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Research in Public Administration Professor Yelena Kalyuzhnova, Vice-Dean International, Henley Business School Director of the Centre for Euro-Asian Studies 22 May, 2013, Astana Economic Forum www.henley.reading.ac.uk Contents • Definition of Public Administration • Research Themes • How good is the UK civil service at putting the science into government? • Conclusion 2 Definition of Public Administration Public administration has been called many things: a subset of political science or at least its offspring, a process of government that has been formalized into a discipline, and even a subject matter in search of a discipline. 3 Historical Overview (I) • As a discipline primarily an American idea (19th century) • Formal education for public administration was part of the French system (19th century) • Public administration has become more than carrying out policies and has come to include the development of policies to foster and maintain public growth (1930s) 4 Historical Overview (II) • Public administrators went through the period of self-doubt and self-criticism (After 1945) • The development of the techniques for analysing costs and benefits of the programs (1960s) • Interest in organisational development (1970s) 5 So, what is today “public administration”? 1. Establishment of objectives and priorities. 2. Development of operational plans. 3. Organizing and staffing. 4. Directing. 5. Controlling. 6. Dealing with external units of the organization. 7. Dealing with independent organizations. 8. Dealing with the press and public. 6 Research Themes Research themes in public administration tend to follow practice rather than determine it. Much research is evaluative rather than basic. Behavioral research (from the review of personnel structures to a concern for motivation and analysis of leadership potential) Policy analysis (some general areas of research cover several aspects of public administration while others are specific to a process) Current PhD topics in the areas of Public Administration an Public Policy are determine contemporary and future research agenda 7 Areas of current research (I) • Innovation • Organisational Development and Change (kinds of change, adaptation to change and organization of change) • Decision-Making and Decision Evaluation (productivity measures) • Personnel (community concerns and socio-political developments) 8 Areas of Current Research (II) • Financial Concerns (The ways in which funds are spent, and what one receives in return) • Marketing Approach to Service • Future Research (The Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory) 9 How good is the UK civil service at putting the science into government? • How do civil servants access the research on which to base their advice? "Civil servants are much more focused on responding to things and dealing with things than being expert.” Jill Rutter, programme director at the Institute for Government. • "it would make for better governance if there was a much stronger compulsion to develop 10 policy based on evidence". Alliance for Useful Evidence • The aim to promote greater use of evidence in social policy, from education to drugs to healthcare. http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/alliance_for_useful_evidence Already, more and more civil servants are partnering with outside scientists to collect evidence and serve it up to policymakers. There's even a new mechanism for this, called "co-design, co-production and co-delivery". 11 Instead of the conclusion 12