Development Administration : Origin , Concept , and Diffusion

Abstract

It is now twelve years since the term development administration first came into international use. It was in 1956 that George Gant, Ford Foundation representative in Pakistan, began suggesting the usefulness of the concept. His method was socratic; he stimulated residents and visiting consultants with his searching questions. Origin and Concept Yet it was than a decade earlier that the idea behind the concept was born of a special situation in the United States. The Tennessee Valley Authority was specifically charged with the board development of a large region within the United States. In order effectively to carry out the program, the personnel office of TVA was anxious to recruit development minded administrations. Such innovators as Floyd Reeves and George Gant directed the unusual TVA personnel office, and in the latter forties, Gant became general manager of TVA.