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In public management research, the focus in the public value debate has been on public administration organizations’ broader societal outcomes. Public value describes how public administrations form a vital part of the social context in which people develop and grow. However, there has not yet been an analysis of how public administration contributes to happiness in society.

In this study, we empirically analyze the relationship between people’s happiness and the public value of public administration. Our approach is based on a unique Swiss survey dataset comprising 870 individuals.

We find a positive relationship between public administration’s public value and happiness. We also find preliminary evidence with a moderation analysis that the relationship between a value-creating public administration sector and self-reported happiness is stronger for public administration employees.

While correlation studies cannot claim causal explanations and common method bias may additionally limit any research in social science, we took a number of measures to mitigate related problem. We tested our model in two samples and took both several procedural techniques and a survey design minimizing common method bias.

The paper discusses implications for public sector performance measurement for public management and practitioners.

This study calls for a more positive view on the multiple functions public administration performs for society. After an era of critical voices, our study helps reclaim public administration as a positive force for society at large in times of grand challenges, such as climate crisis, demographics and digitization.

This study has highlighted the importance between public administration’s public value and happiness in Swiss public service organizations. The study also showed that an employment in the public administration contributes to the happiness of individuals and beyond to society.

Practical wisdom is central to the tremendous success of Peter Drucker as a management thinker. The paper aims to argue that the attractiveness of his writings is mainly due to the underlying Christian value system, which is the basis for the coherence of his thinking, and the reference system for his normative statements and practical wisdom.

The paper discerns the moral foundations of Peter Drucker's work by highlighting explicit value statements in his early writings, some even before he turned to management. Against this background, examples are provided of how he translates his values in practical wisdom into dealing with management challenges.

A major driving force of Drucker's entire work is seen as the secularization of his religious beliefs. His practical suggestions for modern corporations are deeply influenced by Christian faith. Up to now this has been largely unknown or ignored.

The paper rests on limited text analysis which should be extended in future research. If Drucker's success may be at least partially attributed to his moral tone, any effort to redeem management and to anchor it as a liberal art can deploy his work.

Dissecting the moral background of the most influential management thinker in the last century the paper reveals that Drucker's practical wisdom is the result of a deep connection between Christian values and knowledge. It clearly points to an integrated research perspective, and above all it calls for a rigorous inquiry into moral assumptions underlying any writing on management.

This study aims to explore an exemplar of the design and application of a systemic framework for higher education. The field of application is in the social sciences and the perspective long-term, covering three generations of faculty and many generations of students.

This study is exploratory. It contains a conceptual component and an empirical component with a long-term case study from a European university.

A cybersystemic approach to higher education has been shown, at the focal university, to be a powerful amplifier of individual and institutional capabilities, and it still has great potential. The crucial prerequisite is that the approach is virtuously designed and implemented.

A case study ranging over 50 years is presented. The respective university has been a role model for other educational institutions for many years. Its influence in the German-speaking countries, and more recently also internationally, has become significant.