scholarly journals Combining Epistemology & Scope in Public Organization and Administration Study: Toward Defining a Methodological Paradigm

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (0) ◽  
pp. 107-126
Author(s):  
Mee-Sung Ha

This article attempts to define a methodological paradigm for public administration study by combining epistemology in social sciences and the scope of public administration. The paper first examines the positivist social science approach, which has been a central methodology in the effort to make the study of P.A scientific and objective. It then probes and criticizes the limitation of the positive science manifested in the study of P.A and suggests ways to construct a synthesized mode of inquiry incorporating useful epistemologies beyond positivism into P.A study. While evaluating the positivist approach, examining additional research modes, and suggesting a broader scope of P.A research, this paper consistently joins the paradigmatic dimensions and contexts of P.A to the modes of research. Here, it is suggested that an epistemology should fit the substantive core of a field as it tends to shape or define conceptually the essence and scope of the field. In this article, the scope of P.A is defined by four dimensions: (1) selves and values dimension, (2) political process dimension, (3) programs and administrative/organizational systems dimension, and (4) operations dimension. It appeared that, while the positivist approach tends to fit better the third and fourth dimensions, the interpretive approach is more appropriate for the first and second dimensions. On the other hand, the critical approach may deal with relations between the first dimension and the other dimensions more effectively.

Author(s):  
Anna Valeriivna Terentieva

The author has analyzed the problem aspects of public administration of educational change in modern Ukraine. Special frameworks of public administration of educational change in an information society have been determined. The author has analyzed the categories of the implementation process of educational change. The author has explored the key features of external environment of such activity, formed by regulatory acts for settling relations in a particular area. The author has highlighted a set of contradictions of public management of educational change and recommendations for state agencies regarding the organization of an effective process of implementation of educational change as a social and political process with an emphasis on peculiar properties of the educational change. It is determined that the updated legal and regulatory framework of the educational sector, at the same time, extends the scope of professional freedom of teaching and, hence, sets high requirements for the professionalism of teachers. The change in the focus of educational activity by innovations is declared in terms of practice, interactivity and functionality. The teacher will now create educational and training programs tailored to the needs of students and local communities, will create an open learning environment, taking into account the potential of the school and involving the partners in the educational process. However, it has been proved that the methods of active and problem-searching approach defined in the updated normative provision of education in Ukraine require appropriate conditions for the educational process. An active student becomes an active citizen; school, school environment and class become a micro-society. Like the society itself, the school environment is not devoid of conflicts or problem situations. It is in these conditions that students have the opportunity to learn to consciously identify their own interests and gain experience in civic activity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumari Kumkum ◽  
R. N. Singh ◽  
Yogershi Rajpoot

There may be so many negative consequences of stress for human beings and dissatisfaction among employees happens to be one of the major problems. It indicates negative feelings that individuals have regarding their jobs or its facets. On the other hand, social support is assumed to be mitigating the relationship between negative aspects of the work environment and job satisfaction. Job stress is said to be associated with job dissatisfaction as well as experience of strain. In view of the above, this study examined the role of job stress and social support in job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 30 school teachers from different school of Varanasi (U.P.). The job stress, job satisfaction and social support scales were administered on the participants. The responses of the participants were converted into scores for statistical analyses. The scores of participants on the scales were correlated. The findings revealed that job stress led to increased job satisfaction. It is against the proposed hypothesis and it appears as if the social support received by the participants is a factor behind it. Two of the four dimensions of social support were found to exert positive impact on job satisfaction but the other two dimensions were not found to be correlated with it. The findings are thoroughly discussed and interpreted.


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Pamela A Gibson

To have a dis/ability opens the possibilities for seeing (understanding) something different because of difference in the disabled’s lens or worldview. Public administration is awash in self-doubt, discomfort and confusion. As it struggles with setting, moving and removing academic boundaries of the discipline, public administration reveals its own dyslexia. The disabling of public administration offers a view from the balcony (or orchestra pit) granting a greater appreciation of ‘the other’ in the public administration student, public administration theory and public administration practices. The dyslexic individual and institution can suffer and celebrate contradiction, paradox, irony, and other delimiting arenas of learning without resistance. Successful learning and understanding can come not in spite of but because of apparent disabilities.


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
John R Phillips

The author, a recent graduate of the Doctor in Public Administration program, shares his thoughts about what it means to study public administration in the twenty-first century. He hopes his insights, born out of more than a forty year-long career in the field—decades of work in colleges and universities as a faculty member, dean, provost, vicepresident, and acting president, as well as his extensive experience in teaching public administration at the graduate and undergraduate levels—will help doctoral students in their academic pursuits. More specifically, he hopes that his remarks will make Ph.D. students think more deeply about the promise of their endeavors and, on the other hand, give them advance warning about perils of the process and ways to avoid them.


