A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PROFESSIONALS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION STUDENTS--THEIR ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF PUBLIC AGENCY POSITIONS (PROFESSIONALISM, MPA STUDENTS, SOCIALIZATION, MANAGEMENT)

This research on "A Comparative Study of Public Administration Professionals and Public Administration Students--Their Attitudes and Perceptions of Public Agency Positions" is a study conducted on two groups of individuals--professionals working in Public Administration and students currently enrolled in a Master of Public Administration Program. This is not a longitudinal study conducted over a period of time. It is a study that focuses on a group of diversified public professionals to determine their attitudes and perceptions towards their positions in public administration management. Basically, what is it about their current position that they like or dislike, and what are their expectations? For comparison, the study also surveyed a group of Master of Public Administration (MPA) students regarding what they expect and what they desire in seeking a position in public administration management. The study suggests that there are some similarities between what professionals desire and what the students expect in these positions; however, there are certain areas in which there are disparities between what the professionals have in their present position and what students expect to find in their future jobs or positions in a public administration career.;The survey results from the professional groups suggests that although the process of socialization is not addressed directly, empirical data may lead to inferences that universities and colleges provide a pre-socializing function which is grounded in academia and not what is necessarily the agency management milieu in the field.;The survey results from the open-ended questions completed by the professionals in the field indicate a high percentage of professionals feel that students are not adequately prepared for the types of problems they will experience in the day-to-day operations of an agency.;There is substantial evidence in the literature on the attitudes and perceptions of professionals and students towards their choice of vocation. Some of this literature deals with the socialization process that suggests that the primary role of professional education is not only to teach skills, but to convey attitudes and expectations deemed appropriate to subsequent professional roles. In this regard, universities engaged in professional education function as a pre-socializing agent (institutions) in occupations where future roles will be demanding. While these functions and impacts of professional education have been studied in a number of career fields, little if any research has been conducted in the field of public administration and management.