Hurahura Research
Our research role
The Public Service Commission and the New Zealand public service are continually working to improve how public services deliver for New Zealanders. As we work on improving public services now, we must also keep an eye to the future, so that New Zealanders have a public service that better meets their needs and remains relevant in a changing world.
Part of the Commission’s core function is to provide leadership and over-sight of the public service and ensure the purpose of the Public Service Act is carried out. From time to time, Commission staff need to do a deeper dive to understand a problem. Sometimes this involves a literature review or empirical research and analysis. Other times it can involve engaging with public administration theory to develop new understandings, or reflective practice and insights.
This collection of papers have been commissioned, written or contributed to by Commission staff members in order for us to get a better understanding of various challenges facing the public service, so that we can continue to work on improving how public services deliver for New Zealanders. The Commission’s aim in sharing the papers here is to make these ideas and analyses available to a wider audience, and to inform and encourage public debate, with the ultimate aim of informing our work.
If you have any questions, would like reports in a different format or are interested in discussing this work, please email: info@publicservice.govt.nz.
Disclaimer: The views, opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these papers are strictly those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or the New Zealand Government.
Please note: Prior to August 2020, the Public Service Commission was known as the State Services Commission. Documents published prior to this date refer to the Commission by this earlier name.
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Institutional Amnesia in Government: how much is enough?
Alastair Stark explores institutional memory and institutional forgetting: too much forgetting means lessons are never learned; too much remembering can act as an impediment to trying things again.
Zombie Ideas: Policy pendulum and the challenge of effective policymaking
Guy Peters and Maximilian Nagel explore the policies that continued to be tried despite never working – ‘zombie policies’ – and how we can transcend these patterns.
Must Indigenous Rights Implementation Depend on Political Party? Lessons from Canada
Sheryl Lightfoot looks at policies in the context of the relationship between indigenous and colonial people, institutions and practices.
Beyond Control Towers, Vending Machines, Networks and Platforms: towards more dynamic, living metaphors for governance
Aaron Maniam looks at the metaphors we use to talk about public administration and how the choice of metaphor affects the solutions we employ: public administration has previously been described as leviathan, an iron cag…
First Nations First: First Nations public servants, the future of the Australian public service workforce
Lisa Conway and colleagues reveal the experiences of indigenous Australians in participation in the public service, of culturally unsafe workplaces and being asked to carry a cultural load on top of their stated role.
Adopting a Purposeful Approach to Hybrid Working: integrating notions of place, space and time
Fiona Buick and colleagues explore the shift from physically present office-based roles to increasingly flexible and hybridised ways of working, and the implications for how we think about the nature of work, teamwork an…
The Future of Public Service and Strategy Management-at-Scale
To solve the biggest policy problems, John Bryson and colleagues contend, departments will need to be able to develop strategies at a scale that spans department boundaries.
Disability Deep Dive
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is an essential part of the Public Service.
A Spirit of Service to the Community: The fundamental characteristic of the public service
This report combines findings from relevant academic literature with reflections from conversation with senior academics, to explore how the New Zealand public service may approach preserving, protecting, and nurturing t…
A spirit of service to the community: Public service motivation in the New Zealand public service
A “spirit of service to the community” has been the foundation of recent reforms in New Zealand public administration. New Zealand’s renewed interest in public service motivation is notable as it occurs in the jurisdicti…
(Non) rationality and choice architecture: a behavioural approach to public administrative discretion in New Zealand
This paper aims to explore the intent of New Zealand’s Public Service Act 2020 in managing administrative behaviour.
Te Taunaki Public Service Census: Inclusion deep dive
A diverse and inclusive Public Service is essential to the work we do to serve the people and communities of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Administrative philosophies in the discourse and decisions of the New Zealand public service: is post-New Public Management still a myth?
New Zealand is frequently cited as the archetypical example of New Public Management (NPM), having gone ‘further and faster’ than other jurisdictions in radically reforming their public service in the late 1980s. These r…
Contingent Collaboration
The question of how agencies can work together has been central to the field of public administration for several decades. Despite significant research, the process of collaboration can still be a fraught endeavour for p…
Targeting Commitment: Interagency Performance in New Zealand
This book explores how and why the New Zealand government made progress and how the program was able to create and sustain the commitment of public servants and unleash the creativity of public entrepreneurs.
What makes joint working and joint ventures successful? – Insights from the literature
This paper, written to support an IPANZ roundtable workshop, explores the literature on interagency collaboration, focusing on more formal collaboration including joint ventures.
High-autonomy and high-alignment: coordinating a more unified public service
Written for a wide audience, the book will appeal to anyone interested in how we might be better served by our government, as well as to public policy practitioners, researchers, and students taking undergraduate and pos…
Stewardship streams in New Zealand public administration
Stewardship is a concept of increasing importance and centrality to public administration narratives across several countries. It is referenced in the foundational legislation for the public service of New Zealand, Canad…
Theoretical Paradigms in the Reform of the New Zealand Public Service: Is post-NPM still a myth?
New Zealand is frequently cited as the archetypical example of New Public Management (NPM), having gone ‘further and faster’ than other jurisdictions in radically reforming their public service in the late 1980s. These r…
Public Service Principles - What are they and what do they mean for public servants
Hannah Cameron and Callum Butler of Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission describe the new Public Service principles and explore what they’ll mean for the future Public Service.