Public administration scholars argue that further research is needed to understand ordinary day-to-day behaviors of the traditional government agency in the era of inter-organization collaboration and governance, including reconciling traditional bureaucratic management theories with modern-day cross-sector governance theories. I answered this call by utilizing classic grounded theory methodology to discover and theorize the latent patterns of behavior of such an agency—the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry—via the perspective of public managers. The primary source of data was unstructured interviews with 55 district and assistant district managers from the Bureau, and two interviews with executive directors of statewide nonprofits that frequently engage with the districts. Following the systematic processes of classic grounded theory methodology, I developed a theory called the Theory of Pragmatic Public Management that consists of the core category of Mission-driven Management, its four sub-core categories (Balancing, Advocating Value, Adapting to Uncertainty, and Prudent Collaboration), and two contextual conditions in the form of organization dynamics that impact the system (Organizational Capacity and Organizational Discretion). The theory is a modifiable and transferable theory that entwines traditional intra-organization management and inter-organization collaborative public management behaviors and relies on pragmatist thought for additional conceptual integration. It informs existing public management research that focuses on the day-to-day behaviors of public managers and offers practical insights on public management in the contemporary era of governance.

中文翻译：

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以经典扎根理论方法发展务实公共管理理论

公共行政学者认为，需要进一步研究以了解传统政府机构在跨组织协作和治理时代的日常行为，包括将传统的官僚管理理论与现代跨部门治理理论相协调。我回应了这一呼吁，利用经典的扎根理论方法，从公共管理者的角度发现和理论化这样一个机构——宾夕法尼亚林业局——的潜在行为模式。数据的主要来源是对来自该局的 55 名地区和助理地区经理的非结构化访谈，以及对经常与地区接触的全州非营利组织执行董事的两次访谈。遵循经典扎根理论方法论的系统过程，我发展了一种称为实用公共管理理论的理论，它由使命驱动管理的核心范畴、它的四个子核心范畴（平衡、倡导价值、适应不确定性和审慎合作）和两个背景条件组成。影响系统的组织动态形式（组织能力和组织自由裁量权）。该理论是一种可修改、可转移的理论，将传统的组织内管理和组织间协同公共管理行为交织在一起，依靠实用主义思想进行额外的概念整合。它为现有的公共管理研究提供了信息，这些研究侧重于公共管理者的日常行为，并为当代治理时代的公共管理提供了实用的见解。