1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Covaleski ◽  
Mark W. Dirsmith ◽  
Sajay Samuel

This paper examines the socio-political process by which an ensemble of such calculative practices and techniques as accounting came to be developed, adopted, and justified within turn-of-the-century public administration. We are particularly concerned with examining the influence of John R. Commons and other early institutional economists during this Progressive era. Using primary and secondary archival materials, our purpose is to make three main contributions to the literature. First, the paper explores Commons' contribution to the debates over “value” which seems to be somewhat unique in that he explicitly recognized that there exists no unproblematic, intrinsic measure of value, but rather that it must be socially constituted as “reasonable” with reference to common law. To illustrate this point, this paper explores Commons' role in the historical development and implementation of rate of return regulation for utilities. Second, the paper describes the contradictory role accounting played during this period in ostensibly fostering administrative objectivity while accommodating a more pragmatic rhetoric of “realpolitik” in its development and deployment. The third contribution is to establish a linkage between current work in economics and accounting concerned with utility regulation and the debates of ninety years ago, noting that Commons' contribution has not been fully explored or recognized within the accounting literature.


Author(s):  
James Gow
Keyword(s):  

This chapter considers Freedman’s contribution to scholarship and the nascent elements of a school of thought relevant to both academic and policy realms, as well as introducing a more skeptical and critical approach to the subject’s scholarship. It considers Freedman’s engagement with the policy world and why this has managed to be both extensive and successful, as well as its outcomes. It also introduces discussion of possible challenges to Freedman’s work, presenting a balancing perspective to positive appreciations of his oeuvre. The chapter concludes by indicating the weaknesses of such challenges and reaffirms the sense of a school of thought informed by a distinctive approach. This is the blend of scripturalism and constructivism, on one side, with realism, on the other, that is the hallmark of the nascent school, and the way in which it is germane in both academic and policy domains.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110362
Author(s):  
Marianne Takle

This article elaborates on ideas concerning future generations and whether they are useful in understanding some aspects of the concern for the global ecological commons. The article’s main scholarly contribution is to develop analytical tools for examining what a concern for future generations would require of current generations. It combines the scholarly literature on future generations with that of solidarity. The ideas concerning future generations are interpreted in terms of an ideal typical concept of solidarity with future generations. This concept is divided into four dimensions: the foundation of solidarity, the objective of solidarity, the boundaries of solidarity and the collective orientation. By applying these four dimensions in the context of the political process leading to Agenda 2030, the potentials and limitations of the concept are evident. The article concludes that the absence of reciprocity between current and future generations and uncertainty about the future are both crucial issues, which cut across the four dimensions. We cannot expect anything from people who have not yet been born, and we do not know what preferences they will have. This shows the vulnerability of forward-looking appeals to solidarity with future generations. Nevertheless, such appeals to solidarity may give global political processes a normative content and direction and can thereby contribute to understanding common concerns for the global ecological commons.


1937 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-86
Author(s):  
V. A. Petrovykh

The harsh climatic conditions of the coast of the Tatar Strait make explainable the large number of patients with frostbite who passed under our supervision during the winter of 1935-36 and amounted to 2.8% (26 people) of the total contingent of inpatients. The variety of recommended methods for treating frostbite, on the one hand, and the relatively long recovery period for all of them, on the other hand, made us take a critical approach to the proposed methods of treatment. All currently existing methods are reduced to the treatment of frostbite areas with bandages; and on the locus morbi apply indifferent or slightly disinfecting ointments, or a similar property of a powder, or wipes moistened with slightly disinfecting solutions, for example, Sol. kalii hyperm. 1: 1000. The apparent similarity of the external manifestations of frostbite and burns inspired us with the idea of ​​conducting frostbite therapy in an "open way", which has long occupied a well-deserved place in the treatment of burns.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tawanda Zinyama ◽  
Joseph Tinarwo

Public administration is carried out through the public service. Public administration is an instrument of the State which is expected to implement the policy decisions made from the political and legislative processes. The rationale of this article is to assess the working relationships between ministers and permanent secretaries in the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe. The success of the Minister depends to a large degree on the ability and goodwill of a permanent secretary who often has a very different personal or professional background and whom the minster did not appoint. Here lies the vitality of the permanent secretary institution. If a Minister decides to ignore the advice of the permanent secretary, he/she may risk of making serious errors. The permanent secretary is the key link between the democratic process and the public service. This article observed that the mere fact that the permanent secretary carries out the political, economic and social interests and functions of the state from which he/she derives his/her authority and power; and to which he/she is accountable,  no permanent secretary is apolitical and neutral to the ideological predisposition of the elected Ministers. The interaction between the two is a political process. Contemporary administrator requires complex team-work and the synthesis of diverse contributions and view-points.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-179
Author(s):  
Elona Cera ◽  
Nevila Furxhiu

Abstract The entrepreneur aim is a very important factor, which is considered as a key element in youth employment and the development of the country's welfare. Literature suggests that same of factors which influence enterpreneurship intention are educatin programs, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. This study was conducted based on an intentional sample, which consisted of master's student, respectively the first year Business Administration and Public Administration, in Economic Faculty of Tirana University. The sample is composed with 63 people. The empirical analysis is based in the main two elements: first, the use of a standardized instrument and secondly, statistical analysis, factor analysis, correlation and linear regression. The study shows that education programs and subjective norms don’t relate positively with the entrepreneur aim. On the other hand, it emerges that perceived behavioral control has a positive impact on the development of entrepreneurial goal.


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