Beyond public vs. private: The Transformative Potential of Democratic Feminist Management

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2006

Publication Title

Administrative Theory & Praxis

Volume

28

Issue

3

First Page

359

Last Page

380

Abstract

The transformative potential of public administration is forestalled by the portrayal of management as sphere-specific or apolitical and the resultant portrayal of marginality as natural. The lived experiences of people at the organizational level and beyond deny the objectivity of separating public and private management and thus, through the exposure of the politics of management, open a space for discussion of the transformative potential of public administration. This paper suggests a more holistic "management" approach, built on the ideas of feminist and democratic theories and the praxis of Mary Parker Follett, Jane Addams, and more contemporary feminist theories of management. We conclude that a democratic feminist theory of management is potentially transformative in its recognition of the conditions under which all forms of marginalization are sustained and the discovery of the potential to change them.

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