Module Six: Innovative Government and Reform

TOPIC 6.1: What are the International Trends and Ideas for the Future

Context matters when approaching reform

In the following video, Matt Andrews from Harvard Kennedy School of Public Administration speaks of approaches to public sector reform in different countries and the need to keep it in context.

Required
2 mins

Harvard Kennedy School (2012, June 22). Matt Andrews on Public Sector Reform [Video]. Youtube.

New Public Management and the UK

In the UK, the principal advocate of the New Public Management (NPM), the message is still largely about efficient government and using private sector practices to reform it. Hear it direct from then UK Prime Minister, David Cameron[1]:

“…the need to hold our own in a competitive world – means that we need to change the way government works. Put simply, it needs to be sharper and quicker. We need the whole machine to be more agile, more focused on delivery and on getting results.

The core of the Civil Service Reform Plan is this: harnessing the world-beating talents of those who work in our Civil Service and making sure they aren’t held back by a system that can be sclerotic and slow. That means learning from the best in the private sector. Of course delivering good public services is very different from running a business. But the way the best businesses nurture talent, flatten management structures, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, and improve services while reducing costs all hold lessons for us in the public sector. When companies live or die on their ability to deliver, that gives them an urgency that we can learn from in government, for the good of those we serve.

David Cameron PM June 2012

However, more recently there has been debate about whether NPM-type reforms are producing public value. In a critique of NPM following the recent, collapse of social services provider Carillion, Polly Toynbee (2018)[2] notes “The era of ‘private good, public bad’ is drawing to a close… killed off not just by counter ideology, but by the sheer irrationality, expense and failure of so many private contracts.”

Recommended
70 mins

Public Management Approaches internationally
While Australia has a proud public service tradition, it is instructive to observe what is occurring internationally. Read the chapter describing public management in various countries in Hague and Harrop (2010) and take note of the varying perspectives.
Hague, R., & Harrop, M. (2010). Chapter 17: Public Management. In Comparative government and politics (pp. 345–363). Palgrave Macmillan.
Digital Transformation Agency. (2021). Digital Government Strategy. Australian Government.
APSC. (2021). Digital Government. In State of the Service Report 2020-21 (pp. 10–11). Australian Government.
The Mandarin. Smoke and mirrors – why Australia’s flatlining digital transformation agenda needs a reboot. (2022). The Mandarin.
Kamarck, E. C. (2012). Chapter 12: Government reform and innovation: A comparative perspective. In Reforming the Public Sector: How to Achieve Better Transparency, Service, and Leadership. Brookings (pp. 240–259). Brookings Institution Press.

Deeper Learning
45 mins

UK Government Civil Service. (n.d.). A Modern Civil Service. UK Government Civil Service
Deloitte Australia. (2015). Executive Summary. In Digital government transformation: Billion dollar benefits in driving digital transactions. Deloitte Australia.
Hamilton, P. (2019). Public sector digital transformation. Australian Government.

 

  1. UK Cabinet Office. (2012). The Civil Service Reform Plan. HM Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-reform-plan ↵
  2. Toynbee, P. (2018, January 22) It’s not just Carillion. The whole privatisation myth has been exposed. The Guardian Australia.  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/22/carillion-privatisation-myth-councils-pfi-contracts ↵

License

GSZ631 Managing within the Context of Government Copyright © 2024 by Queensland University of Technology. All Rights Reserved.

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