Introduction
Public Administration is linked to the subject of Public Policy (comparable with Business Management, Political Science, Political Affairs, and Organizational Management and Leadership). Graduates learn the nuances of budgeting, grant-writing, public relations, mediating, leadership, organization, research, policy-writing, and a lot of other aspects by studying Public Administration. It teaches them to engage in and discover realistic answers to the existing contemporary issues of our times, as sustainable living, climate-change, education, and health care reform. A Public Administration degree prepares and enables the student to administer public and private organizations, non-profit and service groups, and get employed in different organs of the government (federal, state, county, and local) as well as civic organizations, controlling diverse departments. A bachelor in Public Administration allows one to clinch an opportunity to work in the organization of his preference. The student becomes an able contender for finding a job in the lower-level management of any organization to begin with. However then the question comes, why complete a Master in Public Administration at all? The Highly paid jobs call for a Master’s degree. In order to secure that dream job which one always aspired for, such as heading a company, supervising tough projects, consultation, teaching, it is imperative to possess an advanced degree.
MPA is playing a great role in training the people to provide the services to the government sector. It helps in finding out different ways in building good economic systems by supporting each other. Many people who have attained this degree assume that it will help them in developing the good public relations, but there is no such related real world impact which is stated. In this program, the students were selected in order to take their review and experience regarding this Master program (Jamil & Jreisat, 2002). Individuals are moving towards diverse fields where they think they can give good results and can lift their career well, so this may also be the reason of increasing the number of students in this field. MPA program has gained so much popularity, and this is one of the most growing fields but this point is not enough in determining that whether it a successful program for everyone or not, the thing is to measure that what it is providing to the society and how?. MPA degree is designed for public sector, and it helps individuals to serve federal, provisional, profit, and non-profit organizations. The MPA degree holds many interdisciplinary fields like economics, law, anthropology, sociology, regional planning, and political science in order to polish MPA graduates with abilities and knowledge overlapping a wide range of mediums related to the public sector.
Thesis: Even though MBA holds worth in market, but one can be successful with the MPA degree. NASPAA shows the highest trend of salaries of MPA holders since 2011.
Discussion
The success rate of the individuals who are doing Master in Public administration has increased. The scope of MPA and its growth can be easily measured by the success rate. But, still there is a need of training and educating effective practitioners. There is a need to refine the list of people who are accepted for this and who can apply? All this depends on the universities that whether they should accept late comers or not and if yes, so what are the basis to it. It usually happens some people are good on their jobs while not good in securing the good results. Therefore, it is stated as the unpleasant dilemma. Different research shows that colleges do not accept an individual who just stepped in the queue of admissions in the MPA, but they thoroughly judge well that whether the candidate is capable of pursuing the program. The questions should be answered before enrolment, why it is important for students to go for further studies as they are well settled in their current job? The problems related to people enrollment for further studies who have been apart from it since a long time is well discussed in this paper, that whether they worth this master program or not.
There are a number of people who return to studies after their career development but the gap between their development career and studies is hard to handle. The issue is that it does not barb out the point that, in fact universities today need students whom almost two or more years experienced in their related jobs (Laurence & Meier, 2014). It is also been observed that whatever the theoretical aspects are, it is totally different from its practical implications because human behavior keeps changing with the time and problem which in reality seem not to be there. In today’s fast moving, world where there is a need of a good degree there is a need of experience too as organizations are becoming sensitive, and they need people who authentically know how to manage resources well and to give management production in as low cost as they can. The benefits of MPA programs are that it makes people well understand their dealing with the people and how they should act upon some situation, which tends to build the particular attitude which is needed by the organization. Better employment is one of the precise reasons due to which many people are pursuing MPA today.
A definite advantage, but an MPA offers much more than just securing one’s dream job; these include the flexibility rendered by this subject to one’s career. It makes for easy transitions between varied employments fields, and this is so because an MPA coursework is interconnected with many fields of study, and that makes it transferable. This allows a graduate the freedom to choose from varied options (Laurence & Meier, 2014). The extensive and flexible sphere of Public Administration makes for diverse job opportunities. A student may decide to start working government and non-profit organizations, or any other organizations. The salary and perks statistics on the MPA/MPP graduates are restricted around the world with USA being one of the few nations possessing collection of data about the pay of different graduates. Hence, the salary and perks data in this section mainly relates to MPA/MPP graduates working in the US (Laurence & Meier, 2014).
MPA and MBA
1. There are quite a few similarities between MPAs and MBAs, both being professional degrees that teach management training by way of economics, policy, statistics, and finance.
