Policy Quarterly

Institutional Amnesia in Government

Alastair Stark — 2024-02-11

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.

Zombie Ideas: Policy pendulum and the challenge of effective policymaking

B. Guy Peters — 2024-02-11

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.

Must Indigenous Rights Implementation Depend on Political Party?

Sheryl Lightfoot — 2024-02-11

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.

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

Aaron Maniam — 2024-02-11

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.

First Nations First

Lisa Conway — 2024-02-11

This article imagines a future public service that is culturally safe and supportive of First Nations employees and end users, a place where
transformative 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.

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

Fiona Buick — 2024-02-11

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.

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

John M. Bryson — 2024-02-11

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.