A STRATEGY FOR ADMINISTRATIVE RESEARCH.

Just as the practice of administration is changing — as it is generally acknowledged to be — so is the study of administration. This process of viable, increasing change is the result not only of rapid social alteration and technical advancements, but also the number of able critics, the very activeness of professional organizations, the financial cornucopia of foundations interested in administrative processes, and the growing legions of social-behavioral scientists applying their knowledge and methods to the problems of administration. In these times of change it is becoming a prevalent suspicion that contemporary theories of administration are inadequate and perhaps even misleading and erroneous. In fact, a popular sport among students of administration is the cataloging, labeling, re-labeling and criticizing of the various administrative theories. These critics see the theories as being too abstract or too concrete, too limited to the descriptive or too drastically over reaching their evidence, too culture-bound, time-bound, or institution-bound, and too 'unscientific', that is, neither reliable nor valid. This paper reflects the present uneasiness with administrative research and theory, yet hopefully does not add to the current outcries or complaints. Rather we hope to offer a strategy for research on the administrative process which should be less open to the above charges. This strategy in essence suggests we do not over formalize too early in theory development, rather that we systematize the process of the step-by-step thinking we rely upon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]