This unique collection broadens the focus of public administration to include practical and theoretical insights from the worlds of literature and the arts. By making connections between what are normally seen as disparate arenas, the contributors seek to enrich the theory and practice of public administration. The volume connects administrative and management concepts to both Western and Eastern aesthetic theories; provides insights into administration by surveying literature and film for negative and positive constructs of bureaucracy; examines historical and fictional portrayals of...

Murray seeks to demonstrate how Eastern philosophy can contribute to the development of Western public administration theory and practice. She views the end of the 20th century as an epoch-making time in which the limitations of modern thought need to be examined. Murray shares the belief held by many public administration scholars that a reconceptualization of the field is in order. She contributes to that end by focusing on individual administrators and the problems they face as they continuously struggle to balance political exigencies and governmental processes in a society that simply...