Managing under austerity, delivering under pressure : performance and productivity in public service / edited by John Wanna, Hsu-Ann Lee and Sophie Yates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wanna, John, Editor.

Contributor:

Wanna, John, editor.

Lee, Hsu-Ann, editor.

Yates, Sophie, editor.

Australia and New Zealand School of Government, issuing body.

Series:

Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)

Open Access e-Books

Knowledge Unlatched

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public administration--Australia.

Public administration.

Public administration--New Zealand.

Finance, Public--Australia.

Finance, Public.

Finance, Public--New Zealand.

Civil service--Labor productivity--Australia.

Civil service.

Civil service--Labor productivity--New Zealand.

Australia--Appropriations and expenditures.

Australia.

New Zealand--Appropriations and expenditures.

New Zealand.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 221 pages) : illustrations (some colour)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

ANU Press 2015

Acton, ACT : ANU Press, [2015]

Language Note:

Text in English.

Summary:

Contemporary public managers find themselves under pressure on many fronts. Coming off a sustained period of growth in their funding and some complacency about their performance, they now face an environment of ferocious competitiveness abroad and austerity at home. Public managers across Australia and New Zealand are finding themselves wrestling with expenditure reduction, a smaller public sector overall, sustained demands for productivity improvement, and the imperative to think differently about the optimal distribution of responsibilities between states, markets and citizens. Given ever-shrinking resources, in terms of staffing, budgets and time, how can public managers and public services become more productive, more outcome-driven and more agile? How can we achieve better alignment between ever-growing citizen expectations and the realities of constrained service provision? What can we learn from the best combination of innovation and austerity already being delivered in other countries and sectors, including harnessing the grounded wisdom of frontline service delivery practitioners? This book focuses on practical ways public managers at home and abroad are dealing with these shared dilemmas. It brings together renowned scholars in the fields of public sector productivity, performance management, 'frugal innovation' and budget stringency, with leading international and Australasian practitioners sharing their successes and challenges.

Contents:

Part One. The imperative to improve productivity and performance

1. Delivering under pressure: public service, productivity and performance

2. Getting leaner, smarter and more effective: opportunities and constraints for government under austerity

3. Public sector productivity: puzzles, conundrums, dilemmas and their solutions

4. Measuring and improving government performance: learning from recent US experience

5. Performance management: creating high performance, not high anxiety

6. Reviewing performance to improve delivery: key insights from two auditors-general

Part two. The need for governments to innovate

7. Innovation in the public sector: beyond the rhetoric to a genuine 'learning culture'

8. Unleashing change in government

9. Eight-and-a-half-propositions to stimulate frugal innovation in public services

10. Strategic advice to the public service facing austerity

11. Can 'nudging' change behaviour? using 'behavioural insights' to improve program redesign

Part Three. Collaboration with the private and third sectors

12. Frugal innovation: beyond the concepts of 'public' and 'private'

13. The road to genuine partnerships with the third sector: are we there yet?

14. Developing social benefit bonds in Australia: the NSW family and community services experience

15. Situating mutuals in the Australian public sector context.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781925022674

1925022676

OCLC:

909778582

Publisher Number:

https://doi.org/10.26530/OAPEN_588796