Adopting a Purposeful Approach to Hybrid Working integrating notions of place,space and time

Hybrid working is a prevalent way of working, representing a significant change for public sector organisations. The change management literature brings together the notions of place and space; however, little research on hybrid working has used this framing. In this article, we extend this framing to include time, arguing that key to hybrid working effectiveness is the adoption of a purposeful approach to integrating place, space and time. This article has the potential to assist public sector human resource practitioners, managers, employees and policymakers as they navigate their way through these changing times

Beyond Control Towers, Vending Machines, Networks and Platforms towards more dynamic, living metaphors for governance

Metaphors affect how humans perceive and interact with reality, not least in governments, so our metaphors for government and governance matter. In this article, early metaphors such as government as Leviathan, machine, control tower and vending machine are shown to be limited, as are their replacements, like government as network and government as platform. Instead, the article suggests conceptualising government and governance as a ‘moral ecology’, to do justice to the complex and evolving roles of public sectors and public officials amid global turbulence and increasingly challenging domestic circumstances

Zombie Ideas: Policy pendulum and the challenge of effective policymaking

Ideas are important as a foundation for public policy, but they can also become ‘zombie ideas’ which survive even though they have been proven to be ineffective. Both the political right and the political left have their own zombie ideas, and when there is a change in government old ideas may return. This article presents the concept of zombie ideas and discusses its relevance for policy in New Zealand

First Nations First: First Nations public servants, the future of the Australian public service workforce

This article imagines a future public service that is culturally safe and supportive of First Nations employees and end users, a place wheretransformative policy can emerge. The authors, First Nations and settler/non-indigenous academics and public servants, offer visions for change in five key areas, drawing on our academic research and public service practice

How do New Zealand Scientists perceive the benefits and limitation of Citizen Science?

Public engagement with science in New Zealand adopted a more participatory approach with the 2014 launch of the Strategic Plan for Science in Society, joining the groundswell of citizen science research seen internationally. This study interrogates the views of scientists on the benefits and limitations of citizen science (CS) before and several years after the strategy was launched. Three groups of scientists were compared: NZ marine scientists with an international group of marine scientists around the time of launch, and NZ marine scientists four years later. At initial comparison NZ and international scientists held largely similar views on the benefits and limitations of CS, with only a few exceptions. Awareness of and involvement in CS projects were significantly higher in NZ four years later. Scientists with CS experience generally perceived more benefits, such as expanded data collection, community engagement and public awareness of science. The most frequently identified limitation was quality of data. Although this perception increased in the NZ cohort, the vast majority of scientists felt limitations could be overcome by careful project design and improved infrastructure support and professional recognition. These findings guide further recommendations for high level support systems to facilitate scientists’ involvement in citizen science

Institutional Amnesia in Government: How much is enough?

The concept of institutional amnesia represents a means of describing the loss of policy-relevant knowledge across time. This loss is keenly felt in all government institutions and typically leads to a conclusion that institutional amnesia is a problem to be fixed. However, there are positives that can be associated with a lack of memory. This article explores the good and the bad of memory loss by asking ‘how much amnesia is enough?’ This question prompts a discussion of the nature of amnesia in government, where it is most keenly felt, what causes it and the effects it produces

Must Indigenous Rights Implementation Depend on Political Party? Lessons from Canada

Canada and New Zealand were two of only four countries which voted against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, before eventually moving to support. Since then, this declaration has influenced Canadian politics and practices, particularly the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 ‘calls to action’, legislation, and subsequent action plans on both the federal and provincial levels. Different political parties’ priorities affect the implementation of indigenous rights policies. Nonetheless, Canada demonstrates the importance of normative change, outside of legislation or formal policy change. Norms of co-development, co-design and co-drafting create opportunities for indigenous peoples to have a say in policies that affect them

Introducing Poesie scelte (2003-2021) by Edoardo Olmi: translation with commentary of ‘un anno e sedici mesi’, ‘poesia elbana’ and ‘Ulisse’

Poesie scelte (2003-2021) by Affluenti author Edoardo Olmi, published by Edizioni Ensemble, Florence, in September 2023, comprises some of the most crucial poems from three previously awarded collections: Il porcospino in pegaso (Premio Carver 2011), R:exist-stance (Premio Nabokov, 2017) and Stagioni scalene (Premio Il Delfino, 2021). Olmi’s poems are witty games challenging the structures of our language and psyche, while seeking free ways to create poetry – poetry meant in the ancient Greek etymology of poiesis, or else the ability to shape and inhabit new worlds through words. One of the main textual features of the collection is anarchy, especially expressed through layout and punctuation: the refusal of the capital letter after a full stop is inspired to the beat experiments, as the author pointed out, and to the ‘anarchic’ concept that no letter is more important than another

The Future of Public Service and Strategy Management-at-Scale

Increasingly, government agencies and non-profit organisations are called on to address challenges that go well beyond any individual organisation’s boundaries and direct control. Strategic management for single organisations cannot respond effectively to these crossboundary, cross-level, and often cross-sector challenges. Instead, a new approach called strategy management-at-scale is required. This article compares strategic management with strategy managementat-scale. It responds to the question, what does strategy managementat-scale look like, and what seems to contribute to its success? The new approach helps foster – but hardly guarantees – direction, alignment and commitment among the multiple organisations and groups needed to make headway against the challenge