Perspectives on the Capacity of the Australian Public Service and Effective Policy Development and Implementation

It is a long held tradition of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) to invite speakers to address the Fellow's Colloquium as part of the annual symposium, with an aim to spark discussion and debate on a controversial and contemporary topic. In 2010 the debate was focused on the question of whether there had been a degradation of the professional capacity of the Australian Public Service (APS) with regard to effective policy development and implementation. The contributions of each of the four panel members are reproduced here, in part, and they reflect the diverse perspectives which informed a robust and compelling debate. Janine O'Flynn, the editor of these contributions, argues that any claim of degradation is based on rumour rather than hard evidence, and she sets out how we might think about policy capacity from a public sector management perspective. Sue Vardon, the former CEO of Centrelink and the architect of a transformation change program which redefined the delivery of public services in Australia, reflects on the strengths of the APS, but points out the current stresses that it now finds itself under. Anna Yeatman, an expert in political theory and its application to citizenship and public policy, argues that in the last twenty years we have witnessed degradation in the work of government and that this has impacted on policy capacity. Lyn Carson, an expert in deliberative democracy, points to the unrealised capacity that could come from increasing citizen involvement. Policy capacity is degraded, she argues, because we have systems that are neither deliberative nor representative. Individually these contributions spark their own controversies; together they ask us to consider the question in different ways.     

Policy Failure and Policy Learning: Examining the Conditions of Learning after Disaster

The policy learning literature indicates that governments can and do learn after a policy failure but not always. The purpose of this study is to examine the conditions under which policy failure leads to policy learning. It asks two questions. First, is policy failure associated with policy learning? Second, if policy is associated with policy learning, does the failure initiate different types of learning? Using the policy failure and learning literatures as an organizing framework, this paper analyzes three comparative cases of policy failure revealed by tornados in Greensburg, Kansas (2007); Joplin, Missouri (2011); and Moore, Oklahoma (2013). It finds that failure of the policy process in agenda setting is associated with instrumental policy learning. It also finds that there are two types of failure of decision making: failure to make a timely decision and failure to make any decision. The two types of decision‐making failure are associated with different types of policy learning. In addition, the contextual factors underpinning the link between policy failure and learning are prior experience with the policy problem and capacity to learn.     

Performance Appraisal and Its Use for Individual and Organisational Improvement in the Civil Service of Ghana: The Case of Much Ado about Nothing?

Recent efforts to modernise public sector institutions have led to the adoption of performance management systems worldwide. The belief in performance management is that information generated can be used to help individuals improve themselves in terms of what they do in their organisations, which will subsequently impact positively on the organisation. An instrument for collecting performance information (PI) is performance appraisal (PA). Since the early 1990s, the Ghanaian government has attempted to develop a systematic appraisal system as a strategy to obtain PI in the civil service (CS). In spite of this, the CS continues to perform below expectations despite individuals getting promoted every year. What has been the effect of PA in the CS? How has the collected information been utilised to improve performance? What are the main barriers to the use of PI, and what practices can be put in place that might encourage the effective collection of PI and its use in the CS? We argue that the PA system is much ado about nothing. In analysing why this is so, we will look at the impediments that continue to affect the collection and usage of PI and to suggest ways that will help improve the system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Perceived social citizenship’: a comparative study between two different hukous

In China, there are immense barriers to inclusive social citizenship because of the failure to overcome the institutional fragmentation of social security across the hukou division. The hukou system continues to be important in determining how social citizenship is granted in China; not only does it facilitate dual social citizenship, it imposes perceptions of deservingness that bolster these divisions. The aim of this paper is to build a social-citizenship-based framework, drawing upon the strengths of the capability approach, which is applicable to the complexity of the rural–urban divide in China. Referring to several data sources, the paper examines social citizenship as a subjective phenomenon. The paper highlights the social exclusion mechanisms embedded in the hukou system that might have an effect on social citizenship as a state of self-awareness.     

Haven't We Been This Way Before? Evaluation and the Impediments to Policy Learning

In this paper, we focus on a policy trial that was undertaken in a complex and controversial policy field (Indigenous community development), with the avowed objective of learning from experience in the field . We observe that despite significant implementation effort and quality evaluation, little systematic policy learning occurred. Four impediments are identified: (i) the policy environment was highly politicized and contested, (ii) the results challenged accepted ways of working, (iii) there were no systematic processes for policy learning to occur, and (iv) the learnings were distorted by inter‐agency competition and associated ‘labelling’. We suggest that, in controversial policy fields, the most useful first step in enhancing evaluation‐use is for bureaucracies to institute systematic processes for evaluation findings to be considered, with the aim of elaborating ‘what works’ into a consensual approach to change. Without change of this kind, evaluation‐use will remain a failed area of policy.     

