By Christine Schearer
I recently published a book called ‘Constructing the Craft of Public Administration: Perspectives from Australia’. This book is based on research I completed during my PhD supervised by Professor Stewart Clegg and Dr. Judy Johnson and is published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Christine Schearer
The subject of the book is the craft of public administration as performed by the most senior echelons of the Australian Public Service, within the context of evolving public sector reforms from the 1980s forward, across Westminster polities (including Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, and United States of America). The content is based on interviews conducted with 25 Departmental Secretaries across the Commonwealth Australian Public Service.
This book will benefit public servants who are keen to understand more about the unique craft of public service administration as practiced by the leaders of the Australian Public Service. Public servants will be able to add to their knowledge and experience of the complexities and nuances associated with administration, management and leadership across the public service and in particular should gain insights into what their Departmental and Agency Heads have to deal with when they practice their craft. The most significant impact that the subject matter of this book has achieved is to confirm the unique nature of the craft such that it is not comparable to other such crafts as say management or leadership in the private sector. As such this book should lead to a greater appreciation of the specific nature of the craft of public administration and make a difference to the understanding of those aspiring to serve at the highest ranks, in a sense preparing them somewhat for this administration.
A number of excellent reviews of the book were provided by ‘giants’ in their field, both academics and practitioners, such as: Glyn Davis AC Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Visiting Professor, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; John Wanna Emeritus Professor, Australian National University and Griffith University, Australia; Michael Mintrom Professor of Public Policy and Director of Better Governance and Policy, Monash University, Australia; John Halligan Emeritus Professor of Public Administration and Governance, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, Australia; Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University, Australia; and Peter Shergold, Chancellor, Western Sydney University, Australia. They provided some excellent endorsements as captured in the reviews section in the link below.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-81896-8
In his foreword to the book Clegg (2022), comments that the book has
“deepened the body of knowledge of public administration, its development, and education practices”.
Furthermore Clegg suggests that by ‘casting light on the work of public service conducted by some of most accomplished practitioners, this book and its author contribute to the public intellectual role that academic knowledge can play’. A conceptual model is provided for practitioners and academics.
Further work that may follow from this this book may be the exploration of how Ministers in Australia’s Commonwealth Government operate, especially at the purple zone (Alford, Hartley, and Yates, 2017), where politics intersects with public administration.
Disclaimer: All of the content and views expressed in this article and my publications and presentations are mine and do not reflect those of my employer, the Australian Tax Office.