By Government, Particularly in Administrative Positions, and Exert an Increasing Demand and Suggest Future Action for Trained Pu
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 025 220 24 HE 000 314 By-Mosher, Frederick C. Professional Education and the Public Service; An Exploratory Study. Final Report. California Univ., Berkeley. Center for Research and Development in Higher Education. Spons Agency-Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. Bureau of Research Bureau No- BR-5-0248 Pub Date Apr 68 Contract- OEC- 6- 10- 106 Note-170p. EDRS Price MF-$0.75 HC-$8.60 Descriptors- Administrative Personnel, *Government (Administrative Body), Governmental Structure, *Government Emplo_yees, *Higher Education, Professional Education, Professional Occupations,Professional Personnel, Public Administration Education, Public Officials, *Public Policy Professional and technical fields are the fastest growing occupational sectors in the US. More than one-third of all professional and technical workers are employed by government, particularlyinadministrative positions, and exert an increasing influence on public policy. But, with the exception of city managers, many of these employees regard themselves as members of the disciplines in which they weretrained rather than primarily as public administrators. The field of public administrationhas not influenced public policy as much as other fields have, possibly because: it is not a specialized profession; practitioners do not agree on what its core knowledge,skills and orientation should be; and there is little incentive for students to pursue studies in the field since most administrative positions are held by otherspecialists. Althou9h more attention in colleges is now being paid toadministrative and management fields, courses are usually based onorganizational theories of private business models, with little emphasis on the unique problems of government administration.Professional schools suffer from a general bias against teaching the kinds of subjects thatmight be useful in government jobs. Hence, many professional administrators lack theskills, knowledge or attitudes to deal with increasing social problems. To meet the growing demand and suggest future action for trained public administrators, a research proposal is offered for evaluating the roles of educational institutions, governmental agencies, and assessing the attitudes of professional publicofficials. (WM) FINAL REPORT Project No. 5-0248-2-13 don:braANo.owa6.1o.1o6 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE u:s. DEPARTMENTOf HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY ASRECEIVED FROM PERSON OR ORGANIZATION THE ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEWOR OPINIONS STATED DO NOTNECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICEOF EDUCATION POSITION ORPOLICY. April, 1968 E D025220 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ffEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Office of Education Bureau of Research PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE An Exploratory Study By Frederick C. Mosher Professor of Political Science University of California Berkeley, California Center for Research and Development in Higher Education University of California Berkeley, California CONTENTS Preface 1 I. The Professionaland the Public Service Its Development andProblems . 39 II. Professional Education: 72 III. Educational Programs andCurricula 92 IV. The Faculties 110 V. The Students Proposal for Research 1.43 VI. Some Conclusions,Problems and a V Preface: The Reasonsfor This Study book entitled TheProfession A few years ago aBritish scholar wrote a about the administrative ofGovernment,1an able andinformative document not including GreatBritain. services of the countriesof western Europe, professionalized countryin the The United States isprobably the most of the world today, in the senseat least of thequantitative proportion Communist countries working force who areprofessional. Leaving aside the "non-public" employment are where the differencesbetween "public" and States is also difficult to measure if notindistinguishable, the United countries in the proportion probably among the highestof the "developed" employed by government. of professionals andtechnical personnel who are yet According to the 1960 census,the proportion hereis above one-third. really has been, a"pro- there is not in the UnitedStates, and there never entitled The Professional: fession of government.".A recent book was to the skill, the artand the Lyndon B.Johnson12 but itwas directed "professional" as experience of the politician,the "old pro," notto the study begun about the term is generallyunderstood. The field of academic aimed to give a profes- half a century ago known aspublic administration government, but in this sional strain to the practiceof administration in of regard it has had onlymoderate success. Few of the administrators secondarily, as membersof a government today regardthemselves, more than the outstanding profession of publicadministrators. The city managers are significant--minority of exception, but these compriseonly a tiny--though our publicadministrators. 1 London, 1959). Brian Chapman(George Allen and Unwin Limited, 2 William S. White(Boston, Houghton-Mifflin,1964). ii There are abundant reasons why in our particularculture we have not developed a class of public administrators, a"profession of government." But there are also abundant reasons for us to beconcerned about those who are administering our public programs--theirskills, their knowledge, their attitudes, their orientation. If the bilk of them are not members of a "profession of government," most or them nonetheless are professionals in government--professionally trained, professionally oriented. In fact, in no country of the free world is administrative leadership ingovernment more concentrated in professionals than in the United States.But, I repeat, they are not members of a profession of government or of publicadministra- tion. They are professionals in certain fields of knowledgeand action, more or less identified wi.th the purposesof the agencies which they administer. They are agriculturists in the Agricultural ResearchService, officers in the Army, engineers in the state highway department,psychiatrists in the mental hygLene department, scientists in the Bureauof Standards or the Space Administration, meteorologists in the Weather Bureau,public health officers and welfare officers at every level of government,economists in the Council of Economic Advisors, investigators in the FBI,criminologists in a local police department. Secondarily, some of them may think of them- selves as public administrators, but few would regardthemselves as members of a "profession of government." Most, I suspect, wouldresent this label or that of "governmentbureaucrat."Yet this aggloteration of "professionals in government" will probably exercise moreinfluence upon our society and the lives of each of us than any other cluster, whetherit be the captains of industry, the leaders of labor, the faculties ofuniversities, the politicians. We are all inescapably dependent upon theprofessionals in government and will probably be increasingly so in the future. exactly what is meantby the word Ell- There is littleagreement as to considered to qualify asprofessions. fession and whatoccupations should be the importanceof education But on one element,there is wide consensus: undergraduate or both,which is pre- at the universitylevel, graduate or and philosophies sumed to transmitthe knowledges,skills, attitudes, Most of sucheducation necessary forthe performance ofprofessional work. part of it by separateprofessional is provided byunivyrsities, and a large professionals, if we may use a schoola on the campuses. Some governmental produced by the liberalarts col- liberal interpretationof the term, are (chemists, physicists,biologists) leges, especiallythe natural scientists sociologists,economists). and social scientists(clinical psychologists, for the productionof professionals In this country,the primary instrument And, in fact, whenmeasured solely is the institutionsof higher learning. of professionalshas become the in quantitativeterms, the production (whether or not they largest part of themissions of suchinstitutions the graduates ofprofessional realize it or likeit). Some proportion of to work forgovernment-- study in virtually everyfield are destined The range inthese proportions international or national orstate or local. quite low in the casesof dentists among differentfields is wide--from welfare, and teaching, or architectsto dominant inpublic health, social ofthe militaryservices and diplomacy. to virtuallyexclusive in the oases will be employed Over-all, nearly twoof every fiveprofessional graduates trends in governmentemployment and by government.Furthermore, if current from this pool willin the promotion continue, we mayreliably assume that those exercising future be drawn alarge number of ourtop public leaders, formation and executionof public policy. the greatestinfluence upon the indeed it is virtuallytautological, It seems equallysafe to assume, having and willcontinue to that the nature ofprofessional education is iv the course of exert a significant thoughlargely indirect influence upon For government itself--upon itsnature, directions, andeffectiveness. professional education the student of government, abroader understanding of service and public and the nature of itscontributions to the public government, even leadership should enhance hisunderstanding of American to practical problems if he is theoreticallyinclined. For those oriented education in its relationto and to improvement, thestudy of professional government may suggest leadswhereby such educationshould