Administration

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The word "administration" is from the Middle English administracioun, deriving from the French administration, which is itself derived from the Latin administratio: a compounding of ad ("to") and ministratio ("to give service").

In modern usage, the word has particular meanings in particular contexts, but all retain this sense of service provision.

Business

In business, administration consists of the performance or management of transactions and other matters, and the making and implementing of major decisions. Administrator can serve as the title of the General Manager or Company Secretary who reports to a corporate board of directors. This use is archaic.

Administration can be defined as the universal process of efficiently organizing people and resources so to direct activities toward common goals and objectives. Administration is both an art and a science (if an inexact one), and arguably a craft, as administrators are judged ultimately by their performance. Administration must incorporate both leadership and vision.

Management is viewed as a subset of administration, specifically associated with the technical and mundane elements within an organization's operation. It stands distinct from executive or strategic work.

Administration reflects management models. Such models become popular, peak in influence, and are then superseded by other emerging models. Recently influential management models have included Management by objectives (MBO) and Total Quality Management (TQM). Each model continues to have its proponents.

In some organizational analyses, administration can refer to the bureaucratic or operational performance of mundane office tasks, usually internally oriented.

Administrative functions

Administrators, broadly speaking, engage in a common set of functions to meet the organization's goals. The idea of a set of, 4) directing, and 5) controlling

• Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. It bridges the gap from where the organization is to where it wants to be. The planning function involves establishing goals and arranging them in logical order. Administrators engage in both short-range and long-range planning.

Planning has both symbolic and functional value. The resulting plan provides standing information to members/employees of the organization, and it convinces stake holders to buy into the organization's goals.

• Organizing involves identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments or divisions, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to achieve coordinated effort among all the elements in the organization. Organizing must take into account delegation of authority and responsibility and span of control within supervisory units.

• Staffing means filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It involves determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting and screening people to fill the positions.

• Directing is leading people (see Leadership) in a manner that achieves the goals of the organization. This involves proper allocation of resources and providing an effective support system. Directing requires exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate people. One of the crucial issues in directing is to find the correct balance between emphasis on staff needs and emphasis on production.

• Controlling is the function that evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential or actual deviations from the organization's plan. This function's purpose is to ensure high-quality performance and satisfactory results while maintaining an orderly and problem-free environment. Controlling includes information management, measurment of performance, and institution of corrective actions.

Budgeting, excepted from the above list, incorporates most of the administrative functions, beginning with the implementation of a budget plan through the application of budget controls.

Government

Main articles: Public administration and Executive (government)

In some contexts, including normal usage in the United States, the term administration also refers to the executive branch under a specific president (or sometimes governor, mayor, or other local executive), for example: the "Bush administration". (Most other English-speaking countries use the analogous term government, as in the "Blair government".) It can also mean an executive branch agency headed by an administrator: these agencies tend to have a regulatory function as well as an administrative function. On occasion, people in the U.S. will use the term to refer to the time a given person was president, e.g. "they've been married since the Carter administration."

Religious

Another sense involves the administration (giving or tendering) of the sacraments, justice, oaths, medicines (see route of administration), etc. See Wiktionary:Administration.

Computing

Main article: System administration

Legal use in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom administration can refer to the laws for

• the division or disposal of the estate of a deceased person. See below. Except in Scotland where the term is not used.
• a legally appointed interim Chief Executive (the "Administrator") to take compulsory control of the affairs of a company in difficulties. This is described below.

Administration of an estate (on death)

For an explanation of administration (as to both testate and intestate estates) in the United States, see probate.

Where a person dies leaving a will appointing an executor, and that executor validly disposes of the property of the deceased within England and Wales, then the estate will go to probate. However, if no will is left, or the will is invalid or incomplete in some way, then administrators must be appointed. They perform a similar role to the executor of a will but, where there are no instructions in a will, the administrators must distribute the estate of the deceased according to the rules laid down by statute and the common law.

Certain property falls outside the estate for administration purposes, the most common example probably being houses jointly owned that pass by survivorship on the first death of a couple into the sole name of the survivor. Other examples include discretionary death benefits from pension funds, accounts with certain financial institutions subject to a nomination and the proceeds of life insurance policies which have been written into trust. Trust property will also frequently fall outside of the estate but this will depend on the terms of the trust.

Since the Land Transfer Act of 1897, the administrator acts as the personal representative of the deceased in relation to land and other property. Consequently, when the estate under administration consists wholly or mainly of land, the court will grant administration to the heir to the exclusion of the next of kin. In the absence of any heir or next of kin, the Crown has the right to property (other than land) as bona vacantia, and to the land by virtue of the historic land rights of the Crown (and the Duchy of Cornwall and Duchy of Lancashire in their respective areas). If a creditor claims and obtains a Grant of Administration, the court compels him or her to enter into a bond with two sureties that he or she will not prefer his or her own debt to those of other creditors.

Letter of administration: Upon the death of a person intestate, or leaving a will without appointing executors, or when the executors appointed by the will cannot or will not act, the Probate Division of the High Court of Justice or the local District Probate Registry will appoint an administrator who performs similar duties to an executor. The court does this by granting letters of administration to the person so entitled. Grants of administration may be either general or limited. A general grant occurs where the deceased has died intestate. The order in which the court will make general grants of letters follows the sequence:

1. The husband, or widow, as the case may be;
2. the next of kin;
3. the crown;
4. a creditor;
5. a stranger.

Where, under the rules for distribution of estates without a will (the Intestacy Rules), a child under 18 would inherit or a life interest would arise, then the Court or District Probate Registry would normally appoint a minimum of two administrators. On some estates, even under an intestacy, it is not clear who are the next-of-kin, and probate research may be required to find the entitled beneficiaries.

The more important cases of grants of special letters of administration include the following:

Administration cum testamento annexo, where the deceased has left a will but has appointed no executor to it, or the executor appointed has died or refuses to act. In this case the court will make the grant to the person, usually the residuary legatee, with the largest beneficial interest in the estate.

Administration de bonis non administratis occurs in two cases:

1. Where the executor dies intestate after probate without having completely administered the estate
2. Where an administrator dies.

In the first case the principle of administration cum testamento is followed, in the second that of general grants in the selection of the person to whom letters are granted.

• Administration durante minore aetate, when the executor or the person entitled to the general grant is under age.

• Administration durante absentia, when the executor or administrator is out of the jurisdiction for more than a year.

• Administration pendente lite, where there is a dispute as to the person entitled to probate or a general grant of letters the court appoints an administrator till the question has been decided.

Administration of an insolvent business

Main article: Administration order

Under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdiction, there are provisions which allow a company which is in financial difficulty to apply to the court for an Administration order. This is known colloquially as "going into administration". On the making of an administration order, the company receives protection from its creditors (including secured creditors) to try and preserve the company as a going concern and to avoid liquidation. The making of an administration order is very similar in effect to going into Chapter 11 in the U.S.A.

Going into administration is separate and distinct from going into administrative receivership which is a credit driven process whereby an administrative receiver is appointed over all of the assets and undertaking of the failing business by the holder of a floating charge. Although there are notional similarities between administration and administrative receivership (an outsider takes over control and management of the company from the board of directors), the intent and purpose of each type of insolveny regime are completely different.

See also

• Academic administration
• Public administration
• System administration
• English law
• Central Administration

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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