ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broad overview of public administration theorizing-this word is chosen to emphasize the processual nature of theory creation in the context of the tensions that pervade it. It discusses the special challenges of theorizing for professional practice and discussing the meaning of both profession and theory. The chapter contains three metaperspectives that reflect the major epistemologies that constitute the foundations for theorizing in public administration. It deals with the examples of the kind of theorizing that is associated with the dominant mode of research in public administration, theory-based empirical investigation reflecting a positivist epistemology and examples of theorizing associated with other foundational epistemologies. The chapter explores that, because the diversity of theory and tensions among theorists reflects the existential reality of administrative practice, heterodoxy is the profession's identity. It also provides organizational theory adapted from sociology, economics, social psychology, and other fields in public administration theorizing because of the profession's focus on public agencies.
