• myGriffith
    • Staff portal
    • Contact Us⌄
      • Future student enquiries 1800 677 728
      • Current student enquiries 1800 154 055
      • International enquiries +61 7 3735 6425
      • General enquiries 07 3735 7111
      • Online enquiries
      • Staff phonebook
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Griffith Research Online
    • Book chapters
    • View Item
    • Home
    • Griffith Research Online
    • Book chapters
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

  • All of Griffith Research Online
    • Communities & Collections
    • Authors
    • By Issue Date
    • Titles
  • This Collection
    • Authors
    • By Issue Date
    • Titles
  • Statistics

  • Most Popular Items
  • Statistics by Country
  • Most Popular Authors
  • Support

  • Contact us
  • FAQs
  • Admin login

  • Login
  • What Are the Consequences of Incessant Reform? Losing Trust, Policy Capacity and Institutional Memory in the Queensland Core Executive

    Author(s)
    Tiernan, Anne
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Tiernan, Anne
    Year published
    2018
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    This chapter explores the cumulative effects of machinery of government change and successive waves of public-sector reform on the institutional memory of the Queensland core executive. Focused particularly on the period from 2005 to 2015, it reviews how the traditions, beliefs and practices of the central networks that comprise executive government in Australia’s most decentralised state were affected by four changes of Premier, a slew of administrative reforms, and one largely anticipated, and another unexpected, change of government. The chapter presents an insider’s account of unfolding reform in Queensland during the ...
    View more >
    This chapter explores the cumulative effects of machinery of government change and successive waves of public-sector reform on the institutional memory of the Queensland core executive. Focused particularly on the period from 2005 to 2015, it reviews how the traditions, beliefs and practices of the central networks that comprise executive government in Australia’s most decentralised state were affected by four changes of Premier, a slew of administrative reforms, and one largely anticipated, and another unexpected, change of government. The chapter presents an insider’s account of unfolding reform in Queensland during the period under study. Throughout this time, the author has been an ‘active member researcher’ (Adler and Adler 1987) who has worked closely with the political-administrative networks at the centre of Queensland government in roles that have included: a member of the Board of the Queensland Public Service Commission; a consultant; a professional educator; a researcher; a confidante; and now a ‘critical friend’. The chapter draws on documentary and interview data collected in the course of my evolving affiliation with the networks under study. It presents an ‘insider’s story’—comparable to Norell’s (2009) account of governance in the Swedish city of Karlstad. My insider’s account is told from the perspective of continuity amidst the ceaseless change affecting informants and respondents. There is widespread concern that forty years of continuous reform and change to the public sector has seriously undermined institutional memory and governments’ capacity to learn from experience. The Queensland case is an opportunity to consider, in microcosm, the medium-term impact and implications of frequent, discontinuous change, on the beliefs, traditions and practices of central core executive networks and for the quality and efficiency of governance. The chapter also reflects on the opportunities and dilemmas of ethnographic fieldwork for the active member researcher and the analytic usefulness of this perspective for administrative ethnography.
    View less >
    Book Title
    Narrative Policy Analysis: Cases in Decentred Policy
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76635-5_8
    Subject
    Political science
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/383790
    Collection
    • Book chapters

    Footer

    Disclaimer

    • Privacy policy
    • Copyright matters
    • CRICOS Provider - 00233E
    • TEQSA: PRV12076

    Tagline

    • Gold Coast
    • Logan
    • Brisbane - Queensland, Australia
    First Peoples of Australia
    • Aboriginal
    • Torres Strait Islander