Jenny Stewart

Change Management—Strategy and Values in Six Agencies from the Australian Public Service

Change is a ubiquitous theme in management literature, but empirical studies that seek to draw lessons from the experience of managing change are rare. By investigating patterns of change management in six Australian federal agencies, we elicit a number of factors contributing to success—though “success” is itself not a clear-cut concept in this area. We found support for a number of broad themes already apparent in the literature and suggest that change processes that have the support of the workforce require good leadership, an appropriate model of change, some room for negotiation and compromise, and well-planned communication.

Systems theory and policy practice: An exploration

Systems approaches in policy analysis have had a chequered history. Expectations that ‘hard’ (quantitative) systems analysis would lead to better answers to policy problems have largely been disappointed. Yet systems theory has itself moved on, to embrace the concept of autopoiesis and a variety of soft systems methodologies. Collectively, these theories offer a way of analysing policy quite distinct from the institutionalist approaches which tend to dominate the theory and practice of policy-making. Rather than selecting instruments to fit a particular kind of policy problem (the conventional approach to policy design) systems analysis suggests that the nature of the problem cannot be understood separately from its solution. For policy problems characterised by complexity (such as those concerned with environmental management and regulation, and urban re-development) using systems concepts offers a way of rationalising aspects of existing practice and of suggesting directions for improvement.

Models of priority-setting for public sector research

Abstract While the literature has discussed structural as well as thematic priorities, much policy-oriented thinking on national priorities for public sector research centres on the designation of preferred areas of science for emphasis. The paper puts forward the view that, at least at the national level, the utility of such benefit-cost approaches is limited. It is suggested that priority-setting is best understood as a systemic process, with outcomes determined by the incentives and inter-relationships of choice rather than by ex ante calculation. Three systemic models, user-based, institutional and political, are advanced and their advantages and disadvantages discussed both in general and with reference to recent experience in Australia and New Zealand.

Research Note: Purchaser‐Provider – Are the Purchasers Ready for It?

New Public Management (NPM) is correctly seen as a multifaceted set of changes, with different emphases in the many countries in which programs of reform have been implemented (Hood 1995). In Australia and New Zealand, and to a significant extent in the UK, the replacement of hierarchical with contractual or quasi-contractual relations lies at the heart of NPM (Boston et al. 1996; Laffin 1997; Walsh 1995).

Rational choice theory, public policy and the liberal state

Liberalism requires a high order of responsible behaviour from its citizens in order to be sustainable. Yet when the modern liberal state makes policy, it is the stereotyped ‘economic man’, driven by self-interest and influenced only by carrots and sticks, who occupies center stage. This regulatory approach to public policy can be shown theoretically to give rise to a paradox — the greater the need for regulation, the less likely, because of compliance problems, it is to succeed. It is contended that an alternative approach which explicitly focuses on a broader behavioral understanding of citizens attitudes and motivations provides a rationale for the use of a much wider range of policy instruments than does the regulatory framework, and is also more in keeping with those values necessary to the sustainability of the liberal state.

Perspectives on policy integration

Collaborative Environmental Management: What Roles for Government? by Tomas M. Koontz, Toddi A. Steelman, JoAnn Carmin, Katrina Smith Korfmacher, Cassandra Mosely and Craig W. Thomas. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2004. Pp xivþ 210; index.

The meaning of strategy in the public sector

50 (hardback);

The Transformation of Bureaucracy? Structural Change in the Commonwealth Public Service 1983‐93

23.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 8918 5380 5 and 1 8918 5382 1 Policy Integration for Complex Environmental Problems: The Example of Mediterranean Desertification edited by Helen Briassoulis. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. Pp 388; index. £60 (hardback). ISBN 0 7546 4243 7