Paradigm Shift in Public Administration: Implications for Teaching in Professional Training Programs

Abstract

The decline in popularity of New Public Management worldwide reinvigorated the search for a new paradigm in the field of public administration. Several alternatives to New Public Management, such as the New Governance and Public Value paradigms, have gained prominence in recent years. Despite tensions among these paradigms, exceptional challenges for public administration teaching programs exist. Xun Wu and Jingwei He of the National University of Singapore compiled data on public administration and management courses from 48 top master of public administration degree programs in China and the United States. This essay analyzes how competing paradigms influenced the selection of course content and pedagogical foci in professional training curricula. The authors conclude that in order to take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity provided by the rapid, global expansion of professional education in public administration, there is an urgent need to find a synthesized theoretical framework.

Servant Leadership, Trust, and the Organizational Commitment of Public Sector Employees in China

“…Whereas in the past, the government's main aim was economic development, and public administration reform was considered merely necessary in order not to stifle economic growth, social objectives and the needs of the general public are featured more prominently in the new administration (Xue and Zhong 2013). As a result, modules highlighting the importance of socially responsible and ethical leadership have become standard in Master in Public Administration (MPA) programmes across China (Wu and He ), and common in leadership training courses run by the Party. These changes should have contributed to the development of a ‘servant’ or ‘service‐oriented’ leadership culture in Chinese public sector organizations (Dong et al ).…”

Facilitating Digital Transformation through Education: A Case Study in the Public Administration

“…Universities benefit from higher demand for skilled and well-educated professionals, but still struggle with providing an adequate teaching offering [19]. There have been frequent calls for including digital transformation in public-administration curricula [20,21,22], but only few articles offer practical guidance [23,24,25]. Hence, no best practices have been established so far [26].…”

Beyond the State: Global Policy and Transnational Administration

“…We acknowledge significant efforts to diversify Masters of Public Administration (MPA) and Masters of Public Policy (MPP) curricula to consider the bureaucratic traditions and policy challenges confronted in multiple sovereign states (e.g. Hou, et al 2011;Manoharan, et al 2018;Wu and He, 2009). Even if a deeply comparative administrative and policy curricula (and its associated scholarship) is made a priority, its base assumption nevertheless often remains: the analytical unit of the state is administration and policy's most important actor.…”

“…Despite recent empirical work on the dearth of comparative and development administrative teaching in countries as diverse as the United States, Ghana, and China (see Haruna and Kannae, 2013;Manoharan et al, 2017;Wu and He, 2009 respectively), there is as yet no empirical work on the prevalence of global policy and transnational administration curricula. We suggest that methodological nationalism infuses not only academic worldviews but is also institutionalized in national (social) science funding institutions that may prioritize national interests and state-focused syllabi.…”