The attention of the Public Administration field spans many macro-level areas including, but not limited to, policy creation, the control of bureaucrats, the maximisation of efficiency, as well as other national and international issues such as the management and administration of wars, budgets, financial crises, escalating prison attendance (Box 2005; 2008), diversity at work, the changing emphasis of teaching Public Administration in a postmodern era, the importance of education for the masses, and the need for violence containment in our communities (Box 2005; 2008; Farmbry 2005; Rice 2005a; 2005b; Wooldridge, Smith-Mason and Maddox 2005). However, Public Administration scholars have also increasingly been turning their attention to the needs of individual workers, and the challenges they face when undertaking their Public Administration roles, including addressing issues such as: rising workplace incivility between workers in the public sector (Vickers 2006c); the increasing need for emotion work for workers doing Public Administration work (e.g. Bolton 2005); the need for increased diversity in the workforce (Rice 2005a, 2005b; Wooldridge et al. 2005); the tragic and enduring race issues concerning those in Public Administration (Witt2006); grief experienced by Public Administration workers (Vickers 2006a); concern with the suppression of the voice of some public administrators, especially those who dare to speak out against unspeakable issues such as organisational corruption (Miller and Fox 2007: 75); and the problems surrounding knowledge and power for the public administration practitioners who find themselves to be neither a representative of executive authority, nor a neutral figure of science (Catlaw 2006).

There has been less than sufficient attention directed towards how researchers might successfully bring the tensions and challenges that public administration practitioners face to the foreground, especially in a way that draws attention and brings about the necessary change. There are a huge number of individuals who work in public administration. Public administration is an applied professional field undertaken by people of who often care very deeply about the work they do, and the people and places they serve. Such individuals often have a deep sense of wanting to make a difference, while also recognising the tension created by their desire for constructive change and the political and economic conditions that surround them that may make such changes difficult (Box 2008: 3).