Phenomenology and public administration

Abstract

Phenomenologists are among the strongest opponents of logical positivism. Mostly associated with Edmund Husserl, phenomenology is essentially an analytical method or framework for describing and explaining social relationships and psychological orientations. Phenomenologists attempt to account for the subjective qualities which logical positivists and empiricists assume to be unreal or are mistakenly treated as objective observable phenomena. The authors note that phenomenology has been absorbed into the literature and the language of the field especially in terms of how people do and do not relate to bureaucratic organizations and government programs.

Citation

Waugh, W.L. and Waugh, W.W. (2003), "Phenomenology and public administration", International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 405-431. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-07-03-2004-B006