2. These are both degrees requiring resolution for ever changing sectors. While MBA programs read the market, the MPA attempt to resolve market letdown- and there is a marked variation between reading and resolving. In the MBA, the market has already been figured out, one is just becoming skilled at how to do it. In the MPA, there are huge issues waiting to be resolved. MBAs are employed to drive a particular company towards profits, and there is loads of information available on this in the form of books and literature but MPAs is hired to act in order to encourage their organizations in making the globe better, but sadly our literature is not as rich and the stance is less certain.
3) MPAs wish to transform the world but are not unreasonable about the same.
The professionals hail from the top notch institutions, much like the professionals for MBA programs.
4) MPA holds higher significance on social good.
Does this imply that future might witness certain MPAs in the corporate sector transforming the system? Public administration careers are easily found in diverse organizations which are working towards the public good at local, state, national and global levels. An MPA or MPP degree, irrespective of which degree one pursue, there are plenty of opportunities available for public administration careers in government.
A plethora of career options have come up in the “new public sector”: non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which are striving for public good. National, as well as international nonprofit organizations, also forms the basis for careers in public administration.
The U.S. Census Bureau states that there are in excess of 90,000 state and local government entities in the country. These governments hire more than 16 million full-time workers, while the federal government employs an additional 3 million. The majority of these employees are functioning in public administration. An emerging trend for outsourcing public services has also produced the demand for public administrators in the private sector. There are approximately 1.4 million nonprofit institutions in the United States alone (Lewis, 1987). The Chronicle of Philanthropy informs that 43 percent of nonprofit organizations are planning on hiring new workers in 2012.
A third plan to hire employees who provide public services. A third of the nonprofits also plan to hire fundraisers and program managers. There is a need to find out the worth and success rate of the people who are doing and want to enroll in MPA programs and what is the makes an MPA graduate different from others educational program graduates. The value of Masters in public administration is a controversial question therefore, the four aspects that are normally measured includes ROI- return on Investment that determines the ratio of return from the students doing MPA programs, the willingness of the experienced one to advise others and the fulfillment that comes along with the salary. In some countries, MPA has made extensively good scope but in others it has not, however, this is the case with other graduation programs (Master's handbook, 2013).
Other factors should have been discovered that include the environment that is created by pursuing a degree, the companies are having an MPA graduate employee and what value is it adding to the employee’s life. Sometimes money cannot give the satisfaction that people require. Often many people are conscious about their position in the organization and their work; individuals with this mindset often minimize the priority of the having good salary then acquiring good position (Master's handbook, 2013). Return on investment is a factor that varies; this factor cannot thoroughly determine the scope of the master in public administration degree as pay rates differ from place to place and structure of the organizations make it important or unimportant, this factor is important and must be considered (Lewis, 1987).
Salary Trends
Salaries of MPA graduates and post-graduates greatly vary by sector. As reported in a 2009-2010 official report from the U.S. Census Bureau, recipients of MPA master’s degrees earn about $19,000 that is high than bachelor’s degrees holders. Evans school of public affairs shows the trend of MPA graduates salary with an increase of 31%.
Source: (Cornell, 2013)
Salary range of an MPA holder greatly varies depending on different factors, like race, age and experience. Following chart shows the starting salaries by sector. In 2013, a GS-9’s per anum salary initiates at $41,563, while a GS-11’s initiates at $50,287.
Source: University of Pittsburgh GSPIA
The following chart displays the salary comparison by sectors.
Source: (Cornell, 2013)
Conclusion
The MPA has well maintained its position in the market as compared to the others but also it is a minor source of the managerial personnel and indicates that it is of lesser importance comparing to other different programs. There are different factors that affect the education system and the scope of degree’s programs. It is possible, in some regions if there are fewer requirements of people holding law degree, there can be higher demand of MPA degree. The result examined that people are truly happy choosing this program as it directed them towards a producing the good results, by doing this program they not only obtained the degree, but they get well trained that how they can well perform in their jobs. MPA was the way to their success in building their strong and personality and making their work easy for them.
References
Cornell. (2013). Cornel Report, Retrieved: 08-04-2014. http://www.cipa.cornell.edu/customcf/docviewer/cipa_brochure/files/assets/downloads/cipa_brochure.pdf
Jamil E. JreisatJ. E. (2002), Comparative Public administration and policy, 1st Edition, ISBN: 0813398037.
Laurence J. O’Toole Jr.Kenneth J. and Meier. (2014), Public Management, Context, and Performance: In Quest of a More General Theory. Retrieved: 06-04-2014. http://jpart.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/03/28/jopart.muu011.short?rss=1
Lewis, G. B. (1987). How much is an MPA worth? Public administration education and federal career success. International Journal of Public Administration, 9(4), 397-415.
Master's handbook. (2013), Master of Public administration, retirved: 05-04-2014,http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/uploadedFiles/pa/2011-12%20handbook.pdf
