their feedback not in an integrated manner but anything other than that.”
  • 1988Discuss the Simonian concept of ‘satisfying’ as a bridge between rational and non-rational perspectives on organizations.
  • 1987‘The first stage (in administrative decision-making) is what I call “Intelligence”, the second represents “Designin” and the last stage is “Choice”. Critically examine the Simonian Model of Rational Decision-Making in administration.

Behavioural Approach

1 question · 1 since 2013 · last asked 2021
Read the notes: Simon’s Decision-Making Theory

Asked since 2013 · 1

  • 2021Behavioural approach has been questioned on the basis of its utility in the analysis of administrative problems. Discuss the weaknesses of the approach and the shifts made therein.

Likert, Argyris, McGregor

9 questions · 6 since 2013 · last asked 2026
Read the notes: Participative Management

Asked since 2013 · 6

  • 2026Douglas McGregor’s ‘Professional Manager’ is a rational, emotive individual whose primary role is to work through the differences and build a managerial team. Explain how his idea of the ‘Professional Manager’ is distinct from Theory ‘Y’.
  • 2022Every human organisation shall start from System-I and ultimately end up with System-IV. Comment on Likert’s statement.
  • 2017The Participative Management School of Argyris and Likert advocates democracy within the administrative system. Will this approach be equally useful to developing countries with evolving democracies?
  • 2016“Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation applied by managers in an organization.” Examine.
  • 2014According to McGregor, “true professional help is not in playing God with the client, but in placing professional knowledge and skills at the client’s disposal.” In the light of above, justify how theory-y is indicative and not prescriptive.
  • 2013The theory of ‘organizational incompetence has two separate and distinct faces. Examine Chris Argyris’ views on this.
Show 3 earlier questions (before 2013)

2007–2010 · 3 questions

  • 2010“In McGregor’s view, the managerial cosmology meaningfully addresses the understanding of manager and his role perceptions.” Explain.
  • 2010“The successful management leaders are found in Likert’s ‘System-4’ approach to organisational leadership.” Examine.
  • 2007Analyse McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. Do you agree with the view that with every passing year, McGregor’s message has become more relevant and more important? Substantiate your answer.

Miscellaneous

2 questions · 0 since 2013 · last asked 1997

1991–1997 · 2 questions

  • 1997“That is, to be successful administrator one must have a catholic curiosity.” Comment.
  • 1991‘The Chief Executive is a trouble shooter, a supervisor, and a promoter of the future programme; Comment.

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