The Managerial Approach to Public Administration
Origin and Values In the United States the managerial approach to public administration grew largely out of the civil service reform movement of the late 19th century. In the re formers' words, "What civil service reform demand that the business part of the government shall be carried on in a sound businesslike manner. The idea of "businesslike" public administration was most self consciously and influentially discussed by Woodrow Wilson in his essay on "The Study of Administration There, Wilson considered public administra tion to be "a field of business" and consequently largely a managerial endeavor. He also set forth the three core values of the managerial ap proach to public administration: "It is the object of administrative study to discover, first, what government can properly and successfully do, and, secondly, how it can do these proper things with the utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost either of money or of en ergy."6 public administration was to be geared toward the maximization of effective ness, efficiency, and economy.