The reform of the Australian Public Service : commercialisation and its implications for public management education

Abstract

Australia has been engaged on a comprehensive process of federal public service reform for more than 20 years. It began in the 1970s, when the long undisturbed Australian Public Service (APS) was confronted with a major review process and with a set of administrative law reforms. This was followed in the 1980s by the introduction of a set of ambitious administrative reforms, which drew strength from similar developments occurring overseas, notably in Britain, the United States, New Zealand and Canada. This created the setting for the commercialisation of the APS that began in the late 1980s, which itself created a further set of organisational and management imperatives for the APS. The articulation of the desired management competencies became a pressing priority to consolidate the administrative and commercialisation reforms and a broad consensus emerged. The next challenge was to determine how best to inculcate the desired APS management competencies. The overall conclusion drawn was that while the administrative and commercialisation reforms have moved the APS some way towards attaining the distinctive characteristics that well-performing public agencies should have, they have created a wide variety of challenges and threats yet to addressed adequately. Within an organisational and politico-administrative environment that leaves APS managers vulnerable, especially those in APS 'quasi-businesses', because they are expected to improve service delivery productivity, so as to reduce costs, while at the same time to enhance service quality. This management task requires them to confront a variety of these threats and challenges, which purveyors of public management education must help them address, if they are to meet their idiosyncratic learning needs. This requires the adoption of a learner-based, problem-centred approach to learning for, rather than about, public management.

Date of Award	1995
Original language	English