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Performance evaluation is one of the most crucial, yet least understood functions of organisational life. In higher education for example, this issue arouses the emotions and consumes the time and the energy of both faculty and administrators as few others do.

The global proliferation of distance learning programs has become a major phenomenon of our times. So rapid is the growth rate of distance learning options, that statistics on them are rendered out-of-date at the moment of publication. As soon as innovations in media and automation technologies have appeared, their new capabilities have been adapted to distance learning applications, fueling the growth of distance learning programs, and providing marketing tools for the promotion of newly upgraded or newly created distance learning programs and institutions. Rapid growth in a highly competitive market has led to the duplication and overlapping of new distance learning options both within institutions and across institutional and geographical boundaries.

Purpose – The chapter provides a review of the debates about the discipline of public administration and public management as art, craft, and science. Thus, the chapter includes a conceptualization of public administration and a discussion of public administration and public management research, scholarship, and practice. The review of the discipline includes a historical perspective and contemporary debates of public administration, new public management (NPM), public sector management, and governance in order to discuss the future trajectories and trends of the discipline.

Design/Methodology/Approach – A range of historical, seminal, and recently published scholarly works are reviewed and discussed, including also an analysis based on primary and secondary research of journal databases, conference proceedings, academic schools, and websites relevant to the discipline.

Findings – The study of government in various guises – whether public administration, public management, governance, public policy – will continue to develop, evolve, and fascinate scholars and practitioners. There will be a continued interest and study of the business of government with three possible trends: (1) a narrow focus on technocratic, managerial approaches in an attempt to provide solutions for more effective and efficient government; (2) a multidisciplinary approach to addressing complex social problems or “wicked policy” problems across narrow specialized interests for “greater principles” of society; and (3) methodological pluralism in the study of government, which may add to the depth or fragmentation of the discipline.

Research limitations/Implications – The research is limited to a review with some primary and secondary research. It provides scholars and practitioners with the conceptualization of public administration, public management and governance. The chapter provides a critical perspective of the state of research and scholarship with an argument that academics need to move beyond parochial debates within the discipline and provide practitioners with empirically based solutions to increasingly complex social and “wicked policy” problems.

Practical implications – This chapter provides scholars, students, and practitioners with (1) a conceptual understanding of public administration, public management, NPM and governance; (2) a historical and contemporary perspective of the discipline; and (3) a critical perspective of research and scholarship that will provide a debate on the state of discipline.

Originality/Value – The chapter is a synthesis and review of the discipline in terms of research and scholarship drawing upon international perspectives to provide a critical debate for scholars and practitioners.

We school administrators, like “practical” men everywhere, claim to have little use for theory. In this we delude ourselves, for we all theorize. The real distinction lies not between theory and practice, but between good theory and bad theory. Good theory is a hypothesis which has undergone verification and which has potential for explaining and predicting events, and for the production of new knowledge. The development of theory, with its constant demand for semantic accuracy and simplicity, is essential as a guide to research, and as a guide to action (e.g. in administration) where it should be regarded as a relational map rather than as an itinerary. The work of Halpin, Guba and Getzels, for example, illustrates that no theory is likely to be the theory. The development of a science of administration is dependent upon such theories. The alchemist described his observations in a half‐mythical language full of metaphors and allegories, not In scientific concepts. Today we appear to live only in an age of educational alchemy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a possible discursive history of National Health Service (NHS) “management” (with management, for reasons that will become evident, very much in scare quotes). Such a history is offered as a complement, as well as a counterpoint, to the more traditional approaches that have already been taken to the history of the issue.

Document analysis and interviews with UK NHS trust chief executives.

After explicating the assumptions of the method it suggests, through a range of empirical sources that the NHS has undergone an era of administration, an era of management and an era of leadership.

The paper enables a recasting of the history of the NHS; in particular, the potential for such a discursive history to highlight the interests supported and denied by different representational practices.

Today’s so-called leaders are leaders because of conventional representational practices – not because of some essence about what they really are.

New ideas about the nature of management.

The value of thinking in terms of what language does – rather than what it might represent.

Since the early 1990s, various countries have introduced HIV prevention programmes in prisons. Such programmes include education on HIV/AIDS, HCV and on drug use for prisoners and for staff, voluntary testing and counselling, the distribution of condoms, bleach, and needles and syringes, and substitution therapy for injecting drug users. Other forms of drug‐dependence treatment, as well as drug demand reduction and drug supply reduction measures may also be relevant to managing HIV/AIDS and HCV in prisons, and may facilitate HIV prevention measures ‐ or have unintended negative consequences for such measures. Prison systems in a growing number of countries are implementing such programmes. However, many of them are small in scale and restricted to a few prisons. Provision of care and treatment for people living with HIV or AIDS has become a priority worldwide, and it is considered to be a basic human right. This includes the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ARV) in the context of comprehensive HIV/AIDS care. Providing access to ARV for those in need in the context of correctional facilities is a challenge, but it is necessary and feasible. Studies have documented that, when provided with care and access to medications, prisoners respond well to ARV. Part 3 of the select annotated bibliography on HIV/AIDS and HCV in prisons contains selected “essential” articles and reports that provide information about (1) substitution treatment and other forms of drug‐dependence treatment; (2) other drug demand and drug supply reduction measures; and (3) care, treatment, and support for prisoners living with HIVor AIDS and/or HCV. Each section also contains a brief review of the evidence, based on recent work undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This study aims to examine how the organizational structure of arts groups and their administrative personnel’s socio-demographic attributes affect the working conditions of and create tensions for their staff. Recent discussion about the cultural industries and labor has pursued two strands – macro-level research expounds on the organization of cultural industries and labor market; and micro-level studies focus on the work and employment of cultural practitioners. Very few of them, however, articulate the relationships between the two levels. This study contributes to the literature with a multilevel framework that examines the interplay between the structural conditions and personal factors in which labor–capital relationships evolve.

