Abstract

Public administration curricula typically offer only very limited exposure to computers, despite the growing importance of computers in public management. This paper examines an approach to teaching computer management in a masters of public administration program, and relates that approach to the broader question of what public administrators need to know about computers. The approach involves instruction in computer literacy, computer applications, and management of computer resources. Instruction in these three areas appears to increase the importance students place on managing computer resources and on understanding computer concepts, and to decrease the relative importance students place on managers' knowledge about specific computer applications. This shift in viewpoint appears appropriate based on interviews which suggest that practicing administrators place greater emphasis on understanding the broad issues of computer resource management, rather that on more specific computer knowledge or skill.