Public Sector Change in Australia: Are Managers' Ideals Being Realized?

Abstract

Public sector organizations traditionally have been associated with the internal process (bureaucratic) model of organizational culture. Public choice and management theory have suggested that public sector managers can learn from the experience of private sector management, and need to change from the internal process model of organizational culture. Due to these influences on managers, the current research proposes that managers' perceptions of ideal organizational culture would no longer reflect the Internal process model. Public sector managers' perceptions of the current culture, as well as their perceptions of the ideal culture, were measured. A mail-out survey was conducted in the Queensland (a state of Australia) public sector. Responses to a competing values culture inventory were received from 222 managers. Results indicated that a reliance on the Internal process model persists, while managers had a desire for cultural models other than the internal process model, as hypothesized.