Research
Image of a businessman giving a presentation at a business conference

The public sector performance paradox

Published Date: 19 October 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
Assessing performance in the public sector has led to several unintended consequences. These include the performance paradox, tunnel vision and “analysis paralysis”. A paper in Public Perform...
Research
Image of pen on a piece of paper

Knowledge, policy design and impact in Indigenous policymaking

Published Date: 05 October 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
A paper in Policy Design and Practice argues policy impact in Indigenous affairs has been scandalously minimal. The problem is not a technical one of implementation, leadership failure or lack of...
Research
Image of woman overlooking IT servers

Innovation and intelligent failure

Published Date: 21 September 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
An article in Public Management and Money discusses an under-explored aspect of innovation—failure. Some failures can be valuable: these are known as intelligent failures as they create opportu...
Research
Image of blue folding wheelchair in hospital

Administering inequality and the NDIS

Published Date: 07 September 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
Growing evidence shows giving citizens greater control over the public services they use may be entrenching administrative burden. An article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration ex...
Research
Image of blurred work meeting

Workplace gender equality: Where to next?

Published Date: 24 August 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed gendered labour market inequalities in Australia and around the world. Women were disproportionately exposed to the virus at work, as frontline workers in ‘ess...
Research
Image of people in a crowded hall

When the public deliberates on policy design

Published Date: 10 August 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
What role can deliberative democracy play in policy design? An article in Policy Design and Practice explores this question in an experiment where a random sample of citizens discussed four polic...
Research
Image of people are walking on a pedestrian crossing

Street-level bureaucrats and policy entrepreneurship: When implementers challenge policy design

Published Date: 27 July 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
In the musical West Side Story, it was all about the tensions between rival street gangs the Sharks and the Jets. In the word of public policy, it is about the tensions between poli...
Research
Image of a crowd of people wearing masks

COVID-19: effective policymaking depends on trust in experts, politicians, and the public

Published Date: 13 July 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
  In a crisis, choices about who to trust or distrust could make a difference between life and death. Trust is necessary for cooperation, coordination, social order and to reduce the need f...
Research
Image of team working on a project in office

Nudge and co-design: complementary or contradictory approaches?

Published Date: 30 June 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
  Nudge and co-design are gaining popularity as innovative approaches to solving policy problems. An article in Policy Studies compares and contrasts these two approaches. It also reflects ...
Research
Crowd of people walking street wearing masks

COVID-19 as a game changer for public administration and leadership

Published Date: 15 June 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
  The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the public sector is facing turbulent problems characterised by the emergence of unpredictable and uncertain events. A paper in Public Management Review di...
Research
Performance Measurement

Does performance measurement improve public sector performance?

Published Date: 01 June 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
  It is expected governments will deliver on their promises, both to fulfil their democratic responsibilities and provide satisfactory services to the public. Using formal performance measu...
Research
framework for mobile phone. User experience (UX) concept

Designing digital services for better user experience

Published Date: 18 May 2021
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: The Bridge
  Digital technology can enhance the public service user experience. However there is a risk new digital solutions are being implemented without fully understanding how it affects value cre...