ABSTRACT

It is an old adage that “experience is the best teacher.” To the extent this is true, the day-to-day practice of management is the best means for public managers to gain the knowledge and skills they need to function effectively. Yet, public affairs and administration programs seem to be built upon a different assumption. The university perspective generally assumes that formal classroom education is the best way for public managers to gain the knowledge and skills they require. Although most public administration programs have come into being since 1960, the primary presumption on which they operate can be traced back to 1887. In his article, “The Study of Administration,” Woodrow Wilson argued that public managers (and prospective candidates for the public service) needed training in a “science of administration.” This training, Wilson contended, was necessary to save administration from the “costliness of empirical experiment.”