The effects of continuing public sector management education: a systematic literature review

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review previous research on the effects of continuing public sector management education to systematize existing knowledge, identify gaps in the literature and to point out a need for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe purpose is realized as a systematic literature review using the Scopus and JSTOR databases as well as Google Scholar. A combination of the search words identified in previous research about the topic were used: Effect, outcome, impact and result in a combination with three different types of further adult education within leadership, management and/or administration: Master of Public Administration (MPA), Master of Public Management (MPM) and Master of Public Governance (MPG). The initial search resulted in millions of files. To continue in a manageable way, the first 10 results pages of each search were analyzed according to three categories: Individual level, organizational level and professional level.FindingsResults show a limited number of papers documenting the effects of the education programs. Most papers regard the individual level effects, very few the organizational level and a few more the professional level. Given the low number of studies on the last two levels, these are suggested for future research.Originality/valueThis is the first study to summarize knowledge on the effects of the professional masters' programs MPA, MPM and MPG.