People Management Trends of Australian Public Service Middle Managers

Nicky Antonius

doi:10.2991/itmr.2014.4.4.2

Abstract

Change is more pervasive in the Australian Public Service than ever. Taking the number of vacancy advertisements as an indication, the more stable periods of 2008 and 2009 were followed by vast expansions in 2010 and 2011, but suddenly downturned into drastic cuts in 2012 and 2013. Public service middle managers have been singled out as the most susceptible to organizational resizing since the days of business process re-engineering movement in the 1980s and 1990s, when hierarchical organizational structures were significantly flattened. This paper investigates the longitudinal trends for middle managers (Executive Level positions) in the APS, in terms of employment vacancies, appointments, and retirements.

Highlights

Change is pervasive in today’s organizations and the public sector is not exempt
In the Australian Federal public service, middle managers can be reflected as those occupying the Executive Level (EL) 1 and 2 positions, who supervise Australian Public Service (APS) level 1 to 6 professionals, and report to Senior Executive Service (SES) officers.[12]
Efficiency measures in themselves create greater expectations of performance from middle managers on how to do more with less, but the impact is even greater when the efficiency programs are squarely targeting at middle managers first and foremost

Summary

Introduction

Change is pervasive in today’s organizations and the public sector is not exempt This is all the more apparent when Australian governments from both sides of the aisle have implemented sharp cuts to public service employment budgets. The APS Commission[13] indicated that the number of middle managers at the Executive Level positions have been at the highest point throughout the past decade, justifying a rationale for the restrictive conditions described earlier. Balancing these circumstances with the leadership role of middle managers warrant an investigation into the employment trends of middle managers in the Australian Federal public service, called the APS. Heightened expectations of productivity means Australian public service leaders need to display strong relationship management skills to reconcile competing priorities among partners.[19]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion