MAKING SENSE OF A PRACTICE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: MANAGERIAL PROXEMIA

Abstract

Communication with subordinates as one of the most important elements of the activity of administration is a topic which has to be put emphasis from the perspective of the administrators who want to keep the administrative performance and activity high and to show it as such. The administrator may encounter major administrative issues if he does not establish and sustain a communication between himself and his subordinates, which operates smoothly. 

Particularly from the perspective of the public institutions, there are many different factors such as the administration mentality, character and experience being adopted by the administrator; the service being provided at the institution, the quality and number of the subordinates, the corporate culture, the informal groups and the political impacts, which are shaping the behaviors of the administrators regarding communication. The said factors are shaping the task-based relationship with  the part of the subordinates in terms of other administrative practices let alone communication as specific to an individual and are positioning his subordinates in different conceptual “administrative distances” as based on his own will or as a necessity of the case after which the administrator can be safe personally, can sustain administration with ease and can take action “as depending on the case and as specific to an individual.”

This study which was prepared with the purpose of concept development tries to reveal the quality and casuality of the given administrative distances. For this purpose, the concept of “administrative proxemics” was developed as an effort to eliminate the conceptual gap relating to the topic in the field literature. It is expected that this concept, which was developed by being inspired from the Proxemics Field Theory, which asserts that there is a relationship between the state of physical intimacy and the character of communication, will mediate the interpretation of the Leader-Member Interaction Theory from another perspective.