In May 2010 Nicholas Gruen of the Australian Gov 2.0 Taskforce published The last post: now for the main event – you! In July 2010 Lindsay Tanner issued the Declaration of Open Government. In many ways Australia was leading the way. We all knew hard work lay ahead, but the outlook was rosy. Open data,Read… Read more »
Dear Commissioner The purpose of this open letter is to articulate a number of issues relating to the apparent thinking of the Australian Public Service Commission and, indeed, the way the Commission goes about its work. In particular, it is a matter of concern that the Commission’s stance perpetuates a repressive corporate management culture. Self-limitingRead… Read more »
The Australian bullying recently announced an inquiry into workplace bullying. The public service should be leading the way in putting a stop to workplace bullying. Sadly, the reality is that there is a gap between what is espoused and what actually happens in the Australian Public Service. Ticking the boxes on administrative processes is notRead… Read more »
What is awesome – in a negative sense – about what is described in this post is the fact that abusive cultures such this are allowed to flourish in the first place. Over the past month and a half I have been working with Serene Teffaha and others as a result of disclosures that pointRead… Read more »
To introduce this post on No straight lines I want to take you on a journey. That’s on the basis that to know where we are and where we are heading we actually need to know where we’ve been. Due to the nature of the work I’ve been involved in for the past nineteen yearsRead… Read more »
Now how true do these observations hold for America and elsewhere? The Canberra Times kindly published an article of mine in the Public Sector Informant magazine. The informant itself is not available on line so I’ve provided it in pdf below. You sometimes hear people complain about how the press alters the what they sayRead… Read more »
In the course of examining data from the current Australian Public ServiceState of the Service of the Service Report the previous report. It contains an interesting chart showing employee satisfaction or engagement by length of service in the APS (see at the end of this post). What is interesting is the reduction in engagement overRead… Read more »
In Australia management in the public sector has an unhealthy managerialist bent. In a nutshell, a one size fits all approach coupled with the inherently arrogant notion that ‘more management’ is the solution to everything. In the main, this sad state of affairs has been peddled in the public sector by strategic human resources orRead… Read more »
Hi Folks – Nothing like a wintery day in Canberra to get the brain ticking over. Does your jurisdiction or department look like this? OK. Now that I’ve set myself up for being somewhat discriminatory consider this. The age profile of the APS is predominantly middle aged and upward. 45 to 55 + account forRead… Read more »