The role theory plays in research work cannot be over-emphasized. A theory that is apt gives direction to research work in explaining, organizing, analyzing, and predicting phenomenon and showing their relationships in order to enhance understanding. Despite these roles played by theory, upcoming scholars and students many at times fail to use…

Managerialism pervades the higher education literature in much the same way it is said to have pervaded universities themselves. Yet, despite its ubiquity and importance, managerialism remains an under-theorized and elusive concept that has multiple definitions and blurred boundaries. This article addresses this lack of conceptual clarity by first…

Since the beginnings of Public Administration in the US and its accompanying education in other parts of the world, government and policy have become more complex. The education in Public Administration created a professional pathway to public service. The addition of education to Public Administration came out of the Progressive Movement in the…

This article analyses moves towards good multilevel governance approaches in Vocational Education and Training (VET) as an effective way to improve VET policy making in transition and developing countries, focusing on the Southern Neighbourhood of the EU (ENPI South). The centralised approaches in public administration and to VET governance still…

A critical element in the evolution of governmental services through the internet is the development of sites that better serve the citizens' needs. To deliver superior service quality, we must first understand how citizens perceive and evaluate online. Citizen assessment is built on defining quality, identifying underlying dimensions, and…

Teaching Chinese students in an American university can be both challenging and rewarding. Cultural and language differences can lead to some superficial confusion and interpretational problems. However, the vast differences in the ways Chinese students view the role of the public sector, as compared to the US, can mean that the instructors and…

Using the lenses and theoretical frameworks provided by social science, this article highlights some of the central debates concerning higher education governance, within a perspective that privileges the relation between the state and the citizen as mediated by the institution of the university. The article begins by interrogating the meaning of…

Growing interest in the institutionalization of evaluation in the public administration raises the question as to which institutional arrangement offers optimal conditions for the utilization of evaluations. "Institutional arrangement" denotes the formal organization of processes and competencies, together with procedural rules, that are…

This paper presents a case of collaboration between different types of public services and the private sector for the promotion of an entrepreneurial culture. This collaboration is achieved by means of a centre established and developed by the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, the Centro de Iniciativas Emprendedoras (the Centre for Entrepreneurial…

Despite technological and pedagogical improvements, obstacles continue in certain areas of distance education, including a lack of interaction among students and instructors and associated feelings of disconnectedness from the campus community. This article explores the study results of a blended learning, distance education graduate program…

This article presents a model of collaboration between a state child welfare licensing division and a public university to develop and administer online examinations for persons seeking licensure as administrators of residential child care facilities or child placing agencies. The exams assess knowledge of state standards and various practice…

Many realms of social inquiry, particularly public administration, are in the midst of an era of unprecedented epistemological introspection, driven primarily by frustration with the prevailing positivism of applied research. Rebuilding the systems paradigm requires recognition of its alternative view of scientific enterprise, its ability to…

This study explores the utility of employing knowledge management as a framework for understanding how public managers perform ecosystem management. It applies the grounded theory method to build a model. The model is generated by applying the concept of knowledge process to an investigation of how the urban ecosystem is publicly managed by civil…

Argues that Lindblom's original article on "muddling through" is an important source of faith and hope: it teaches public administrators to be realistic about their decision making, enhances their understanding of how they make decisions, and suggests many practical areas in which they might work to improve decision making. (Author/IRT)

Examines the relationship between citizens and government and proposes a value-centered model that focuses on the worth of government to its citizens. Compares customer and owner models, finding that citizens are unaccustomed to thinking of the value of government. (JOW)