Theory of Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Theory of Administration - Essay Example The study of public administration is approximately seventy years old. The desire to understand government operations and explain the growth of government systems has generated dramatic specialization and compartmentalization of information within the public administration discipline. In fact, looking at most of the American handbooks reveals that the study of public administration has numerous specializations. Each of these specializations has its unique theories, models, and even interpretations. The main reason the field of public administration lacks an overarching theory is that its study has been moving from a discipline point of view towards interdisciplinary (Hood, 1991). An overwhelming number of researchers in the field of public administration agree that public administration is in a state of identity crisis. For a very long time, questions of policy and politics have dominated the study of public administration but the discipline is currently undergoing far-reaching trans formations. The transformations have led to the inclusion of other disciplines including art, science, and professionalism. Over the years, multiple forces of rectification have increasingly augmented the conservative forces to create a multidisciplinary orientation of the discipline. These forces include the social and cultural contributions of managerial, organizational and economic influences (Hood, 1991). The merger between the social and cultural influences started a few years ago but has attained critical attention from the mass and public sector in recent times. The best approach to explain the lack of an overarching theory in public administration is to analyze the historical evolution of public administration. The foundation of contemporary public administration dates back to thousands of years ago.