ORGANISATIONAL THEORY AND ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE: THE CASE OF REGIONALISATION IN YOUTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

Abstract: Conventional accounts of administrative change have relied on an instrumental view of organisations. Based on the notion that administrative arrangements are designed to meet predefined goals, such accounts have been unable to deal adequately with the production of organisational arrangements or to analyse the entanglements of theory in those arrangements. A number of revisions to this orthodox view have been suggested which are based on viewing administrative structures as political arenas within which conflicts organised within wider society come to the fore. The adoption of a regional administrative structure by the New South Wales Department of Youth and Community Services highlights the dependence that administrative arrangements have upon the interests and ideas of key administrative actors and coalitions, and their contingent power to produce and maintain changes in those arrangements. The regional structure was based on ideas of community participation and had the avowed aim of allowing the public to have greater access to departmental affairs. Subsequently, ideas of ministerial accountability and organisational efficiency were used to define strictly the legitimate boundaries of that public participation. Such ideas provided covering fire for different groups in and around the department to obtain and consolidate positions of advantage.     

COMPLAINTS AGAINST POLICE IN NEW SOUTH WALES: ADMINISTRATIVE AND POLITICAL DIMENSIONS

Abstract: The issue of public complaints against police in New South Wales has assumed the dimensions of a substantial administrative and political debate. Attempts at administrative reform within a framework of political compromise have resulted in recent times in continuing conflict between police representatives and, principally, the Ombudsman. Present trends appear to favour increased external control of the complaint investigation process — the core of conflict. This article describes the development of the New South Wales Police Department's complaint procedures from their origin to the present, placing emphasis on administrative and political dimensions. Relevant complaints and disciplinary data are examined but, due to limited availability, little can be concluded therefrom. So far, at least, there is nothing to suggest that changes in complaints procedures reduce police employee malpractice or even that public opinion of police generally improves as a result. However, several more years will need to pass before firm conclusions can be advanced on such matters. The issue of complaints against police in NSW poses a lasting administrative and political dilemma. The issue deserves the close attention of concerned public administrators and politicians alike because the form of resolution eventually arrived at will be crucial to the growth of police professionalism.     

POLITICAL PROBLEMS OF ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM

This paper focusses on two issues: the problem of reforming administration so that the bureaucracy in its political decision-making is more firmly responsible to the elected representatives of the people and more responsive to community needs and values, and the interlocking problem of the politics of the reform process itself. Where a government announces its intention to undertake a reform program, its purposes are usually explained in terms of the need for greater efficiency. The process of reform, apart from the stress on efficiency, is usually described in value-neutral terms. The program or the enquiry, it is claimed, will result in the job being done better or more quickly or more cheaply. However, if one looks more closely at the reasons for the establishment of such programs and enquiries, it is clear that underlying the urge to change the administration, there is a dissatisfaction not so much with the way in which decisions are carried out, as with the decisions themselves. The "hidden agenda" of most reforms is to ensure that different decisions are taken and different outcomes in the community result.     

WATERPOWER AND WILDERNESS: POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF THE LAKE PEDDER CONTROVERSY

Not that even the truth was easy to discover: different eye-witnesses give different accounts of the same events, speaking out of partiality for one side or the other or else from imperfect memories.     

POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF STATE HIGH TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS

The euphoria associated with bold new ventures by the states to initiate high technology development programs can obscure many of the political and economic realities that condition and constrain them. This article introduces and explores the implications of a number of hypotheses about these relationships. Current state high technology development programs are placed within historical context by comparing current initiatives with the science/research-based economic development strategies of the 1960s. Potential conflicts among universities, state officials, and other parties-at-interest related to the time frame and payoffs of high technology development programs are identified and discussed.