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Enhancing Professional Socialization Through the Metaphor of TraditionTo support this goal, this article explores how public administration theoriesmight be organized in an innovative manner that could help practitioners betternavigate the contemporary governance context. This organizing frameworkconsiders the legitimacy of public administration from three distinct socialperspectives: those of the elected official, the citizen, and the practitioner. Theperspective of each is developed as a sociological ideal type (Weber, 1949)comprised of coherent sets of ideas, referred to as traditions (Stout, 2006).Traditions are social and intellectual presuppositions about activities andinquiries that evolve through time (MacIntyre, 1988). This fits anunderstanding of public administration as an enterprise “characterized by aninterlocking set of values, not by rigid doctrine, certainly by nothing resemblinga scientific paradigm …” (Waldo, 1980, p.77).The metaphor of tradition enables faculty and students to organize competingideas in order to make more conscious choices among them, instead ofpresenting public administration as a mixed bag of inherent philosophicaltensions and fragmentation that each practitioner must sort out alone. It mustbe noted that the substantive content of traditions may be organized differently.For example, organizing themes are commonly historical in nature, referring toOrthodox public administration, New Public Administration, New PublicManagement, New Public Service, and the like. The three distinct traditions ofpublic administration presented here emerged during a hermeneutic study ofthe field’s theoretical literature that used the basis of legitimacy as thecategorizing characteristic (Stout, 2007). Each of these traditions promotes adifferent conceptualization of the administrative role, and each provides animportant clarification of normative commitments when choosing among them.Combining this purpose and method, this article explores the process ofprofessional socialization in the field of public administration, the problem ofcompeting ideations of the legitimate administrative role, three distincttraditions framing the administrative role, and the possible use of thesetraditions in professional education for the more intentional socialization ofpublic administration students into specific role conceptualizations.PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONAll processes of socialization rely on concepts such as social role and sense ofidentity. Role conception is an internalized set of beliefs and ideas that a person holdsabout one’s place and purpose in society, which defines how one may act (Selznick,1957). Alternatively, role conceptualization is an external set of norms about theappropriate enactment of a given social role. The administrative role often isdescribed as a “cohesive set of job-related values and attitudes that provides thepublic administrator a stable set of expectations about his or her responsibilities”(Selden, Brewer, & Brudney, 1999, p.175). This social role is in large partconsidered to be a profession, which requires, among other things, a commitment toa calling or enduring set of normative and behavioral expectations, as well asspecialized training or education (Moore & Rosenblum, 1970).290 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Enhancing Professional Socialization Through the Metaphor of TraditionBased on a library database search, professional socialization during theacademic experience is of great concern to many professions, yet receives littleattention in public administration literature. However, through accreditation bythe National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration(NASPAA), MPA programs across the country have become fairly uniform intheir admission requirements, curricula, and teaching approaches (R.B.Denhardt, 2001). According to the NASPAA code of good practice, eachmember “focuses on the preparation of students for professional careers in publicservice, emphasizing both the values and ethics of public service, and thedevelopment of professional skills and knowledge” (NASPAA, 2006, emphasisadded). Some programs actually identify this as “a socialization sequence”(Georgia, 2006). Furthermore, research suggests that professional socialization isa significant factor in public service motivation (Perry, 1997). Therefore, we canassume that this process is important to the field.The manner in which professional identities are believed to develop can bedescribed as a general causal relationship of indeterminate direction, or at least astarting place, whereby (1) a person is motivated by a variety of personal andsocial factors to adopt a particular social role, which (2) entails a specific set ofattitudes and actions, which in turn (3) impact personal role conception andnormative theoretical role conceptualizations, which in turn (4) are transmittedand validated through professional education.Figure 1 presents a new graphic depicting this relationship, with a focus on theelements of professional socialization that are most impacted by academia.However, it is important to note that socialization is a nonlinear process, whereexternal sources of evaluation and internal sources of reflection combine in anevolving developmental cycle (Weidman, Twale, & Stein, 2001). (See Figure 1.)Figure 1.The academic professional role conceptualization processJournal of Public Affairs Education 291
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