Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

Responding to the fiscal pressures faced by the Territory requires a fundamental shift inworkforce approaches and culture. The ACTPS is ready for change – a transformationalchange to create a ‘One ACTPS’ approach to priority setting, policy development andimplementation, and program and service delivery.Most governments have been less effective at reforming the ‘software’ of the public sector –the cultural systems that underpin high performance rather than the ‘hardware’ of structures,systems and processes. The Scottish Government’s reforms were undertaken over a two yearperiod at a pace and scale not seen before. The significant redirection to an outcomesapproach “… required nothing short of a cultural overhaul in government … [this] may notsit naturally with traditional working culture.” 338Michael Bichard makes it crystal clear what has to change in the public sector:If you put down the things that stifle creativity in a single column, you would have agood description of the way in which the civil service has traditionally worked: awork based culture, hierarchical, exclusive, doesn’t work across departments, anddoesn’t value outsiders. There is an absolute classic correlation throughout… 339In 2008, Workplace Research Associates conducted a series of focus groups to examineemployee engagement across the ACTPS. The main aim of the focus groups was to collectquality information regarding employee engagement in order to inform attraction andretention strategies. The respondent results showed that:• over 80% felt the work they do is meaningful;• nearly 90% felt confident in their ability to carry out their work;• around 75% felt supported by their supervisor;• just over 78% felt loyal to groups or teams in their agency;• about 70% felt that relationships in the workplace are generally positive;• some 64% agreed that experiences of work in their agency are positive; and• just over 60% are satisfied working for their agency at the present time.Importantly, the survey found that the key management practices that motivate, engage,attract and retain employees are integrity, honesty, respect, valuing, trust, decisiveness,ability to delegate, confidence, consistency of message, visibility (ability and willingness totake on tough issues), responsibility, clarity of purpose and zero tolerance for bad behaviour.These findings were replicated in views put by officials to the Review. Positive work culturescreate high performing organisations and encourage creativity and innovation.ACTPS cultural change will not occur overnight – it must be driven both from the centre andfrom Directorate leadership. It will require significant investment in people and recurrentfunding to maintain leadership development. It also requires tackling the barriers head on.338 National School of Government (2009b)339Bichard, M (1999) “The Stakeholder, No.1” cited by Maddock, S. (2002).Capability, Capacity and Effectiveness: 260