Mission-Extrinsic Public Values as an Extension of Regime Values

Abstract

The academic fields of public administration and public management are diverging. Public management focuses primarily on the orthodox values of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and value for money. It views accountability from the perspective of obtaining results (outcomes) defined in terms of core mission objectives and the operations that are ancillary to their achievement, such as deploying financial, human, and other resources cost-effectively. Public administration is also interested in all of the above. However, it retains the field’s broad interest in regime values and other public values. This analysis seeks to provide a clearer conception of mission-extrinsic public values and their centrality to public administration in the United States and the People’s Republic of China.