TOPIC 1.1: The Changing Environment – Digital Readiness

Increasingly flexible, temporary and networked structures underpin shifts in government business and strategic relationship management with other sectors. Digital communication channels and capabilities are enabling 24/7 networked service delivery and transforming governance arrangements and government operations.

Environmental factors impacting the role of government and government service delivery include:

• public demand for improved quality of service
• new forms of accountability in the public sector, including more direct engagement with the public
• new imperatives for transparency and accountability, due to the impact of new social uses of media and communication technologies
• the individualisation of service, whether face-to-face, through letters and call centres or online

• a greater emphasis on community and on a participative public culture, combined with a perceived crisis in public confidence in political and governmental processes
• reforms which have sought to make the permanent career bureaucracy more responsive to elected representatives and, in particular, to the government of the day
• emergent problems for public servants in negotiating the risks entailed in offering advice to ministers while orienting themselves to the public interest.

Some of these changes have resulted in the need for knowledge and skills in managing new relationships; others have made the management of these new links and partnerships more feasible and effective. For example, globalisation has meant that the way your agency delivers its services, or otherwise executes its operations for and with the public, may be subject to international benchmarking. Changing societal and community expectations of government mean that the public may be demanding more, better and more individualised service from your agency.

On the other hand, if you are part of a regulatory or compliance-focused organisation, the public may be demanding more consultation, participation and flexibility. Resource constraints and budget stringency have seen a major shift towards contracting out and privatisation, resulting in many public sector managers entering partnerships or now being responsible for managing contracts for the delivery of service, rather than the delivery of service itself. This situation has particularly significant implications for managing outwards, because managing relationships with partners and contractors is very different from managing a team of employees engaged in the same activity.

Like other sectors (private, non-government), the Australian public sector has been affected by changes in patterns of communication and information retrieval. Rapid market penetration of digital environments, mobile technologies, personal computers, lower costs, quick transmission and spiralling consumer demand have led to accelerated technology transfer and take-up. New technologies have removed barriers between nations, time zones and regions. At the same time, social adaptations to technology have blurred distinctions between the personal and the public, between public services and commercial services and between domestic and work life.

A complex system of physical and virtual elements makes up the dynamic system within which government agencies operate. Stakeholders within agencies and within the broader system, influence the agency’s capacity to set priorities and meet needs.