The challenges of knowledge production by researchers in Public Administration, a South African perspective

Abstract

This article reflects on the challenges of knowledge production by researchers in South African Public Administration. It tries to establish whether published Public Administration research findings indeed address the core knowledge needs of government by solving those problems which cannot be solved by competent public officials. An analysis is, inter alia, done of (a) articles published in a South African peer-reviewed journal for Public Administration, (b) the research focus areas of the National Research Foundation (NRF), (c) the Practices for Effective Local Government developed by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and (d) of the address of the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, at the second joint sitting of the third democratic Parliament, Cape Town on 11 February 2005. This article concludes that South African scholars in Public Administration, on the one hand, and government, on the other hand, at least have a shared awareness of what needs to be known in the field.