Opening the black box of public administration: The need for interpretive research

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Elias, Maria Veronica
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas at San Antonio; University of Texas System; University of Texas at San Antonio
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3298
• DOI: 10.1111/padm.12959
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 953-968
• 关键词: narrative inquiry; management; methodology; leadership; KNOWLEDGE; science; FUTURE; MODEL; RIGOR

摘要

Important research questions in public administration and management cannot be studied through the scientific method. A fundamental example is how public administrators utilize their discretion and judgment in their everyday work. Inquiring into the process of administrative practice has been characterized as opening the black box of public administration and policy implementation-that is, how people in public administration and management situations do what they do. This paper argues that expanding the menu of worthwhile research approaches from quantitative empiricism, the current gold standard in public administration, to include interpretivism makes it possible to view inside the black box of administrative process. After a brief narrative describing how the field lost the balance between quantitative and interpretive approaches it once had, the discussion lays out the philosophical grounding and methodology of interpretive research and offers phenomenology as illustration of how such an expansion will benefit both administrative theory and practice. El metodo cientifico de investigacion basado en la logica empirico cuantitativa no siempre permite comprender a fondo temas importantes de la administracion y gestion publicas. Un ejemplo fundamental es como los administradores publicos utilizan su discrecionalidad y juicio critico. Indagar sobre el proceso de la practica administrativa equivale a abrir la caja negra de los procesos de gestion, o de que manera los agentes publicos llevan a cabo sus labores diarias y toman decisiones en situaciones especificas. Este articulo aboga por la utilizacion de la epistemologia interpretativa para poder develar la caja negra de la gestion publica. Tras una breve descripcion acerca de como la disciplina perdio el equilibrio entre los enfoques cuantitativos e interpretativos que alguna vez tuvo, la discusion establece las bases filosoficas y metodologicas de la investigacion interpretativa. La fenomenologia se presenta para ilustrar como tal expansion epistemologica beneficiaria tanto a la teoria como a la practica administrativa.