Includes index

Part I Introduction -- Chapter 1 Public Administration and the Reform Agenda -- Chapter 2 Contemporary Management Ideas and Public Sector Reforms across Westminster Polities -- Part II The Macro Level Policy Contexts and Environments -- Chapter 3 The Environments in which Departmental Secretaries Construct the Craft of Public Administration -- Chapter 4 The Impact of Contemporary Management Ideas: Their Influence on Public Administration -- Part III Exploring the Everyday Work Life of the Most Senior Public Servants -- Chapter 5 Departmental Secretaries: The Public Actors who Construct the Craft of Public Administration -- Chapter 6 Roles, Responsibilities and Boundary Riding -- Part IV Discussion, Implications and Conclusions -- Chapter 7 Discussion, Conceptual Model, Contributions and Implications -- Chapter 8 Conclusions

This book draws on empirical research to provide unique insight into the craft of public administration of the most senior echelons of the Australian Public Service (APS). An analysis is offered of public sector reforms and contemporary management ideas on which they were based, from the 1980s across Westminster polities. This book addresses how Departmental Secretaries construct their craft today amid such reforms, concluding with a conceptual model of the craft of public administration and implications for theory and practice. Christine Shearer is an Executive Director within the Australian Tax Office