Integrated Leadership System in the Australian Public Service: insights on capacity and development

Since the 1990’s public sector organisations have turned to competition based theories and New Public Management (NPM) approaches to address public criticism of government administration (Pablo, Reay, Dewald, and Casebear,... [ view full abstract ]

Since the 1990’s public sector organisations have turned to competition based theories and New Public Management (NPM) approaches to address public criticism of government administration (Pablo, Reay, Dewald, and Casebear, 2007). Public sector managers are now expected to develop management capacity in order to improve organisational performance. In the Australian Public Service (APS) context, policy capacity (see Tiernan, 2012; 2015) and deliberative decision making in politics (see Gastil and Black, 2008) are highly desirable skills integral to management capacity (O’Flynn, Vardon, Yeatman and Carson, 2011).
The APS designed the Senior Executive Leadership Capability Framework (SELC Framework) 2001 and the Integrated Leadership System (ILS) 2004 & 2007 to assist in the development of management capacity (Podger, Halton, Simic, Shergold, Maher, 2004). Designers of the SELC Framework and the ILS assume combining technical skills with management skills will lead to leadership ability and improved organisational performance. However, while middle managers are increasingly expected to take on leadership roles there is some doubt that they arrive at senior APS positions with the necessary management skills (Blackman, Buick, Faifua, Forsyth, O’Donnell, Johnson (2015).
Data from our Middle Management Project shows technical skills crowd out management skills and leadership abilities rather than enable them. There appears to be a lack of understanding by senior management and those seeking promotion of how to apply the leadership pathway and develop management capacity. Moreover, there is a misplaced belief that acting in a position, and peer mentoring or belonging to a community of practice, will resolve management capacity shortfalls without any formal support. We offer suggestions for the future on how to improve the implementation of frameworks such as SELC and ILS in order to support middle management effectiveness.