Keith F. Snider

Beyond the Body of Knowledge: A Knowledge-Flow Approach to Project Management Theory and Practice

Much of the theory associated with project management is explicitly organized according to taxonomic bodies of knowledge (BOK). Although such BOK are conceptually simple and easily disseminated, their generally static and explicit nature is out of phase with the dynamics of critical, tacit knowledge as it flows through the project organization. In this paper, we argue for a more descriptive view of project management theory, one that captures the dynamics of knowledge flows, addresses tacit knowledge and provides new insight into interrelationships between the management of project knowledge and the management of project activities in the enterprise. Introducing a multidimensional model of knowledge flow to describe project management theory, we instantiate this model with a project example from the domain of software development.

Expertise or Experimenting?: Pragmatism and American Public Administration, 1920-1950

This article examines pragmatism’s role in aspects of American public administration’s development during the period of the orthodoxy and the reactions to the orthodoxy (roughly 1920 to 1950). It concludes that the administrative mainstream of expertise never embraced, and indeed implicitly rejected, the pragmatism of Peirce, James, and Dewey, which is characterized by an attitude of experimentation. A more complete understanding of this aspect of our intellectual heritage is important as we consider contemporary calls for a turn toward pragmatism as a way to address the legitimacy issue, the theory-practice gap, and other problematic conditions in the field.

Public Procurement Policy: Implications for Theory and Practice

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the study of public procurement policy. It reviews policy-related writings by public procurement scholars and assesses these works from the perspective of their contributions to generalized understandings of public procurement policy. Selected tools and concepts from the policy sciences are applied to propose a model to illuminate unique aspects of public procurement policy in ways that will facilitate its study. The paper concludes by discussing some recent actions, trends, and issues from the U.S defense procurement sector in terms of the framework. Models such as the one proposed in this paper will contribute to enhanced approaches to procurement policy analysis by scholars, as well as to informed and sophisticated policy implementation by practitioners.

Procurement leadership: from means to ends

Procurement is often perceived as a tactical rather than a strategic function. Such perceptions result from the way procurement is usually defined as beginning after a need has been identified. Procurement thus focuses on tactical decisions involving means rather than on strategic decisions involving ends. For procurement to become strategic, procurement professionals must be recognized as having legitimate leadership roles in determining organizational ends. The paper presents two conceptual frameworks to move procurement in this direction. The first-pragmatism-resolves the dichotomy between ends and means. The second-a conservator model of agency leadership-highlights the importance of promoting and maintaining public procurements institutional integrity. Together, these may equip procurement professionals to adopt leadership roles in strategic organizational decision making.

US and European Public Procurement Policies for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME): A Comparative Perspective

This paper provides a comparative perspective of public procurement policies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the United States and Europe. Public procurement is increasingly recognized as a strategic function of public administration because of the huge amount of resources it consumes, as well as the important policy objectives it seeks to promote, including SME-related objectives. Progress towards meeting SME procurement participation goals, however, remains elusive on both sides of the Atlantic. Policy makers and administrators have little comparative research upon which to draw regarding the effectiveness of various policy approaches, a shortcoming this paper seeks to address. An institutional perspective is adopted which helps explain similarities and differences in U.S. and European SME policies.

Rethinking Public Administration's Roots in Pragmatism: The Case of Charles A. Beard

This article portrays the pragmatism of Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey as an insignificant influence during the early years of American public administration. The mainstream thinking during that time was exemplified by the ideas of Charles A. Beard, an influential figure in the early era of the field. Beard’s writings illustrate the way public administration ignored important aspects of pragmatism in favor of practical attitudes and focus on apolitical efficiency. As a result, administrative orthodoxy developed in opposition to pragmatism, which explains the abandonment and misinterpretation of Mary Parker Follett’s ideas. Equipped with the recognition that public administration has never really given pragmatism a chance, scholars and practitioners may be led to consider its possibilities in a contemporary administrative context.

Public Procurement: Public Administration and Public Service Perspectives

Why is public procurement not a major topic in public administration education programs? While many scholars and practitioners acknowledge its importance, most master’s degree programs in public administration do not. In this paper we document this discrepancy, investigate its causes, and provide two remedies to place public procurement more squarely in the educational mainstream. The first entails a description of public procurement from wellestablished public administration perspectives, which illustrates how closely public procurement is aligned with the field’s traditional functions and issues. The second analyzes public procurement in the context of the “public service values” orientation of NASPAA’s accreditation standards, which indicates the extent to which these values are inherently accounted for and manifested in agency procurement policies, processes, and practices. Thus, public administration might achieve a deeper and broader understanding of public service values by paying more attention to public procurement in its education programs. We conclude with recommendations for public administration schools that may want to (a) incorporate public procurement content in existing master’s degree courses; (b) add a public procurement course; or (c) adopt a public procurement concentration for the master’s degree.

Rortyan Pragmatism “Where’s the Beef” for Public Administration?

Hugh Miller (2004) surely accomplished his purpose in his article, “Why Old Pragmatism Needs an Upgrade.” Hickman (2004), Stolcis (2004), Webb (2004), and Pat Shields (2004), whose article titled “The Community of Inquiry” (Shields, 2003) serves as Miller’s foil, have each responded with spirited defenses of John Dewey’s classic pragmatism against Richard Rorty’s neopragmatism. I very much appreciate Miller’s (2004) putting forth his essay as something of a stalking horse in support of the objectives of Disputatio Sine Fine. Clearly, he intends no detailed analysis of either Deweyan or Rortyan pragmatism. His goal is simply to suggest that we begin to pay attention to the potential importance of Rorty in public administration thought. In doing so, he of course exposes his (and Rorty’s) flanks to more considered rejoinders from his critics. But he deserves much credit for eliciting these criticisms, which have served to promote pragmatism in the dialogue of the field. That commendation aside, I agree with the other respondents who find little to nothing to favor Rorty rather than Dewey for public administration. Rather than iterate their respective points—most of which I think are

Products That Kill and Corporate Social Responsibility The Case of U.S. Defense Firms

Scholars of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which refers to the responsibilities of a firm to society in four domains: economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary, have typically excluded defense firms from their research, mainly on ideological grounds. This study challenges these assumptions and measures the CSR orientations of managers of defense firms. The findings reveal the orientations of defense firm managers to be consistent with those of other corporate populations, though the highly regulated environment of defense contracting causes some differences. The findings help to redeem the social standing of defense firms, and by implication, their employees and the military members who use their products, from unwarranted antimilitary biases.

On the Problem of Adopting Pragmatism in Public Administration

Answering the question, “Should public administration adopt pragmatism?” requires some agreement on what pragmatism means and what that adoption might entail. This article argues that such agreement does not currently exist and, without it, calls by administrative theorists for adoption will not receive their intended responses.