Project No 1 - Research, map and report on management and leadership programs in the State Service

Project Team No. 1 - Research, map and report on management and leadership programs in the Tasmanian State Service.

Viv Burgess, Yvette Steele, Karen Dabner, Justine Griffiths and Dr Elizabeth Shannon

Summary of Project Teams key messages and observations

• Literature research undertaken supports the key messages and observations by indicating that successful management/leadership programs are based on strong, well-considered development principles and models. The most successful programs we identified during the project were based on these sound principles and had a clear organisational strategy and strong engagement at all levels resulting in a distributed leadership approach that develops leaders at all levels.
• Management and leadership development would further benefit by having a 'whole-of-service' development framework. This approach would provide a common language to assist in identifying skills gaps, inform program development and integrate learning with key business outcomes. Common definitions around management and leadership would better inform future program development.
• Significant similarities exist in many of the management/leadership in many of the current programs. This indicates that there are a number of key capabilities (education, skills, knowledge, attributes) that public sector managers/leaders need to meet the challenges governments are facing. This presents an opportunity to work together to improve efficiency and reduce costs of developing and facilitating management and leadership programs across the service without compromising the ability for agencies to contextualise to suit their own environment.
• State Service demographics indicate that women are less represented within senior management and leadership roles (current SES - 162 male, 57 female = 74% male). Specific management, leadership and talent development initiatives may help address this inequality/gap.
• A great deal of diversity exists in the range of diagnostic tools being used in management and leadership programs (eg MBTI, LSI, 360 degree) with a range of costs and/or accreditation arrangements. There are clear opportunities to share information about free or low cost tools and/or bulk-buy; value for money if agencies work together. A resource that compiles all the diagnostic tools would be useful.
• There are benefits to developing people in cohorts. This helps reduce the impact of silos, builds more effective networks, increases awareness and knowledge translation across the sector; and can improve succession planning. Opportunities also exist to better share peer-to-peer activities: networking, shadowing, coaching, action learning, project work, stretch development opportunities and rotations exist.
• Opportunities may exist for better use of internal expertise to help design, develop and participate in program delivery (eg topic experts) in order to reduce the cost and reliance on external consultants and resources (eg diagnostic tools).
• The importance of partnerships, for example UTAS, learning institution or training organisation and other jurisdictions provides opportunity to enhance management and leadership development eg program design, qualifications, access to research, best practice models and conjoint appointments of key learning and development staff.
• The importance of evaluation of learning and development serves two key purposes – assessment of return on investment and fine turning program design and delivery. Opportunities exist to better understand the value of evaluation and the adoption of a robust model: what to evaluate, when and how.
• Legislative changes to the State Service Act 2000 - Sections 15; 16; 20 and 22 (g) provide for the Head of the State Service to have a stewardship role to ensure there is an integrated whole-of-service wide approach for management and leadership development.