Reading the work and life Chester Barnard can enable public administrators to learn certain crucial aspects for organizational management. Public administrators can determine the significance of cooperative activities in an organization. Barnard sees organizations as bodies where participants cooperate to achieve a common goal. In his life, Barnard belief about human nature indicates that humans are biologically and physically limited, purposeful, active, and social and have a limited level of free will. This means that humans have limited capacities. As a result, public administrators should ensure that they foster the culture of teamwork and cooperation to achieve the goals of an organization. Working in collaboration with one another in an organizational setting has various advantages that public administrators should exploit for better management and achievement of the mission and objectives of an organization. When cooperation is fostered in an organization, the firm will effectively and efficiently function to satisfy the needs of consumers. According to Barnard, one of the ways of promoting cooperation is through the adoption of an incentive system. Every organization would love to have a workforce that is focused on improving its productivity and looking towards achieving the best. Through incentives, public administrators can ensure that employees work in collaboration with one another. Incentives can include material, personal, non-material opportunities, and physical working conditions. Rewarding employees often brings a form of motivation to achieve the best to get rewards such as recognition, promotion, bonuses, etc.

Generally, from the reading, it is evident that Barnard contributes to the general knowledge of organizational management that public administrators can draw from to manage better their organization to achieve the set goals and objectives. Public administrators can employ the aspects of cooperation described by Barnard to bring the best out of employees for maximum production.

References

Fry, Brian R. & Jos C.N.Raadschelders. 2014. Mastering Public Administration: From Max Weber to Dwight Waldo (3rd edition). Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.