Major Issues in Professional Training for Public Administration
| DOI | 10.1177/002085236403000304 |
| Author | Ernest A. Engelbert |
| Published date | 01 September 1964 |
| Date | 01 September 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Major
Issues
in
Professional
Training
for
Public
Administration
by
Ernest
A.
ENGELBERT.
UDC
378.9 :
35
(73)
Any
evaluation
of
professional
training
pro-
grams
in
public
administration
must
begin
with
consideration
of
the
pervasive
changes
which
have
taken
place
in
government
and
the
public
service
during
the
last
quarter
of
a
century.
These have
been
decades
in
which
depression,
war,
science,
technology,
urbaniza-
tion,
and
foreign
affairs
have
profoundly
al-
tered
the
social
institutions
of
every
nation.
In
no
previous
period
of
history
has
govern-
ment’s
role
in
the
social
order
been
so
greatly
expanded.
Twenxy-five
years
ago
many
of
the
social
and
economic
programs
which
grew
out
of
the
depression
were
in
the
formative
stage.
Suf-
ficient
time
had
not
yet
elapsed
for
these
newly
established
public
service
activities
to
provide
meaningful
administrative
experience
upon
which
to
generalize
for
professional
training.
Since
World
War
II,
governments
everywhere
have
embarked
upon
many
new
programs
in
the
fields
of
education,
atomic
energy,
labor-management
relations,
public
health,
urban
redevelopment,
foreign
aid,
and
technical
assistance,
to
mention
but
a
few.
Dimensions
have
been
added
to
the
ecology,
structure,
and
processes
of
public
administra-
tion
which
were
not
perceived
in
the
1930’s.
Today,
for
example,
the
relationships
be-
tween
politics,
policy
formulation,
and
admin-
istration
are
seen
in
a
considerably
different
light
than
they
were
a
generation
ago.
The
principles
of
management,
so
well
bench-
marked
in
administrative
history
by
the
word
POSDCORB,
have
been
reformulated
through
the
findings
of
the
behavioral
sciences.
Con-
cepts
of
legislative-executive
relationships
have
been
altered
by
the
steady
growth of
power
of
the
executive
branches
at
all
levels
of
government.
Earlier
views
of
civil
service
as
a
passive
and
neutral
body
in
the
policy-
making
process
do
not
fit
present
practices
of
most
national
bureaucracies.
In
contrast
to
past
decades,
our
systems
of
government
to-
day
are
viewed
less
from
the
standpoint
of
formal
divisions
of
power
and
more
in
terms
of
complementary
functions
and
cooperative
activities.
Contact
and
experience
with
social
institutions
and
governmental
projects
in
foreign
lands
through
the
United
Nations,
the
Organisation
for
Economic
Cooperation
and
Development
and
other
international
agencies
have
provided
new
understandings
of
the
im-
portance
of
cultural
aspects
of
administration
’
in
many
countries.
Other
examples
could
be
.
cited
to
show
that
professional
training
in
public
administration
needs
to
be
given
with
considerably
different
perspective
than
it
was
given
prior
to
World
War
II
(1).
But
even
though
changes
in
perspective
are
necessar,y,
the
question
still
remains
in
what
respect
professional
training
programs
of
the
1960’s
should
differ
from
training
programs
of
the
1930’s
in
philosophy,
objectives,
and
for-
mat.
Must
certain
basic
constants
be
re-
tained
irrespective
of
how
a
program
changes ?
What
kind
of
teaching
framework
will
best
train
individuals
to
be
effective
and
res-
ponsible
public
servants
in
a
complex
demo-
cratic
society ?
Should
graduate
training
pro-
grams
give
more
emphasis
to
theory
or
to
practice,
to
administrative
values
or
to
admin-
istrative
processes,
to
leadership
development
or
to
functional
programs ?
How
can
diverse
types
of
subject
matter
essential
for
the
edu-
cation
of
potential
administrators
be
chan-
nelled
into
and
correlated
within
a
single
pro-
fessional
training
program ?
An
examination
of
the
145
post-graduate
training
programs
in
public
administration
(1)
Other
post-war
reformulations
of
public
adminis-
tration
theory
and
practice
are
set
forth
in
Sayre,
Wallace
T.,
« Trends
in
the
Study
and
Teaching
of
Public
Ad-
ministration »,
in
Education
for
Administrative
Careers
in
Government
Service,
edited
by
Sweeney,
Stephen
B.,
Phi-
ladelphia,
University
of
Pennsylvania
Press,
1958.
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