NPM Under Pressure: An Inquiry in Theory (original) (raw)
Related papers
Comment: Public management researchthe interdependence of problems and theory
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1994
As a college student, I read an article with a title that thoroughly captured my fancy, "Topic X [this part of it does not matter]: Whence and Whither?" I determined that some day I must write something with that mellifluous and capacious subtitle. I came, in time, to see the chutzpa required to say something intelligent about the whence and whither of anything, and never found the heart to follow through. But reading Laurence E. Lynn's insightful account of the evolution of public management research, my favorite subtitle sprang to mind. He offers a provocative account of how the field has developed, and poses exciting but serious challenges to researchers about the future. Inspired by his analysis, I build on a few of his comments about where the field is going and why. First I consider how coherent our field can and should be. Second, I review some cautions about examining cases of best managerial practice as a research approach. Third, I suggest some ways to improve the stock of theory we use to understand public management problems and opportunities.
Theories for research in Public Administration
Theory underpins social science endeavours by providing the philosophical assumptions on the following aspects: aspects that constitute social reality (ontology); is accepted as valid evidence of that reality (epistemology); the means to investigate the context (methodology); and the manner in which evidence is gathered (methods). Both positivists and interpretivists generally concur that theory occupies a central role in scientific inquiry into the social world. In disciplines of applied social science such as Public Administration, research generally fosters the transition from theory to practice. In this respect, theory underlies the designs, methods, and findings of the research process.
Editorial: Questioning Assumptions
Philosophy of Management, 2019
One of the methods for doing philosophy of management is the philosophical questioning of concepts used by management scholars. What are the assumptions of the common notions through which we imagine and understand management today? Doing such questioning is not just fun (yes there is something geekish about us) but also progressive, innovative and political. If we alter those assumptions, what management becomes thinkable and possible? The articles in this issue of Philosophy of Management are examples of such endeavour. In 'Towards a Political Philosophy of Management: Performativity & Visibility in Management Practices', de Vaujany et al. (2019) question the assumptions of both immanent and transcendental understandings of organization. Is there an underlying realist structure to management or is it a speech-act? The authors use the Merleau-Pontian concepts of visibility and continuity to articulate a notion of performativity that goes beyond the immanence/transcendence dualism. They then reflect on the implications of performance and visibility for management scholarship. Everyday activity both performs and makes visible the world, and hence the organization. Thus, it is possible for us to ask (and action) the following: 'What is the world of work and management we wish to constitute and make visible through our empirical and conceptual descriptions and what are the tools we use for this task?' (de Vaujany et al. 2019). In 'Regaining the Soul Lost', Petrosyan (2019) questions the limits of depersonalization in management scholarship. On the one hand there are those who argue that the organization has to be depersonalized as much as possible. Maximization of effectiveness and efficiency requires the reduction of workers to their pure functionality. On the other hand, there are those who reject the alienated work practices and call for humaneness at and in work. Petrosyan (2019) argues the falsity of each position. Not in a prescriptive (and perhaps naive) attempt to create a middle ground, but rather in a negative analysis: those who strife for humaneness neglect the necessary reduction implied by any division of labour; those who want full depersonalization overlook the impossibility of it. The assumption of depersonalization implies the reduction of management to a technicality. Yet organization resists such a reduction. Management then is the coping with that residue. Hence, management appears
Administrative Theory & Praxis, 2023
When theorizing, it is sometimes colloquially said “I reckon…” This essay attempts to reckon with theorizing by proposing a heuristic for systematically gauging rigorous and/or meaningful theoretical research with the analysis of eight factors: novelty, challenge, relevance, power, fecundity, usefulness, deliberateness, and clarity. These factors offer a manual for theorists writing theoretical research, and a loose set of considerations to begin discussions of what it is that makes invigorating theory.
2014
This article aims to provide a conceptual and theoretical analysis of the main theoretical and philosophical perspectives in social science research for researchers doing research in the disciplinary fields of public administration, management and governance. The purpose is to provide clarity for researchers' own beliefs of how social reality should be viewed to gain the most truthful results and thus, to develop their own ontology. This will enable researchers to have a clear understanding of which research perspective would be appropriate when designing their research in order to develop their own epistemology. The article attempts to clarify what research is and more specifically the relationship between research theories and the empirical world. The conditions necessary for scientific research and the most important concepts (building blocks) of social science research are explained. The difference between ordinary everyday knowledge and information, social science theory, scientific knowledge and the use of the scientific method receive attention. The dimensions of social science research are distinguished in terms of the sociological, teleological, ontological,
Hypothesising in Contemporary Organisational Management Research. What Really Matters?
International conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION
Management is an economic science and more than ever, temporal, as a direct effect of the level of social development, with many interdependencies with other fields of knowledge. Generically said, studies and research in the field of organisational management involve a high level of difficulty compared to other types of sciences because they primarily investigate aspects related to the soft component of the organisation, the human resource. The results, operationalised through the design and implementation of decisions, are achieved by people, for people, and people are involved in the (micro or macro) organisational universe with different experiences and expertise, different attitudes, different expectations, transforming other types of resources. It is difficult to translate purely qualitative aspects, which can be extracted from an organisational framework often by observation, into quantitative contexts that support the transformation of conclusions into judgements of principle...
Assumptional Analysis: The Key Role of Assumptions
2021
We cannot emphasize enough the importance of assumptions. For this reason, we want to describe a general method known as Assumptional Analysis for uncovering and analyzing key assumptions. It’s best described in terms of an important case with which Mitroff was involved.