This thesis is derived from a work project, the consideration of approaches to the development of Human Resource Management competency standards for the Australian Public Service. The thesis is a vehicle for examining and exploring a complex Human Resource Development strategy, through dealing with the details of the project. This project was undertaken from 16 January to 13 April 1995. The project occurred in a turbulent environment with limited resources. The decision whether or not to develop Human Resource Management competencies was an important step in the implementation of the National Training Reform Agenda by the Australian Public Service, being influenced by a number of changes in the national environment as well as having to accommodate a number of factors internal to the Australian Public Service. Factors included: the impact of changes to vocational education and training at the national level such as the introduction of the Australian Qualifications Framework; the impact of a devolved management structure; the differing needs of stakeholders; the need to accommodate industrial relations issues; and the impact of resource constraints (including time). The thesis explains the context and conduct of the project. It critically examines the development of action plans and progress made over the course of the project. It explains the process and content of project activities and provides comments on them. This allows insights into the development of Human Resource Development policy in the public sector. In particular it shows how the nature of the project changed from its anticipated focus on competency identification to its final focus on preparing advice to the Joint Australian Public Service Training Council. That advice recommended that separate Human Resource Management competency standards should not, after all, be identified. It concluded that they should be integrated with the core competency standards for the Australian Public Service. The thesis reflects on key aspects of the project including its subject matter, processes, and outcomes. Some of these concern the impact of the systemic, conceptual and structural changes in the National Training Reform Agenda on strategic Human Resource Development. In addition the thesis reflects on the many roles of the project officer in strategic Human Resource Development activities, suggesting that the project officer should act as a consultant rather than servant. To illustrate this point the thesis describes how the project officer was able to facilitate processes during this project that resulted in management accepting outcomes that differed from their expectations but better met their needs. The work of Lippitt and Lippitt (1986) is found to be helpful in identifying the project officer's roles. Finally the thesis considers the outcomes of the project in the light of the publication of the Karpin report (1995) and finds that the outcome is consistent with the thrust of that report.

This paper focuses on three main themes. Firstly, what is Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the rhetoric surrounding it? Secondly, does the reality match the rhetoric? Thirdly, is the model that has been adopted by the private sector an appropriate model for the Australian public sector to be using? HR has been criticised for being an administrative function that is regulatory and compliance based, adding little value to an organisation. SHRM provides a strategic focus, involving the partnering of HR and line areas to provide value added people services. SHRM has been described by some theorists (Ulrich, Rothwell et al) as the only way of the future for the HR function. The model/s of SHRM that have been adopted by the private sector are now being promoted by the Public Service and Merit Protection Commission as the way forward for HR in the Australian Public Service. This paper discusses the appropriateness of the SHRM model/s for the public sector by examining what is happening in the HR area in three Commonwealth Government departments: Health and Aged Care, Transport and Regional Services and Family and Community Services. It examines the dilemmas for the HR functions as they try to move to an SHRM approach in these organisations, and suggests models that are appropriate to the public sector context.

Is scenario planning a process that can be used by agencies of the Australian Public Service to generate and develop information that is relevant to the future, and thereby make possible improved strategic planning? This is the core question of this dissertation. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the case for investigating the benefits of scenario planning. Literature defining and describing the benefits of scenario planning for both private and public sector organisations is examined, and factors that appear to be critical to effective implementation of the process are discussed. Against this theoretical background the empirical evidence of seven cases of the application of scenario planning in six agencies of the Australian Public Service is considered. Several conclusions are drawn on the basis of the data obtained from the seven cases studied. Scenario planning is more likely to make possible improved strategic planning of public sector agencies such as those that comprise the Australian Public Service (irrespective of their function or size) if it has the active involvement of senior management during the developmental phase of the process, and their ongoing support for any follow-up activity. In addition, a well resourced and in-depth research phase is integral to the success of the process. Even if these elements are not present to a high degree, a well managed scenario planning exercise will improve to some degree the ability of an agency�s senior executive to think more openly and proactively about its future business context. In addition, well resourced and properly supported scenario planning can also help a public sector agency to improve the quality of its information gathering, test the viability of its strategy options and develop appropriate contingency plans.

