The Interdisciplinary Nature of the Public Management Diploma 144

I draw on data from the lecturer interviews and study guides to show the interdisciplinary nature of the PM Diploma.

5.3.3.1 Lecturer Interviews

When lecturers spoke of the outlines of the various module units in the interviews, it became apparent which fields they were drawing on. For example, the Public Resource Management module drew on fields such as Business Management, Marketing, Human Resource Management, Logistics, Economics and Financial Information (many of which are themselves regions): “What is public resources, what

are the arrangements the market practices….and other concepts, like what is human resources, what is finance information?... Logistics comes in, we even go practically into, let’s say, supply management then we go into human resources management, we go into programme management, project management” (Interview: Sam).

On the other hand, the Self-Management module drew on the fields of Psychology and Business Management: “We take a look at self-concept to understand

themselves… how to become a company leader of the organisation” and “… there will be Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.” (Interview: Akhona).

The Public Service Delivery module drew on Business Management principles and Development Studies: “Okay, types of public services, what is public service

delivery, the origin of public service delivery, how they should go about it in terms of what is required by the public,…” and “I do development also. So what is development, what is required for development, the goals of development, all of that...” (Interview: Rebecca).

The Public Decision-Making module drew primarily on the field of Business Management: “the importance of making correct decisions in big organisations as

well and in this context we also discuss the dynamics of legislation issues...”

Finally, the Public Office Management module drew on both Business Management and Administration: “Business and Office Administration… It’s a general book but

we use it. Administrative duties so the role of the administrator and then records management, we do that.” (Interview: Rebecca). While lecturers had not explicitly

given the fields that the PM Diploma drew on, it became evident in their discussion of the content of their modules which fields they were looking to. I will now discuss findings from the textbooks for the interdisciplinary nature of the PM Diploma.

5.3.3.2 Textbooks

The PM Diploma textbooks demonstrated the extent of the interdisciplinary nature of the PM Diploma. For example, the list of contents of the Badenhorst et al (2005) textbook revealed that the fields of Economics and Business Administration were being drawn on: “Economic Structures, Financing/Banking and Stock Markets, The

office environment” and “Financial Record keeping”. A further example can be found

on the contents page of the du Toit et al (2002) textbook: “Public Administration and

Management, Public Resource Management, Human Resource Practice, Public Office Management and Self-Management”. The Gildenhuys (2004) textbook was

more explicit in its comments: “…one must conclude that the teaching of Public

Adminsitration requires a multidisciplinary approach. It involves some knowledge of Political Philosophy, Economics, Economic Philosophy, Sociology, Social Philosophy and the Philosophy of Public Law (Constitutional and Administrative Law)” (2002:

15). Having shown that textbooks were looking to singulars to define the PM Diploma field, I now discuss findings from the study guides for the interdisciplinary nature of the PM Diploma.

5.3.3.3 Study Guides

The study guides also pointed to the fields that PM Diploma modules drew on. The Public Resources Management study guide listed the following textbooks among additional reading requirements for students: Erasmus and Visser (1997),

Government Finance and Gildenhuys (1993), Public Financial Management (Public

Resources Management study guide). Students were also required to read the following Acts of Parliament: “South Africa. Public Finance Management Act 1 of

1999 (as amended) and South Africa: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 (as amended)” (Public Resources Management study guide). These textbooks and acts

showed that the field of Economics was being drawn on.

The Self-Management module also included a unit on Public Financing as was shown by this extract: “The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) 1 of 1999” (Self-Management study guide). These extracts showed that the modules drew on the fields of Economics and Finance.

The Public Decision-Making module also drew on Law as the unit on Policy-Making included the following: “The policy-making process: initiation phase, research and

analysis phase, policy formulation phase, policy approval phrase and implementation phase” (Public Decision-Making study guide). Similarly, the Public Service Delivery

module drew on the field of Law. This was shown in the following extract: “the

learner will…have knowledge of …legislative framework for service delivery...”

(Public Service Delivery study guide).

5.3.3.4 Conclusion

The data strongly demonstrated that the PM Diploma was a region that faced inward to fields such as Business Management, Psychology, Human Resources Management, Marketing, Law, Logistics and Financial Information Studies. Furthermore, the PM field drew on the fields of Political Philosophy, Economics, Economic Philosophy, Sociology, Social Philosophy and the Philosophy of Public Law. Therefore, the PM field could be characterised as multidisciplinary. Many of the fields PM drew on, such as Business Management, were themselves regions and did not have long histories of theory to draw on. In Bernstein terms, this weakened the knowledge base of PM.

The fragmented nature of the PM field (Van Dijk and Thornhill, 2011) was seen in the different emphases placed by different lecturers as to the key focus: “To be able to

manage resources you need mathematics. Ja, to be able to understand”, “Logistics is part of it.…”. (Interview: Sam); “Make a difference, especially with problem solving techniques” (Interview: Natasha); “Public Service Delivery and how would you apply it in the public sector” (Interview: Rebecca) and “you need to manage yourself well in the work environment.” (Interview: Akhona). The lack of clarity about the

characteristics of the PM field as a whole, evident in the data in this study, was in keeping with Van Dijk and Thornhill’s (2011) argument that the field lacked a specific language and theory. The interviews tended to show a strong concentration by

lecturers on localised practices pertinent to their own module rather than a holistic PM philosophy. Having shown in this section that PM was a region that looked to the world of practice and draws on many fields, I now turn to a discussion of the epistemic relations within the PM Diploma.