Strategic public management and the role of senior executives: the case of Australia

Public sector reforms since the 1980s have led to higher expectations of senior executive performance. The capacity of senior executive leaders to ‘manage for results’ became crucial both for the individual executives and for their public agencies. The public sector reform agenda was partly inspired by the cost efficiency and service innovation orientations of the private business sector. Leaders of public agencies were henceforth urged to be more flexible and agile, less driven by bureaucratic routines, and more focused on delivering the key outcomes expected by government and other stakeholders. Achieving results became the mantra for this new wave of strategic public management. In some countries, such as Australia, these new leadership roles and attributes were consolidated into a Senior Executive Service. This chapter outlines how strategic public management introduced new skill requirements, contract employment, greater politicisation, revised notions of merit recruitment, and broader notions of accountability for results.