JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION - naspaa

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Enhancing Professional Socialization Through the Metaphor of Tradition separated powers of government. Decision-making by the administration in this case is deontological, with procedural rules handed down through the bureaucracy from political leaders who have managed the substantive issues at hand. Therefore, the instrumental rationality is administrative in nature, and seeks the most efficient way(s) to achieve the given goals. In order to achieve hierarchical accountability, analysis techniques tend to be quantitative, and procedural measures of an output nature are of great importance. Because this is the Constitutional norm, we must prepare students to work with elected representatives who may expect them to play this functionary role. In the Discretionary tradition, the analyst uses expertise to guide and interpret policy independently from the political system. Rather than following strict directives from the elected leaders, the analyst is asked to act in an influential advisory capacity, and is then given large amounts of discretion to achieve adopted goals with high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Analysts not only influence policy designs and choice, but also determine how it will be implemented and evaluated. Decision-making, therefore, is dependent upon objectives defined by experts using a teleological form of rationality to pursue both technical and normative ends. In this regard, practices such as cost-benefit analysis are in partnership with social science evaluation approaches. In this tradition, outcome measures play a greater role in analysis and evaluation, and political analysis must be added, in order to ensure successful adoption and implementation of favored policies. Given the highly complex nature of public policy, this is the most common role that analysts are asked to play, which puts expertise in a greater leadership position, as part of a blurred political and administrative role continuum. In fact, many reform efforts since the birth of the field have been geared toward empowering administrative expertise in these processes. In the Collaborative tradition, the analyst offers substantive expertise as an equal participant in a self-governing network—being fully on tap but never on top. Thus, all forms of technical and substantive analysis and evaluation are put to work toward goals defined collaboratively by all those affected. Decisionmaking and problem-solving activities occur through deliberative, consensusbased processes. Here, critical and interpretive forms of policy analysis and evaluation must be brought to bear on the process, in addition to output- and outcome-oriented techniques. It also should be noted that research methods beyond these applied analytical techniques are related to the ontological assumptions of the traditions and the manner in which they are manifested in epistemology. The Constitutional tradition is closely linked to positivism by its reliance on deontological rules and procedures. The Discretionary tradition, on the other hand, is very behaviorally oriented, and is more closely linked to post-positivist approaches to knowledge. Finally, the Collaborative tradition is linked to a postmodern or phenomenological understanding of knowledge. Ideally, all three should be 310 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Enhancing Professional Socialization Through the Metaphor of Tradition covered in courses on quantitative and qualitative research. The notion of diverse traditions helps clarify the meaning and importance of multiepistemological approaches and methodological pluralism. Financial and Information Management While it is common for information management and policy to be delivered as a curriculum component that is integrated into a number of courses, here I will link it with a particular form of information entrusted to administration — financial data. Of course, human resource management also has critical information policy elements, and most forms of policy analysis require information technology skills. So, this is a rather arbitrary grouping. Compared to the various organizing characteristics of the three traditions, financial and information management activities are vastly different in contexts of discrete government organizations, public-private partnerships, and cross-jurisdictional or multi-sectoral networks. While we often may be teaching with an assumption of bureaucratic hierarchies—where control over finances and information was possible and desirable—these conditions no longer hold. Therefore, students must learn practices that are better linked to Discretionary or Collaborative bases of legitimacy. They would be best served to understand how these prescriptions for practice are related, because partnerships under the assumption of entrepreneurial discretion are quite different from collaborative networks. For example, in the Discretionary tradition, it would be completely appropriate to control financial issues and withhold information from external sources, be they citizens or partners. But, in the Collaborative tradition, this type of privileged, “meta-governance” position may not be acceptable. In short, we must consider the implications of shifting issues—such as authority and scope of action, responsibility and accountability, decision-making rationality, and organizing style—on these basic government processes. If we are moving down a continuum that runs from absolute control to absolute responsiveness, we must be aware of how these changing value systems can impact budgeting, accounting, and information management policies and practices. CONCLUSION In conclusion, I assert that it will benefit the field of public administration and individual students of the discipline to use the metaphor of tradition for organizing the field’s competing philosophical foundations and recommendations for practice. When one has a framework from which to reflect and act, external chaos is calmed, and put into a perspective that supports choice-making. At a more fundamental level, it could be reasonably argued that the turmoil of our times is largely grounded in the question of legitimacy in governance. No sector of society is immune from the legitimacy Journal of Public Affairs Education 311
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