Herbert Simon’s Skepticism: Science of Public Administration and Lessons learned from “Proverbs of Administration”

A key focus in the scholarship of public administration sought to accomplish a task and carry out the will of the people. The early writers, including but not limited to Max Weber, Frederick Taylor, and Luther Gulick, sought to understand organization and how to best manage it. All three understood that their work was to...

Bounded Rationality and the Limits of Human Nature

This article was published in the PA Times Online January, 2020 and can be viewed here. “The central concern of administrative theory is with the boundary between the rational and the non rational aspects of human social behavior” - Herbert Simon in Administrative Behavior (1947) In his existential masterpiece The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus...

Organizations as Machines: As Flawed as the People Operating them

Organizations, especially in a bureaucratic sense, seem to be faceless and machine-like. When one images how the IRS processes tax returns, one might imagine a huge robotic, emotionless, Ford Factory-like production line of paper pushers in suits. It is like a machine in its operation, but just as Bolman and Deal explains in Reframing Organizations,...

The Enlightenment and Public Administration

"One should never miss an opportunity to celebrate the enlightenment or to mock priestcraft and the worship of mediocre princes and tycoons" - Christopher Hitchens

The Evolution of Scientific Thought in Public Administration

Public Administration as a Science The study of Public Administration begs the question as to whether the field is a science, craft, or an art. It is a hotly debated topic through the study’s short history, but given the use of facts, sociology, and scientific endeavors, the study of Public Administration is a science -...

Texas and the Problem of ‘Muddling Through’

It is not on a whim that Charles Lindblom's famous essay The Science of Muddling Through is often mentioned in conversations involved with public administration decision making. Lindblom is a part of a beloved group of public administration writer, including Herbert Simon, and Chester Bernard, who advocate for more scientific decision-making. In Lindblom’s essay, he...