Dilemmas of Policy Innovation in the Public Sector: A Case Study of the National Innovation Summit

Policy innovation is a significant challenge for the public sector. This article illustrates its magnitude through a case study of the National Innovation Summit. The article concludes that the Summit represented an elaborate process of search and engagement that sanctioned an outcome that was, in most respects, largely pre‐determined. Its outreach and deliberations served the political purpose of mobilising industry and media attention and communicating the government's commitment. But there is no evidence that it exercised any substantive influence on policy development. The obstacles confounding any other outcome are considerable. Strategic thinking is inhibited by various organisational factors including lock‐in to a present successful strategy, the constraints on policy choices associated with multiple veto points and the need to maintain medium term fiscal and policy discipline across a wide range of agencies and claimants. The article explores ways these inhibitions might be overcome.     

Three Lenses of Evidence‐Based Policy

This article discusses recent trends to incorporate the results of systematic research (or ‘evidence’) into policy development, program evaluation and program improvement. This process is consistent with the New Public Management (NPM) emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness. Analysis of evidence helps to answer the questions ‘what works? and ‘what happens if we change these settings?’ Secondly, some of the well known challenges and limitations for ‘evidence‐based’ policy are outlined. Policy decisions emerge from politics, judgement and debate, rather than being deduced from empirical analysis. Policy debate and analysis involves an interplay between facts, norms and desired actions, in which ‘evidence’ is diverse and contestable. Thirdly, the article outlines a distinction between technical and negotiated approaches to problem‐solving. The latter is a prominent feature of policy domains rich in ‘network’ approaches, partnering and community engagement. Networks and partnerships bring to the negotiation table a diversity of stakeholder ‘evidence’, ie, relevant information, interpretations and priorities. Finally, it is suggested that three types of evidence/perspective are especially relevant in the modern era – systematic (‘scientific’) research, program management experience (‘practice’), and political judgement. What works for program clients is intrinsically connected to what works for managers and for political leaders. Thus, the practical craft of policy development and adjustment involves ‘weaving’ strands of information and values as seen through the lens of these three key stakeholder groups. There is not one evidence‐base but several bases. These disparate bodies of knowledge become multiple sets of evidence that inform and influence policy rather than determine it.     

Support for aged care workers and quality care in Australia: A case of contract failure?

This paper is guided by Conservation of Resources theory and aims to investigate the impact of personal and organisational support on the quality of clinical care given to aged care residents in for‐profit (FP) and not‐for‐profit (NFP) facilities. Broadly, the paper addresses challenges faced by governments in designing contract specifications that ensure quality outcomes from aged care providers. The argument is that the present accreditation standards that are used to assess the status of aged care providers are too narrow to capture the complexity in delivering social services. Data were collected from 442 aged care workers from aged care facilities in NSW, QLD and WA. The results show that carer support (personal and organisational support) explained half of the variance in quality of clinical care in NFP facilities, and a third of the variance in FP facilities. In particular, the findings suggest support for carers is important for carer retention, and ultimately the clinical care of residents. The findings provide supporting evidence to widen the required contract specifications for aged care provider accreditation to include organisational and personal support for carers.     

Learning about Learning: Discovering the Work of Policy

The development of policy rests on skilled practice by knowledgeable practitioners – ‘policy work’ – and it is important to know what skills and knowledge this work calls upon, and where these are learned. Although there is substantial academic knowledge and courses in this field, many practitioners will argue that policy work is ‘as much an art as a science’ and is something that ‘you learn as you go’. This article reports on an exploratory study of policy practitioners’ accounts of their practice, what counts as knowledge, and in what contexts it is ‘useful’. We examine the discourses through which policy work is accomplished, the way in which people learn to do it, and the place of academic work in the constitution of these discourses. Drawing on our respondents understanding of policy practice, we discuss what more might be done to facilitate learning about the work of policy.     

Analysing Choice in Australian Individual Funding Disability Policies

The Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will allocate funding packages to people with disability who are assessed as needing paid support. The NDIS is an example of individual funding, which is currently not the dominant way of organising disability support in Australia. Individual funding aims to increase opportunities for personal choice. We present a framework for understanding current individual funding policies in each Australian jurisdiction according to two policy dimensions that potentially enable greater personal choice for people with disability: who holds their allocated funds and where support can be purchased. The findings show wide disparities in choice across the country, particularly due to constrained funds and the shortage of support to purchase in regional areas. The analysis demonstrates that NDIS implementation will need to consider that, while individual funding can be empowering for some people with disability, enabling choice can be challenging for administrators and service providers.     

Experimenting with organisational development in Bhutan: A tool for reform and the achievement of multi‐level goals?

In this article we present a unique study of how a nation, Bhutan, is using a specific change management approach—organisational development—as the lever for system‐level change in pursuit of a complex, multi‐level suite of goals to, ultimately, enhance Gross National Happiness (GNH). We argue that this represents one of the first attempts at using OD for wide‐scale change, something hinted at decades ago, and flagged by recent work coming out of the United Nations Development Program and civil society organisations (CSOs). Conceptually, we point to a high level of fit between the Bhutanese development philosophy and OD, and argue there is great potential for using OD in the context. However, we raise a series of issues around the practical feasibility of this approach highlighting important points of tension which pose major challenges for the Bhutanese experiment. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.