How managers and students view public service: The theoretical vs. practical divide

Abstract

This paper examines existing management concepts and practices that make up three contemporary approaches to public policy and public administration. We attempt to understand whether municipal public administrators and public administration graduate students validate these perspectives in “reality” versus “ideally.” Addressing the extent to which practicing public administrators and students identify with theoretical frameworks, which one(s) they deem most prominent, and how closely their preferred frameworks correspond to what they see in practice, we offer an exploratory analysis of results from 176 respondents through descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). We hypothesize significant differences with respect to 1) what is preferred and what is perceived in the workplace, 2) group membership (administrator, graduate student, or undergraduate student), and 3) gender (female or male). This research will help public administration educators bridge the gap between theory and practice and narrow the distance between the “is” and the “ought.”

Reflecting on over 100 years of public administration education

“…The public administration research on theory and practice includes survey research, which includes the opinions of faculty members, practitioners, and students in public administration. Wood and Kickham (2021), p. 1 report the results of a survey of public administrators and students asking their viewpoints on “reality” and “ideal” issues surrounding theories of public administration. They found students to have differing viewpoints on the “reality” items in their survey, indicating disconnect between theory and practice.…”