Past approaches to public administration, the diminishing distinctions between foreign and domestic policy, the role of the public administrator, and leadership qualities are discussed. As a relatively young discipline, public administration first focused on scientific management (1920's). It then shifted to the art and science of getting things done, and hierarchical organization. As the distinction between the public and private sectors has blurred, public administration has extended beyond government to include the public responsibility of business. The role of public administrators in the 1980's, when distinctions between politics and administration, policy and management, and decision making and action are disappearing, is to bend individual expertise to public purpose. The duties of decision making and public action require public administrators to be generalists; they must be intermediators, clarifiers, codifiers, and managers. The public administrator serves to coordinate the activities of specialists with the solutions to world problems. Role models for generalists and integrators are the administrator of the Marshall Plan, Paul Hoffman, and a politician, Hubert H. Humphrey. (KC)