Is public administration science or art?

Public administration is not a science or an art. Public administration is known as a "craft" for many reasons.

It is not science because there isn't an entirely correct way of doing it, there are no equations that will constitute efficiency or effectiveness for sure. Science is all about facts, a scientific rule is one that works all the time. Although administrators use scientific laws, techniques, and data, they do so in ways that give individual imagination and temperament free rein. There is no precise formula that will invariably work best in all administrative situations. Not only do situations and people vary, but ideas for handling them are almost as infinite as the human mind.

Public administration shares traits with arts but is not an art itself. Administrators work in highly imaginative ways, employing a mix of methods, including intuition. Like painters and composers, administrators often find their own moods and personalities reflect their work. There is however a vital difference that separates administration from being a craft and not an art. Artists create aesthetic works: administrators attempt to solve problems. The end products and criteria for evaluating the two differ.