Areas of expertise

• Human resource management
• Industrial relations
• Public sector reform

Profile

Richard Norman is Senior Lecturer at Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). He specialises in researching lessons from New Zealand’s experience of 'reinventing' its public sector systems. In 2003, he published a book, Obedient servants? – management freedoms and accountabilities in the New Zealand public sector, based on his PhD study on this topic.

Dr Norman also teaches Human Resource Management and Training and Development topics at VUW. He is a program director for two annual seminars for public sector managers and trainers from developing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. Before joining VUW in 1994, he was a trainer and manager at the State Services Commission's training unit, which delivered training to assist managers gain the skills for decentralised government. Earlier, he worked as training manager for a Government-owned development bank and as a journalist and trainer of journalists.


Recent publications

Books

Book chapters

Journal articles

Conferences & lectures

Teaching materials

Thesis

Books

• Norman, R 2007 (ed.), Shaping the future: a record of legacies created by Sir Roy McKenzie, Victoria University of Wellington and the Rotary Club of Wellington, Wellington.
• Norman, R, Tyson, J & Westaway, J 2005, The Integrated National Crime Information System, ANZSOG Case Programme.
• Norman, R & Platt, T 2005, The New Zealand Customs Service: recruitment, selection and integrity, ANZSOG Case Programme.
• Norman, R 2003, Obedient servants? Management freedoms and accountabilities in the New Zealand public sector, Victoria University Press, Wellington.

Book chapters

• Norman, R 2008, ‘Managing performance – new challenges for central agencies: the case of New Zealand’, in Holy grail or achievable quest?: international perspectives on public sector performance management, KPMG International, Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), the Institute of Public Administration of Australia (IPAA) and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. 
• Norman, R, Christensen, T & Laegried, P 2007, ‘Organising immigration: a comparison of New Zealand and Norway’, in T Christensen & P Laegreid (eds.), Transcending new public management, Ashgate, Aldershot.
• Norman, R 2007, ‘Performance management pitfalls and public sector governance’, in Y Emery & D Giauque (eds.) Dilemmes de la GRH Publique, Payot, Lausanne and Paris.

Journal articles

• Norman, R 2008, ‘At the centre or in control? Central agencies in search of new identities’, Policy Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 33–38.
• Norman, R 2008, ‘How should state-owned enterprises be governed?’ (Prepared for Institute of Public Administration conference to debate governance issues with the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises), Public Sector, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 36–41.
• Norman, R 2006, ‘New governance, new dilemmas: post-reform issues in New Zealand’s public sector’, Policy Quarterly, Wellington, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 24–31.
• Norman, R 2004, ‘Recovering from a tidal wave: new directions for performance management in New Zealand’s public sector’, Public Finance and Management, vol. 4, no.3, pp. 429–447.
• Norman, R 2004, ‘The Public Service Human Resource Framework: providing glue without gumming up the system?', Public Sector, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 7–12.
• Norman, R & Gregory, R 2003, ‘Paradoxes and pendulum swings: performance management in New Zealand's public sector', Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 35–49.
• Norman, R 2002, ‘Managing through measurement or meaning? Lessons from experience with New Zealand's public sector performance system', International Review of Administrative Sciences, vol. 68, pp. 619–628.
• Norman, R 2001, ‘Letting and making managers manage the effect of control systems on management action in New Zealand's central government', Public Sector, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 2–7.

Conferences & lectures

• Norman, R 2009, ‘New Zealand public management – tensions of a model from the 1980s’, presentation for the series Building a 21st Century Public Service, held by the Institute of Policy Studies and Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand, Wellington, September 29.
• Norman, R 2008, ‘Controlling or empowering? New capability challenges for central agencies’, presented at The Many Faces of Public Management Reform in Asia-Pacific, organised by the Asia-Pacific Governance Institute and International Public Management Network, Bangkok, July 7–9.
• Norman, R & Gill, D 2008, ‘Budget reform in New Zealand: a comparative case study for a workshop’, The Hague, June.
• Norman, R 2008, ‘Shaping the strategic centre: new capabilities for central agencies?’, Twelfth Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management, Brisbane, March 26–28.
• Norman, R 2008, ‘At the centre or in control? Central agencies in search of new identities’, After the Reforms – a Review of New Zealand’s Public Management Reforms, Wellington, February 28–29.
• Norman, R 2007, ‘How should state-owned enterprises be governed? Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand Conference, Wellington.
• Norman, R & Laking, R 2006, ‘Inside public sector reform: case studies from the Commonwealth Advanced Seminar’, Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), Sydney, October 21–26.
• Norman, R 2006, ‘Steering without stifling? Dilemmas of delivering government services through ‘arms-length’ organisations’, International Association of Institutes and Schools in Administration (IASIA), Warsaw, July 5–8.
• Norman, R 2006, ‘Managing for outcomes while accounting for outputs’, A Performing Public Sector: Conference from the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) and the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA), Leuven, June 1–3.
• Norman, R 2006, ‘When the ‘for sale’ notices are withdrawn: how should state owned enterprises be governed?’, paper for the Ninth International Research Symposium on Public Management, Glasgow, April 10–12.
• Norman, R & Shand, D 2005, ‘Performance budgeting in New Zealand’, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington DC, December 8–9.
• Norman, R 2005, ‘Dilemmas of new governance: post reform issues in New Zealand’s public sector’, presentation for British Public Administration Committee, Nottingham, September 5–7.
• Norman, R 2003, ‘Pioneering accrual accounting and outputs budgeting – the New Zealand experience’, The Annual Conference of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), Washington DC, November 6–8.
• Norman, R 2000, ‘Letting and making managers manage: the effect of control systems on management action in New Zealand's central government', 22nd Annual Research Conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), Seattle, November 2–4.

Teaching materials

• Norman, R 2007, De-fragmenting e-government in New Zealand, Harvard Kennedy School of Government Case Library.

Thesis

• Norman, R, Letting and making managers manage in the New Zealand Public Service (PhD), Victoria University of Wellington.