Public Administration or Public Management? Education and Training for Local Authority Administrators
| Published date | 01 September 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473948600600202 |
| Date | 01 September 1986 |
Teaching
Public
Administration:
Autumn 1986
Vol.VI
No.2
pp22-30
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
OR
PUBLIC
MANAGEMENT?
EDUCATION
AND
TRAINING
FOR
LOCAL
AUTHORITY
ADMINISTRATORS
HOWARD
ELCOCK
Professor
of
Government.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Polytechnic
Vice-Chairman.
JUC
Public
Administration
Committee
A
considerable
debate
is
emerging
about
the
education
and
training
of
administrators
in
public
sector
organisations.
This
is
related
to
a
wider
concern
to
improve
the
skills
of
managers
in
public
organisations
but
here
we
are
concerned
with
public
administrators.
of
this
debate
seem
to
be:
The
main
parameters
(i)
Is
there
a
difference
between
public
and
private
sector
management
or
are
the
two
closely
related,
so
that
management
education
and
training
can
be
largely
(if
not
wholly)
generic?
(ii)
Should
public
sector
managers
receive
an
academic
education
centred
chiefly
on
combinations
of
the
disciplines
of
political
science,
policy
analysis,
accountancy
and
law
as
well
as
on
inter-disciplinary
policy
analysis,
or
should
their
training
concentrate
on
managerial
skills,
even
at
the
cost
of
ignoring
to
a
large
extent
knowledge
of
politics,
law
and
other
disciplines?
(iii)
Should
the
main
focus
be
on
providing
an
education
in
the
working
of
Governmental
institutions,
the
sociological
and
economic
influences
on
public
policy-makers
and
ways
of
improving
public
policy-making,
as
well
as
in
the
major
political
ideologies
or
should
the
main
focus
be
on
skills
development?
This
raises
some
fundamental
dilemmas.
Ought
courses
for
public
administrators
be
educational,
thus
concerned
primarily
with
developing
a
consciousness
of
the
political,
social
and
economic
environments
within
which
public
administrators
must
work
or
should
they
develop
task
22
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