Tracy Smith Hall's Dissertation - “Rediscovering a Fundamentally New and Practical Administrative Alternative”

This dissertation, "Rediscovering a Fundamentally New and Practical Administrative Alternative," by Tracy Smith Hall, explores an alternative to the dominant "business metaphor" in public administration by developing a "home metaphor" grounded in feminine perspectives. Hall draws upon feminist scholarship and interdisciplinary fields like sociology, psychology, and political science to construct this new administrative lens. The work analyzes the limitations of current management theories rooted in a masculine, rationalistic worldview and proposes that the home metaphor, with its emphasis on relationships, collaboration, and context, offers fresh insights for managing public institutions. The dissertation examines case studies of police departments adopting "community policing" to illustrate how the principles of the home metaphor are being practically enacted. Ultimately, Hall advocates for recognizing and valuing both the home and business metaphors as complementary approaches to public administration and problem-solving.

Feminist Typology Article 

This article asks scholars and public administrators to recognize the dominant and often unacknowledged gendering of public administration’s history and current practice and to counter that narrative with the practices historically associated with women and the home. The authors use the home and business metaphors introduced in Camilla Stivers’ Bureau Men, Settlement Women to build a typology for public administration with four primary dimensions: epistemology, ontology, social theory, and ethics. After a review of the literature, the article explores each of these dimensions in detail. The article closes with a discussion of applying the typology, challenges to its implementation, and the opportunities it presents to the field.

Proposing a Theoretical and Practical Administrative Alternative to Punishment: A Foundation for Healing and Restoration in the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration 

This article offers a home metaphor perspective based on public administration scholarship that is described in a 4-dimensional theoretical typology (epistemology; ontology; social theory; and ethics) suggesting a fully realized feminine model of administration. Applied to and revealed by the community policing movement, the home metaphor provides a foundation for alternative theory and praxis that may be used to address the afterlife of mass incarceration, providing a healing and restorative basis for re-conceptualizing and re-constructing the relationship between public administrators and citizens.

Book: Mary Parker Follett - Prophet of Management

We draw on the important research of many public administration and related academics and scholars, chief among them, Mary Parker Follett. For those interested in learning about Ms. Follett, this book is a solid introduction. 

Book: Camilla Stivers - Bureau Men, Settlement Women: Constructing Public Administration in the Progressive Era

Camilla Stivers's "Bureau Men, Settlement Women" reveals how early 20th-century urban reform efforts, led by men and women with distinct gender-based approaches, shaped public administration. Men applied business-like science, while women in settlement houses focused on social welfare. Stivers argues that the field's male-dominated evolution obscured women's crucial, more effective contributions, leading to a narrow, instrumental view of public service. She advocates for a broader, people-centered approach, challenging current practices and education in public administration.