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Elements of Successful Change: The Service Tasmania Experience to Public Sector Reform
Author(s) -
Blackburn Greg
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.12054
Subject(s) - public sector , bureaucracy , change management (itsm) , service delivery framework , government (linguistics) , grounded theory , business , public relations , resistance (ecology) , agency (philosophy) , psychological intervention , public service , service (business) , service provider , public administration , process management , marketing , qualitative research , political science , sociology , psychology , ecology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , lean manufacturing , psychiatry , politics , law , biology
For Tasmanians accessing Government services has traditionally required visits to various Lead Agency locations, as service delivery was fragmented and bureaucratic. The Tasmanian Government adopted a customer‐focused approach implementing ‘Service Tasmania’ a One‐Stop‐Shop service delivery concept. This paper investigates what led to the success of this public service reform and in particular what change management practices were applied during the change effort. Ten common factors of successful change have been identified in the literature; these are explored determining their relevance throughout this initiative. Data were collected with semi‐structured interviews conducted with 63 staff plus senior management. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach and open coding was applied during the first pass through the data to reach the initial codes identifying critical terms and generic key issues. Findings confirm that several management interventions were necessary to address resistance and conflict issues and keep the government reform project on track.