Three Problematic Concepts in the Study of Public Affairs - Systems Approach ; Organizational Health ; and Development

Abstract

This paper is an outcome of a preliminary expedition to the semantics jungle of a few familiar but elusive concepts of public affairs studies. The author's intention in the expedition was to help build a consensus on the usage of those terms. He tried to define the concepts or probe and clarity problems of their uses. But his explication is neither comprehensive nor conclusive. Assertions made in this paper are experimental, and, in many places, opinions of others are fitted together into a mosaic. It is a note the author should make that he feels premature to reveal this unorganized memoir. What countervails this feeling is the expectation that he could enlist better suggestions from readers and take the opportunity to rearrange his thinkings. He hopes to revisit the concepts explored in this paper.