Browsing by Author "McLaverty, Lauren"

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    Public administration research in South Africa : an assessment of journal articles in Journal of Public Administration & Administratio Publica from 1994-2006
    (2007) McLaverty, Lauren; Cameron, Robert
    This dissertation is a study on Public Administration research in South Africa. It explores the current nature of Public Administration research in the country by analysing and categorising journal articles extending over a thirteen year time period from 1994-2006. The hypothesis guiding this dissertation is that South African Public Administration research focuses too heavily on practitioner-orientated research (applied research) rather than enhancing basic, theory-generating research. The methodology used is a content analysis of two prominent South African Public Administration journals: Journal of Public Administration (JOPA) and Administratio Publica (AP). A total of 383 articles (278 from JOPA and 105 from AP) were classified according to a set of descriptive and analytical variables to measure research characteristics prevalent within the field. Findings from this study not only confirm the hypothesis but also conclude that research deficiencies identified in the British and United States contexts exist within South African Public Administration research. This implies that there has been little evidence of developing a cumulative knowledge base within the discipline and research methodologies are generally of a poor quality making little effort to contribute to a systematic, scholarly base of Public Administration knowledge. Therefore basic, scholarly theory development in the field is weak.
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    Public Administration research in South Africa: An assessment of journal publications, 1994-2006
    (University of Pretoria, 2008-01) Cameron, Robert; McLaverty, Lauren
    The hypothesis of this article is that academics in the eld of Public Administration academics are focusing primarily on practice-oriented applied research and are not enhancing knowledge development. There has not been the same development of a cumulative and meaningful knowledge base in the discipline that there has been in the other social sciences. Theory development is weak. An empirical database was developed to test this hypothesis. An analysis was undertaken of the two main South African Public Administration journals, the Journal of Public Administration (JOPA) and Administratio Publica (AP), from 1994–2006, to establish the state of academic research in the eld. A database of 383 articles was compiled, including 2 8 articles from JOPA and 105 from AP. The methodology used was a content analysis, consisting of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. By triangulating ndings from the six main analytical variables (research topic, research purpose, research methodology, research focus, research cumulativeness and institutional funding), it was concluded that there has been little theory development in South African Public Administration. There has also not been the development of a cumulative and meaningful knowledge base in the discipline. There are a number of reasons for this, which are discussed below. The article concludes by suggesting ways to improve the quality of research in Public Administration academia.