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This new work offers an in-depth look at the roles played by professional local government managers within the changing circumstances of American community life. It analyzes the societal and political influences that have shaped the professionalization of local government managers, and projects how the roles of these officers will develop, now that the professional movement has been accepted. In preparing the work, the author has accessed, for the first time, the International City Management Association's decade of national survey information on cities and countries with recognized professional administrative officers. Data from this study is merged with two author-conducted surveys of communities with recognized professional, full-time managers, allowing the author to analyze the local government profession as seen over a 13-year period. The book opens with a discussion of the trends in professional roles and presents profiles of city managers and their career paths (the link between professional education and experience). Next it covers the occupational values and associated activities (the symbolic and practical roles of professional public managers) and the impact of the professional movement on practitioners, their jobs, and their cities. The book also presents a typology of professional services, status, and standards and gives a general evaluation of the profession of local government management and its place in the community. An extensive research bibliography is included. This book will have equal appeal for academics in public administration and practitioners in local government (state, city, county, and so on).