Book Review: The curious public administrator.

The article focuses on the role of curiosity in public administration, as explored in William Hatcher’s book *The Curious Public Administrator*. Hatcher argues that curiosity—defined as "the intellectual motivation to learn objectively how the world works"—is essential for public administrators to improve organizational outcomes and community accountability. The book develops a theoretical framework linking curiosity to leadership and empathy, presents survey data showing that curiosity tends to decline with job specialization in larger cities, and highlights a gap between the high curiosity levels of public administration faculty and the lower levels observed in practitioners. Additionally, Hatcher discusses strategies for fostering curiosity in Master of Public Administration (MPA) education, aligning it with core accreditation competencies to better prepare future public administrators.