Profile

Professor Rodney Scott is an ANZSOG Adjunct Research Fellow, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales. He is an Affiliated Researcher with the Bennett Institute of Public Policy at Cambridge University, a 2018 Fellow in Practice with the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, and a 2017 Innovations Fellow with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University.

Rodney is also Chief Policy Advisor at the Public Service Commission of New Zealand, where he leads advice on the design and direction of the New Zealand public management system. He is also the commission’s Chief Science Advisor, and member of the Chief Science Advisor Forum. Rodney is the chair of the Victoria University of Wellington School of Government Trust, a board member for the Institute for Public Administration New Zealand, and a chartered member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Dr Scott completed a PhD in system dynamics in public management at the University of Queensland in 2014. His thesis, “Group Model Building and Mental Model Change”, was awarded best doctoral thesis for 2015 by the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management. His current research interests are public management reform, public service motivation, stewardship, interagency collaboration, and machinery of government.

Selected publications

Scott, R. J. & Boyd, R. (2022). Interagency Performance Targets: Interagency Performance in New Zealand. Brookings Institution Press.

Scott, R. J., & Merton, E. R. (2021). When the going gets tough, the goal-committed get going: overcoming the transaction costs of inter-agency collaborative governance. Public Management Review, 23(11), 1640-1663.

Corbett, J., Grube, D. C., Lovell, H. C., & Scott, R. J. (2020). Institutional memory as storytelling: how networked government remembers. Cambridge University Press.

Scott, R. J., & Macaulay, M. (2020). Making sense of New Zealand’s ‘spirit of service’: social identity and the civil service. Public Money & Management, 40(8), 579-588.

Scott, R. J., & Boyd, R. (2020). Determined to succeed: Can goal commitment sustain interagency collaboration?. Public Policy and Administration, DOI: 0952076720905002.

Scott, R. J., & Bardach, E. (2019). A comparison of management adaptations for joined‐up government: Lessons from New Zealand. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 78(2), 191-212.

Scott, R. J. (2019). Explaining how group model building supports enduring agreement. Journal of Management & Organization, 25(6), 783-806.

Corbett, J., Grube, D. C., Lovell, H., & Scott, R. (2018). Singular memory or institutional memories? Toward a dynamic approach. Governance, 31(3), 555-573.

Scott, R. (2018). Group model building: Using systems dynamics to achieve enduring agreement. Springer.

Scott, R. J., Cavana, R. Y., & Cameron, D. (2016). Client Perceptions of Reported Outcomes of Group Model Building in the New Zealand Public Sector. Group Decision and Negotiation, 25(1), 77-101.

Scott, R. J., Cavana, R. Y., & Cameron, D. (2014). Mental model change among group model building participants. Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 33(1), 100-118.

Scott, R. J., Cavana, R. Y., & Cameron, D. (2015). Interpersonal success factors for strategy implementation: a case study using group model building. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 66(6), 1023-1034.

Scott, R. J., Cavana, R. Y., & Cameron, D. (2016). Recent evidence on the effectiveness of group model building. European Journal of Operational Research, 249(3), 908-918.

Scott, R. J., Cavana, R. Y., & Cameron, D. (2013). Evaluating immediate and long‐term impacts of qualitative group model building workshops on participants’ mental models. System Dynamics Review, 29(4), 216-236.