KATHLEEN ANNE V.

ERAN
1-2 BPAOUMN
PUAD

CHAPTER 1

1. How would you define public administration in one phrase, one paragraph, or
an essay?
Answer: Public Administration may be defined as all processes, organizations, and
individuals acting in official positions and roles associated with carrying out laws and
other rules adopted or issued by legislatures, executives, and courts. PA is also a
field of academic and community study and professional training leading to public
service careers at all levels of government.

2. Is public administration among the oldest or newest areas of study, or both?

Answer: Public administration is both old and new in field of study, or a discipline, and a
field of practice, or an occupation. PA Subfields Organization and Management is one
of the oldest subfields of public administration. It basically focuses on sub-areas like
organization theory and practice, dynamics of organization, decision-making in
administration, leadership and other sub-areas while the New Sub-fields of Public
Administration Policy Analysis and Program. The post-war years saw the emergence of
public policy as a subfield of public administration. In the US, interest in policy studies
started in 1950s. In the Philippines, however, it started not too long ago, in 1970s in the
then Institute of Public Administration in the University of the Philippines. Generally,
policy studies can focus on the content of public policy, its processes, models, theories
and approaches of public policy its impact as well as evaluation of public programs and
projects. Other significant concepts, principles and techniques for systematic analysis
and decision - making in public policy and management are also considered in policy
analysis. 

3. Is public administration an amalgam of various areas of study or a field unto

itself? To what extent do you think public administration has to be more
interdisciplinary? Rather than relying on its traditional emphasis in political
science and business management?

Answer: Public administration is a field in which leaders serve communities to advance

the common good and effect positive change. Public administration professionals are
equipped with skills to manage at all levels of government (local, state, and federal) as
well as nonprofit organizations. Skills employed across the field of public administration
such as project management and program management are often transferrable to the
private sector. Public administration is an interdisciplinary field, building on a variety of
KATHLEEN ANNE V. ERAN
1-2 BPAOUMN
PUAD
disciplinary approaches and values. But how well does the field of public administration
reflect those values and processes? In contrast to previous arguments regarding the
degree to which the field does or should incorporate values and lessons from other
academic disciplines, this study provides a systematic assessment of the field’s reliance
on research and theory from the fields of law, management, and political science. An
analysis of journal citations across these fields suggests that research in public
administration is largely isolated from the three disciplines that are commonly believed
to form its foundation.

4. Is public administration a profession or just an occupation?

Answer: Public administrators are often said not to constitute a profession for one or
more of at least ten reasons, for example, that they are not independent consultants but
employees (and therefore lack “professional autonomy”). Yet, many public
administrators seem to believe they belong to a profession. This paper argues that they
are probably right. Doubts about the professional status of public administration seem to
rely on one or another sociological definition having little to recommend it outside
sociology. With a better definition, public administration looks very much like a
profession. The question remaining is whether public administrators want their
occupation to be a profession—and who they want to include in that profession.