This study applies a qualitative approach to collect and analyze data. It conducted 39 in-depth interviews with arts managers and administrators from a sample of 18 performing arts organizations across four performing arts sectors in Hong Kong, namely, drama, music, dance and opera. The stratified sample covers arts organizations of different funding models – the public “nationalized” form, the mixed-economy form, and the privatized form.

This study shows that the funding and organization model of arts organizations resulted in various forms of job structure, and that the practitioners’ socio-demographic background shapes their career expectations. The job structure and career expectations together affect the labor turnover and influence organization strategies.

This study’s methodological contribution lies on its application of a multilevel framework to analyze the relationships between the macro- and the micro-level factors underpinning the working conditions of labor in the cultural industries. Besides, it contributes to the discussion about “labor precariousness” with empirical evidence from a comparative study of arts managers and administrators from organizations across four performing arts sectors.

In recent years, concern has been expressed that emphasis upon scientific and technological progress may have resulted in the relative neglect of the humanities, both in societal culture generally and in preparation for positions of social leadership. At present, the role of the humanities in educational administration preparatory programs is, by and large, negligible. A review of the literature suggests that there are at least three rationales which would support the introduction of humanities content into such programs: (1) to generally “liberalize” the student through broad exposure to humanistic content; (2) to train the administrator in purpose definition and value sensitivity through focused reading of philosophy and literature; and (3) to develop creative capacities in the prospective leader through the study of literature and other arts. It is recommended that attempts should be made to incorporate humanities content into preparatory programs in educational administration, that initial efforts should stress the latter two of the three above rationales, and that the endeavor should be undertaken in a preparatory institution by a three‐man team consisting of a humanities scholar, a professor of educational administration, and a school administrator.

This paper explores the concepts of knowledge-centric organizations in the performing arts sector to understand how specific organizational practices relate to measures of financial and operational performance.

A quantitative analysis of 368 small and mid-sized nonprofit performing arts organizations in the USA was undertaken via primary data on organizational practices and secondary data on performance metrics. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the latent construct of knowledge centricity and to test hypotheses on how knowledge centricity impacts financial and operational performance, and is influenced by firm-level demographic variables.

Results show several distinct performance metrics that are statistically associated with knowledge-centric practices of the organizations analyzed.

This article investigates the knowledge centricity of organizations, a relatively nascent theoretical concept, which is of significant relevance in today’s knowledge-driven economy. The findings can serve as a basis to further investigate strategic approaches that arts organizations can undertake to remain sustainable and operate effectively in a knowledge-driven society.

It provides critical insights into management practices and approaches that can be instituted to drive improved organizational performance.

Building on the extant literature, this article develops a conceptual framework of knowledge centricity and defines a knowledge-centric organization. It thoroughly investigates the latent construct of knowledge centricity, identifies how knowledge centricity impacts financial and operational performance of nonprofit performing arts organizations, and provides grounding for future studies.

This study aims to investigate hazards in theater venues on the performance day by combining operational risk theory with a service blueprint method.

Interviews and Delphi method are applied to find the hazards, then a survey and ANOVA are followed. The study explores a profile of hazards using data from theater venues in Taiwan and examines whether employee characteristics (i.e. professional tasks, experience and working location) affect risk perception.

The study suggests a new framework represented by a 5 (types of loss events) × 6 (service systems) matrix to check operational risks. The analyses indicate two types of hazards: risk perception about performance and operations by performers and crew (RPPOPC) and audience behaviors and safety (RPABS). RPPOPC is related to the core show, but not all employees possess high RPPOPC. Seniors have relatively low RPPOPC, and frontend house employees possess insufficient RPABS. Further, front house employees, seniors and those working in municipal cities show relatively high RPPOPC in high-loss situations.

Managers can use the analytic framework to effectively identify operational risks in the core show operations and audience service offerings. They can promote risk perception considering employee differences and loss severity. However, the framework does not discuss the cause-and-effect relationship. Incorporating a large amount of loss experience into a risk information system would help clarify this complex relationship.

This study contributes to hazard mitigation in the performing arts sector, both in the peripheral services for customers and in the core show services.