Public Procurement: Public Administration and Public Service Perspectives

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Authors
Snider, Keith F.
Rendon, Rene G.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2012
Date
Publisher
National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration
Language
Abstract
Why is public procurement not a major topic in public administration education programs? While many scholars and practitioners acknowledge its importance, most master’s degree programs in public administration do not. In this paper we document this discrepancy, investigate its causes, and provide two remedies to place public procurement more squarely in the educational mainstream. The first entails a description of public procurement from wellestablished public administration perspectives, which illustrates how closely public procurement is aligned with the field’s traditional functions and issues. The second analyzes public procurement in the context of the “public service values” orientation of NASPAA’s accreditation standards, which indicates the extent to which these values are inherently accounted for and manifested in agency procurement policies, processes, and practices. Thus, public administration might achieve a deeper and broader understanding of public service values by paying more attention to public procurement in its education programs. We conclude with recommendations for public administration schools that may want to (a) incorporate public procurement content in existing master’s degree courses; (b) add a public procurement course; or (c) adopt a public procurement concentration for the master’s degree.
Type
Article
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Graduate School of Business & Public Policy (GSBPP)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
22 p.
Citation
Journal of Public Affairs Education, Volume 18, No. 2, pp. 327-348.
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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