Talking to a computer is hard. Large vocabulary automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are difficult to use and yet they are used by many people in their daily work. This thesis addresses the question: How is ASR used and made usable and useful in the workplace now? To answer these questions I went into two workplaces where ASR is currently used and one where ASR could be used in the future. This field work was done with designing in mind. ASR dictation systems are currently used in the Australian Public Service (APS) by people who suffer chronic workplace overuse injuries and in the Hansard department of Parliament House (Hansard) by un-injured people. Analysing the experiences of the users in the APS and at Hansard showed that using an ASR system in the workplace follows a broad trajectory that ends in the continued effort to maintain its usefulness. The usefulness of the ASR systems is �performed into existence� by the users with varying degrees of success. For both the APS and Hansard users, they use ASR to allow work to be performed; ASR acts to bridge the gap between otherwise incompatible ways of working. This thesis also asks: How could ASR be used and made usable and useful in workplaces in the future? To answer this question, I observed the work of communicating sentences at the ACT Magistrates Court. Communicating sentences is a process that is distributed in space and time throughout the Court and embodied in a set of documents that have a co-ordinating role. A design for an ASR system that supports the process of communicating sentences while respecting existing work process is described. Moving from field work to design is problematic. This thesis performs the process of moving from field work to design, as described above, and reflects the use of various analytic methods used to distill insights from field work data. The contributions of this thesis are: � The pragmatic use of existing social research methods and their antecedents as a corpus of analyses to inspire new designs; vi � a demonstration of the use of Actor-Network Theory in design both as critique and as part of a design process; � empirical field-work evidence of how large vocabulary ASR is used in the workplace; � a design showing how ASR could be introduced to the rich, complicated, environment of the ACT Magistrates Court; and, � a performance of the process of moving from field work to design.

The Commonwealth parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was established in 1913 and to the end of 1995 had produced 397 reports on government expenditure and administration, with almost all its recommendations implemented by government. However despite the Committee's prominence among the instruments parliament has used to oversight the executive, not only does it lack clear legislative authority for major areas of its activities but its specific purpose is not defined in its legislation. Among other things the latter omission renders proper evaluation of the PAC's effectiveness impossible, as objectives are a necessary prerequisite to assessment. This thesis establishes the de facto purpose of the Committee by tracing the development of standing public accounts committees generally, and by analysing the PAC's work as shown by its output of tabled reports. In that development, six evolutionary phases are identified: the PAC's roots in the move to a parliamentary control of the administration of government expenditure in Britain from the 1780s; its genesis in the 1850s with the concept of the standing public accounts committee, to be concerned with regularity and probity in government expenditure; its origins in the establishment of the British standing public accounts committee , in 1861, stressing high standards of government accounting, audit and reporting; its establishment in the Commonwealth, concentrating on information on departmental activities, efficient implementation of government programs and provision of policy advice; its re-establishment in 1951, stressing parliamentary control of government financial administration; and its operations from 1980, pressing for economic fundamentalist change in the public sector. Their output shows that in these phases the committees concerned displayed characteristic standing public accounts committee activism and independence in utilising the wording of their enabling documentation to adapt themselves to changes in their environment by pursuing a corresponding different mix of one or more of the following concurrent immediate aims: ensuring adequate systems of government accounting, audit and reporting; ensuring probity and regularity in departmental expenditure; obtaining and disseminating information on departmental activities; ensuring high standards of departmental administration and management; providing policy advice to executive government; and ensuring economic, efficient and effective government spending. Together these attributes and practices have made the PAC a parliamentary instrument of unequalled flexibility with a single continuing underlying aim - a purpose not concerning the public accounts per se, but directed at achieving high standards of management and administration in government by calling the Commonwealth's public service to account for its expenditure and activities.

This thesis establishes an empirically based dialogue between two theoretical approaches to management, one emphasing structure and the other process, by examining the question of whether management in private sector, profit oriented organizations is similar to, or different from, management in government departments. Subjects for the study were participants in the Australian Public Service (APS) Interchange Program, under which APS members work temporarily in other organizations, and managers from outside the Service spend some time in the APS. The measuring instruments used were a questionnaire designed to test empirically and to extend research by Fottler (1981), a standardised measure of personal values and two questionnaires to gather personal details and job related information pertinent to the parent and host organizations. The results of the study indicate that Interchange participants found significant differences between the Service and the private-for-profit organizations in which they worked. The differences within the major structural variable, organization type, can be expressed in terms of managerial processes. Evidence was found of interrelationships between organization type, job related process variables and personal values. The theoretical significance of these results is discussed in terms of a pluralistic approach to managerial process, the practical implications for the APS are noted, and suggestions for further research are proposed.

