New Public Administration
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Scholars' Commitment Statement for New Public Administration
As we reflect on the state of Public AdministrationOpens in new window today, we feel that our strength is the diversity of disciplines, methods, theories and approaches that we bring to public problems.
However, we believe that the future of public administration is limited by the institutional and personal barriers that researchers and scholars confront in their work.
We recognize these barriers as:
- institutional incentives for promotion and tenure,
- curricular limitations (such as budgetary incentives to restrict interdisciplinary approaches),
- publication issues (including editor consistency, reviewer supply and reviewer timeliness),
- limited funding for Public Administration research, and
- the challenge of conducting international and comparative public administration research.
We, the new scholars at Minnowbrook III, Opens in new window commit to serve as change agents to uphold and shape the culture of Public Administration, a culture that is open minded to and appreciates multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives, with an emphasis on publicness.
To achieve this goal we commit to do the following ... In the research process, we will ...
- Expand our discipline’s acceptance of various units of analysis (local, state, national and international actors; government, nonprofit and private organizations; individuals at various levels of organizational hierarchy; and stakeholders and citizens).
- Create a research environment that promotes the sharing of data and collaboration among our colleagues to advance the availability of quality data within our field.
- Acknowledge the limitations of our research methods and design in order to provide direction for future research and to avoid foreclosing questions that merit further attention.
In the classroom and community we will …
- Strive to create research-based tools that reinforce the utility of a good theory.
- Promote rigorous research methodological training and the use of mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative).
- Invest appropriate time in sharing knowledge with practitioners.
- Cultivate the ability among practitioners to reflect in the moment and adapt when faced with complexity.
In the publication process we will …
- Strive to publish relevant work (for practice and/or theory).
- Expand our field’s use and appreciation of cross-disciplinary theory while emphasizing the role of “publicness.”
- Seek to promote the inclusion of multiple methods and rigorous methods of all types.
- Review research within the paradigm in which they were conducted.
