Public Administration: Defining the Discipline - Part II
| Published date | 01 September 1986 |
| Date | 01 September 1986 |
| Author | John Kingdom |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473948600600201 |
Teaching
Public
Administration:
Autumn
1986 Vo1.VI No.2 pp
1-
21
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION:
DEFINING
THE
DISCIPLINE
-
PART
II
JOHN
KINGDOM
Principal
Lecturer.
Department
of
Public
Sector
Administration
&
Law
Sheffield
City
Polytechnic
THE
BASIS
FOR
THE
ADVOCACY
OF
THE
SKILLS
APPROACH:
A CRITIQUE
We
have
argued
that
the
premises
of
the
skills
movement
are
fallacious,
being
based
on
propositions
long
since
rejected
by
serious
students
of
the
discipline.
In
the
light
of
a
fundamentally
unsound
position
one
might
question
the
extent
to
which
the
skills
movement
can
exist
at
all.
This,
as
we
institutional
have
implied,
status
of
the
is
partly
facilitated
by
the
bodies
involved.
Where
the
authority
of
logic
is
lacking
their
positions
can
be
legitimised
through
the
assertion
of
their
formal
authority.
However,
another
source
of
confidence
of
the
zealots
derives
from
an
adherence
to
an
analogy,
implicit
in
the
very
existence
of
BT~C,
between
public
administration
and
the
world
of
science
and
technology.
A
principal
thesis
of
this
paper
is
that
the
analogy
is
false.
The
arguments
for
the
teaching
of
skills
in
the
areas
of
science
and
technology
are
of
course
self-evident
and,
for
the
most
part,
irrefutable;
but
they
cannot
be
lifted
lock,
stock
and
barrel
and
applied
to
the
area
of
public
admin-
istration,
or
indeed
to
business
studies.
Few
serious
students
of
the
discipline
would
attempt
to
postulate
any
thesis
based
on
such
an
analogy
in
the
way
that
the
zealots
in
the
cause
of
the
skills
movement
do.
How
then
is
it
possible
to
present
the
process
of
public
administration
in
a way
that
renders
this
bogus
analogy
at
all
credible?
I
would
argue
that
they
seek
to
accomplish
this
(consciously
or
unconciously)
in
two
ways
based
on:
(a)
the
selective
identification
and
choice
of
particular
skills,
and
(b)
rarefication
in
the
definition
of
skills.
Both
these
stratagems
threaten
the
integrity
of
the
discipline
as
the
following
discussion
illustrates.
The
Selective
Identification
and
Choice
of
Particular
Skills
By
means
of
the
judicious
selection
of
the
skills
to
be
taught
it
becomes
possible
reasonably
to
demonstrate
that
there
is
no
significant
difference
between
their
application
in
a
variety
of
diverse
contexts;
that
is,
to
prove
the
case
for
transferability.
However,
the
skills
exemplified
are
invariably
what
one
might
term
low-level,
or
even
menial.
To
substantiate
this
position
BTEC
warns
against
the
dangers
of
"upward
academic
drift":
this
in
Higher
Level
courses
held
to
be
of
a
status
equivalent
to
Part
I
of
a
bachelor
I s
degree.
In
demon-
strating
the
manner
in
which
skills
may
be
taught
BTEC,
in
one
issue
of
its
notes
for
guidance,
provided
an
example
in
the
making
of
a
cup
of
tea.
While
such
an
operation
is
not
devoid
of
skill
(some
might
indeed
argue
that
it
represented
an
essential
bureaucratic
virtue,
but
only
in
popular
satire)
it
demonstrates
the
problem
of
actually
identifying
skills
which
can
have
wide
applicability.
One
teacher
of
local
government,
for
example,
was
instructed
by
the
External
Moderator
to
increase
the
skills
element
in
his
examination
paper.
The
argument
that
it
was
not
possible
to
identify
a
skill
of
local
government
as
such,
and
that
what
was
being
sought
was
an
understanding
of
the
structures,
norms,
legal
and
ethical
constraints
etc.
in
this
particular
form
of
public
administration,
failed
to
impress.
The
issue
was
resolved
by
requesting
students
to
frame
their
answer
to
an
examination
question
in
the
form
of
a
letter.
Letter
writing
is
a
useful
social
and
professional
skill,
but
one
would
not
normally
expect
to
2
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