Pub Ad Optional Daily Brief – 26 – August – 2026

Keyword of the Day | Mission Drift | Phillip Selznick

Mission drift occurs when an organisation gradually moves away from its original objectives and begins pursuing activities that were not part of its core purpose.

for e.g. A public sector organisation established for a developmental or social objective may gradually become focused predominantly on financial targets, organisational survival or procedural compliance, weakening its original public-service purpose.

Thinker of the Day | Edward Deming | MIS

• thinker for Techniques of Administrative Improvement particularly for Total Quality Management (TQM) continuous improvement, performance management and organisational change.

Work: Out of the Crisis

Views

• Deming rejected the idea that improvement is a one-time administrative reform. Organisations should continuously measure → learn → improve. – Plan → Do → Check → Act. This creates a continuous cycle of administrative improvement rather than isolated reforms.

• Deming argued that poor performance is often caused by deficiencies in organisational systems not simply by individual employees. “85% of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process.” This shifts administration from blame-oriented management → system-oriented improvement.

• Deming emphasised that quality should be built into the process rather than relying solely on inspection.

• Administrative decisions should be based on evidence, measurement and statistics.

Deming shifts administrative improvement from episodic reform to continuous evidence-based improvement of organisational systems and processes.

Pub Ad PYQ Vault | Day 33 | PYQ (2021)

The behavioural approach to the study of public administration has been criticised for its limitations. Discuss the significance and limitations of the behavioural approach.