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This quasi-experimental study was to make a comparison between the level of self-perception prior to and following a training process. The study attested the view that the action learning based program in question was an effective mechanism for change in self-perception. The population studied were officers of the Australian Public Service and the Commonwealth Teaching Service located in the Australian Taxation Office, Austrade, ACT Schools Authority and the Department of Community Services and Health. A pilot study conducted in the Public Service Board in 1987 suggested that an action learning training process may be impacting on management competencies. Respondent's attitudes to nine personality variables were measured using the Saville Holdsworth Occupational (OPQ) Concept 5 Questionnaire. The variables were Assertive, Gregarious, Empathy, Field of Use, Abstract, Structure, Anxieties, Controls and Energies. Using the Solomon's Four quasi-experimental design, containing three experimental and two control groups, pre-test, change and post-test scores were compared using a one-way Analysis of Variance. Where pre-tests were statistically significantly different an Analysis of Covariance was used, The general conclusion from the study was that the experimental groups showed an overall insignificant relationship with training particularly as control groups showed similar differences over time. Apart from few exceptions the results did not support any strong notion of positive change in self-perception as a result of a training intervention.

The Howard Government has made public its agenda to significantly reform the Australian Public Service (APS). It has presented its vision for a highly efficient APS which is globally competitive by being customer focused, and by benchmarking best practice in organisation management. Outsourcing of a range of internal functions is but one of the strategies Commonwealth agency Chief Executive Officers are applying or considering to apply in achieving the Government's vision for a reformed APS. When examining functions to be outsourced within Commonwealth agencies it seems that many senior managers see benefits in outsourcing a range of corporate support functions. Such support functions, which are considered as potentially being undertaken by private sector vendors, generally include property management, financial management, payroll services, records management, human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD). In view of the varying impacts different functions have on an organisation it would be rational to consider the implications of outsourcing each function separately. All functions are complex and have their own specific impacts on the organisation. In its own right HRD has a significant impact on an organisation in that it develops and trains employees, initiates and delivers a range of interventions to improve performance and brings about a desired corporate culture. The idea of outsourcing the HRD function presents an interesting topic for study. Recent APS reforms, which include outsourcing strategies, provide an opportunity to examine the practice of outsourcing the HRD function within selected Commonwealth agencies. Outsourcing the HRD function, within the Commonwealth context, raises two basic questions: · What factors need to be considered before deciding to outsource (or not outsource) the HRD function? · What factors do managers within selected Commonwealth agencies consider before arriving at a decision to outsource the HRD function? In essence this study seeks to review how HRD and outsourcing generally apply to the APS. It also critically examines the outsourcing of the HRD function in certain Commonwealth agencies, and the implication this could have for ongoing people and organisation development.

Agencification-the creation of autonomous agencies within the public service-has been occurring in many jurisdictions. It has usually had a rationale of improving the way in which government works. Generally, agencies are expected to provide more flexible, performance-oriented, responsive public services. The purpose of this work is to examine a particular example of agencification in the Australian Public Service (APS) and to compare it analytically with similar occurrences elsewhere. Specifically, it will examine the splitting of the former Department of Social Security (DSS) into two separate organisations, a policy department and a service delivery agency operating under a purchaser-provider arrangement, Centrelink. It will do this in the context of theories of agencification and of practical experience of agencification elsewhere. It will analyse why agencification has happened in this case and what the experience has shown, focusing on the role, governance, accountability and prospects for the new arrangements. This, the most prominent and substantial case of agencification in the Australian government, will be compared with the agencification experience reported in other jurisdictions-the United Kingdom and New Zealand. It will address why Centrelink came about, what the outcome has been of the change in institutional arrangements, and what the likely future is of the Centrelink arrangements. It will show that, when examined closely, the mechanisms bringing about agencification have been diverse. However, there are parallels in the experience. This leads to a conclusion that the current Centrelink arrangements are not stable in the long term, and some aspects-such as the purchaser-provider arrangement - should be set aside.