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Public
Administration
and
Business
Administration:
Siamese
Management
Twins
Separated
at
the
Heart?
By
Jaciel
Keltgen
Dr.
Matthew
Fairholm
POLS
812
University
of
South
Dakota
Siamese
Management
Twins
Introduction
Countless
scholars
and
practitioners
over
the
years
have
attempted
to
legitimize
the
field
of
public
administration,
make
sense
of
the
so-‐called
public
administration
dichotomy,
and
to
reinforce
-‐-‐
or
erase
-‐-‐
the
connections
between
public
administration
and
its
more
popular
and
more
perhaps
more
heartless
sibling,
business
administration.
2
These
attempts
have
been
gathered
into
scholarly
journals,
fancy
tomes
and
college
textbooks.
But
the
fact
remains
that
there
is
still
great
political
debate
over
the
entire
public
administration
profession.
Arguments
will
continue
long
after
this
paper
has
been
researched,
written,
annotated
and
put
on
a
shelf
somewhere.
MPA-‐ trained
professionals
who
work
for
state,
local
or
the
federal
government
and
MBA-‐ trained
professionals
engaged
in
the
quasi-‐public
sector
will
also
continue
to
do
their
jobs
no
matter
what
lines
are
drawn,
conclusions
made
or
research
papers
presented.
Does
it
really
make
any
difference
whether
public
administration
and
business
administration
are
linked
in
any
way?
According
to
some
of
the
authors
who’ve
weighed
in
on
the
matter,
as
well
as
three
professionals
who
currently
work
or
who
have
worked
in
the
public
sectors,
and
curricular
offerings
in
master’s
programs,
it
does
matter.
All
management
is
not
necessarily
the
same.
The
history
of
the
debate
is
important
and
ongoing,
as
are
the
sorts
of
tasks
expected
on
the
job
as
well
as
preparation
for
those
tasks
and
outcomes.
Siamese
Management
Twins
3
Not
surprisingly
since
most
of
the
literature
reflects
research
and
writings
by
scholars,
there
is
little
mention
of
emotion
or
passion
reflected
in
discussions
of
business
administration
tasks.
The
vernacular
is
limited
to
terms
like
“bottom
line”
and
“return
on
investment”
rather
than
“connection
to
mission”
or
“doing
the
right
thing.”
These
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