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It is a point of continuing debate whether the study of public administration can in any circumstances be graced by a disciplinary label. Rhodes (1996), for example, has argued that the study of British public administration was traditionally insular, dominated for a long period by an institutionalist tradition characterized by an interest in administrative engineering, but a distaste for theory. As Rhodes also observes, this position emphasized, albeit in a traditional sense, the political and ethical context of administration public administration existed within a wider framework of accountability relationships and political and moral responsibilities. We might add to this the way government and public administration was seen as linked within a framework of administrative law, which, while not formalized in the sense of continental Europe, was important.

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.

Public sector management education in the developing countries of the third world is focused on with regard to the situtation in Nigeria. The efforts and potential of a particular management training institution, the Faculty of Administration at Obafemi Awolowo University, are reviewed, first by tracing the development of its management training programmes and then outlining the current courses and activities. An assessment is made of the institution′s programmes as a credible management training response to the particular problems it faces in the current African situation, and it is found that the institution may not fully appreciate the new role‐expectations built around it as detailed in The World Bank report (1987) on management training for African development. Recommendations are given for African training institutions in general: future policy cannot exclude the reality of the particular country′s economic situation; existing personnel must be encouraged to specialise; there must be flexible arrangements for teaching and consultancy; adequate resources must be available; and there must be a fundamental change in the philosophy of the training institutions.

The relevance of the work is determined by the fact that administrative law appears as one of the significant factors influencing the development of both the public administration system as a whole and the processes of its reform that the Russian Federation has faced today. The authors show that if the relations of state administration are the subject of the administrative law’s influence (after all, it is they who are influenced by administrative and legal norms), then we are faced with an extremely important question regarding the character and specificity of the relationship between administrative and legal relations and relations of state management, on the one hand, and analysis of the concept of administrative and legal regulation of public administration relations on the other. This goal is important, given that the authors substantiate the relationship between administrative law and public administration through identifying the possibilities of regulatory influence on the part of administrative law on public administration relations.

Prospects for the further development of the study are the formation of an understanding that government is not limited to administrative law, but it cannot be denied that the regulatory impact of law in public administration is decisive, and therefore public administration is largely a state-legal category, although it is not limited to this.

So, having analyzed the above approaches and positions of scientists regarding the subject of administrative law, the authors believe that it can include any managerial activity of the state authority and local government bodies that does not directly concern the subject matter of another branch of law; is realized with the help of the executive-administrative mechanism (in this case the author does not consider the executive-administrative mechanism as an exclusive prerogative or a unique feature of the executive authorities, although, of course, he agrees that it is the most typical and characteristic feature for them); is realized within the framework of a certain state authority, local government or non-governmental organization (in case of delegating state powers to it) to ensure its proper functioning (internal management relations); is implemented outside the framework of a certain state authority, local government or non-governmental organization (in case of delegating state powers to it) and is directed to other (external) with respect to the relevant body or organization of entities (external organizational management relations); and is largely characterized by relative constancy and immediacy of implementation relative to the management object.

Prospects for the further development of the study are the formation of an understanding that government is not limited to administrative law, but it cannot be denied that the regulatory impact of law in public administration is decisive, and therefore public administration is largely a state-legal category, although it is not limited to this. At the same time, indistinctness and uncertainty about different ways of understanding public administration often generate negative effects both at the general scientific level and at a purely practical level (when it comes to the exercise of administrative powers by certain state authorities).

The authors discuss a large system transformation project they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem insights are useful for practitioners who embark on similarly broad transformation processes. Design issues are discussed such as structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process and how intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of action research and action learning in a risk-averse environment typical of central governments helped create a sense of ownership, control, and collective accountability in the partner country.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.