The administrative difficulties of a small specialised department of government

Abstract

In the running of small departments there are some advantages when compared to ve1y large departments. A department with a small staff complement can be controlled more easily by having regular meetings and the Head of Depa1iment himself is able to know his employees better. In small departments the communication flow is more open to info1mal channels helping employees to be assigned to duties according to their aptitude, usually leading to faster results. Knowledge of sections and of the whole department is easier in small departments when compared to the complexity of large departments. On the other hand there is a drawback that being a small department, the staff complement is also small, and when there is a decrease in staff due to sick/vacation leave, resignations or retirements, the percentage decrease is greater and has a proportionately greater effect on small departments. A specialised department particularly the Libraries and Archives Department is attractive only to a limited category of people and so creates difficulty in recruiting and keeping its employees. [...]