Humanities & Social Sciences 12 (2016 9) 2873-2885 ~ ~ ~ УДК 334.72 Public and Private Organizations: How Different or Similar are They Anisur Rahman Khan and Shahriar Khandaker* East West University Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh Received 18.05.2016, received in revised form 24.07.2016, accepted 20.08.2016 In spite of a growing body of research attempting to draw distinctions between public and private organizations over the years, it remains a disputable issue yet to be settled by organizational theorists and scholars alike. <...> No conclusive understanding regarding the similarities and differences has been availed, and the scholarly discussions between these two types of organizations predominantly ended up finding out differences rather than similarities. <...> Given the background, this paper attempts to ascertain the similarities and differences between public and private organizations based on the application and relevance of some important organizational concepts drawing on literature review as well as researchers’ application of reflexivity in investigating the issues. <...> The concepts that have been used and analyzed include goals, goods and services, resource ownership, structure, culture, leadership and managership, decision making. <...> This analysis indicates that despite manifestation of diverse variations between public and private organizations, in some cases/aspects they do share common attributes. <...> For example, it is assumed that bureaucracy is the most dominant feature in public organizations, but such model is also being followed by many big private organizations. <...> On the other hand, private managerial practices and structural components are also being adopted by public organizations. <...> Further empirical research or case study could be conducted/developed using the concepts used in this analysis concerning the similarities and differences between these two types of organizations in order to grapple a concrete understanding about organization as a whole. <...> At the same time, it is also suggested to minimize the gaps between public and private organizations by sharing the best practices of each other for greater developmental requirements. <...> Introduction As one of the most dominant institutions of modern society, organization exerts a tremendous influence on our lives. <...> We obtain a large measure of our cultural, social and material satisfactions © Siberian Federal University. <...> Over the years, increasing attention has been paid to searching for the similarities and differences between public and private organizations, and there is <...>