Administration (business)

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 business, administration consists of the performance or management of business operations and thus the making or implementing of major decisions. Administration can be defined as the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently so as to direct activities toward common goals and objectives.

Administrator can serve as the title of the General Manager or Company Secretary who reports to a corporate board of directors. This title is archaic but in many enterprises this function, and its associated Finance, Personnel and MIS services, is what is intended when the term "the Administration" is used.

In some organizational analyses, 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.

In other organizational analyses, administration can refer to the bureaucratic or operational performance of mundane office tasks, usually internally oriented and usually reactive rather than proactive.

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