Research
Silhouette of a disabled woman in a wheelchair and her work team

Understanding why policymakers ‘do nothing’

Published Date: 27 November 2019
'Why doesn’t the government do something about this?’ is a complaint often heard in legislatures, TV debates, opinion pieces, letters to the editor and cyberspace. Why do policymakers do nothing a...
Research
Focus on a person holding a magnifying glass.

Ten ways to optimise evidence-based policy

Published Date: 13 November 2019
It is time to move away from the ‘government are from Venus, researchers are from Mars’ narrative when it comes to evidence and public policy. Instead we should focus on the challenges both partie...
Research
Colouring in a light bulb.

When design meets power: design thinking, public sector innovation and the politics of policymaking

Published Date: 18 October 2019
Responding to the need for innovation, governments have begun experimenting with ‘design thinking’ approaches to reframe policy issues and generate new policy solutions. But what is new about desi...
Research
Trophy gold champion cup for winner on blur background.

ANZSOG’s APSA Policy Prize winners announced

Published Date: 02 October 2019
Researchers exploring the barriers to collaboration among public servants and the tensions around boundary-making in anti-corruption policy have shared the inaugural ANZSOG/ Australian Political Studi...
Research
Image of a person delivering a seminar.

Using innovation to encourage public managers to embrace risk

Published Date: 16 August 2019
Public managers want to be more innovative, and governments need to offer them better training and encourage risk-taking and creative thinking, according to new research from ANZSOG, the Monash Sustai...
Research
Person signing contract

Beyond outsourcing: how governments can change their approach to contracting services

Published Date: 23 July 2019
The Australian Government spends about three times more on contracted services than on direct employment of public servants, but is this level of contracting delivering public value?  These are i...
Research
picture of two women and a man. One woman has sunglasses on and has a support cane next to her

A ‘Tripadvisor’ for disability? Social enterprise and ‘digital disruption’ in Australia

Authors: Ian McLoughlin, Yolande McNicoll, Aviva Beecher Kelk, James Cornford and Kelly Hutchinson
Published Date: 10 November 2018
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: Digital, Technology, Disability
Abstract We explore how social enterprises can use platform technologies to plug ‘informational gaps’ in the provision of disability services. Such gaps are made more apparent by policies promo...
Research
Robots and the delivery of care services: What is the role for government in stewarding disruptive innovation?

Robots and the delivery of care services: What is the role for government in stewarding disruptive innovation?

Authors: Helen Dickinson, Catherine Smith, Nicole Carey and Gemma Carey
Published Date: 09 November 2018
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: Technology, Service Delivery
Summary In the last two decades there has been significant reform in terms of what governments do, and how they work, as a result of the digital revolution. In some areas, governments have embraced t...
Research
Effective and efficient committee work: A systematic overview of multidisciplinary literatures

Effective and efficient committee work: A systematic overview of multidisciplinary literatures

Authors: Sandy Oliver, Katie Hollingworth, Rob Briner, Catherine Swann, Kate Hinds and Chris Roche
Published Date: 18 October 2018
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: Public Policy
Abstract An era of financial constraints calls for effective and efficient committee work when making collective decisions. A systematic search identified research literatures in business administrat...
Research
Towards whole-of-government enhancement of public value: an Australian case

Towards whole-of-government enhancement of public value: an Australian case

Authors: Karen Ballintyne and Michael Mintrom
Published Date: 01 October 2018
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: Policy Skills, Development and Implementation, Public Value
Abstract The creation of public value holds a central place both in contemporary academic discussions of public administration and in practitioner interpretations of their roles in and around governm...
Research
Strange bedfellows: Federal systems and performance management

Strange bedfellows: Federal systems and performance management

Authors: Stephen Jones, Geert Bouckaert, Patrick Fafard and Luc Bernier
Published Date: 12 September 2018
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: Intergovernmental Leadership
Abstract This paper offers the first link between models of the measurement and management of performance and the dimensions of governance arrangements in federal systems. Four ideal type approaches ...
Research
What can policymakers learn from feminist strategies to combine contextualised evidence with advocacy?

What can policymakers learn from feminist strategies to combine contextualised evidence with advocacy?

Authors: Eleanor Malbon, Lisa Carson and Sophie Yates
Published Date: 10 September 2018
Key Topic and Teaching Concept: Domestic Violence, Public Policy
Abstract We give a short overview of feminist perspectives on the use of evidence in policy making, covering both empirical and conceptual work. We present the case of the Conflict Tactics Scale, a m...