Director of Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University

 

Time: Thursday, April 11, 2019 13:00-14:30

Venue: Room 620, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University

 

Today's public servants work in a globalized and highly dynamic environment. It is one characterized by volatility, complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. Public servants are not alone in experiencing these shifts that reflect changes in the very nature of work. 

This public seminar considers how public servants around the world can and are responding to the changing nature of work within an increasingly complex policy environment. 

How do public servants define themselves? And who do others understand them to be? Are they the designers of policy? Deliverers of customer service? Standard-bearers? Policy implementers? A bit of everything? And who is defining their roles? 

Today's public servants must also engage with new digital policy environments, growing diversity and interconnection, and 'boundary-spanning' roles. In these challenging times, what does the future of the public service look like? And how will that affect the ways in which we make and do public policy? These are vital questions no matter where public service is being performed. 

Join Professor Helen Sullivan as we discuss and debate the future of the public service workforce and consider what that means for the very best teaching and nurturing of our future public servants and for the practice of policymaking. 

 

Professor Helen Sullivan is Director, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University. Helen is a public policy researcher, teacher and advisor. Professor Sullivan's scholarship explores the changing nature of state-society relationships including the theory and practice of governance and collaboration, new forms of democratic participation, and public policy and service reform. She is widely published; the author of four books and numerous academic articles, book chapters, and policy reports. She appears regularly in print, mainstream and online media commenting on contemporary public policy issues. Helen’s work reflects a long-term commitment to finding new ways to bridge the gap between research and policy. In 2011 she co-designed the University of Birmingham’s Policy Commission Program and led the first Commission on Local Public Service Reform. In 2013 she established the Melbourne School of Government – a multi-disciplinary School that broke new ground through its focus on engagement and impact, including establishing a research translation initiative (MSoGLabs), as well as initiatives such as Vote Compass, Election Watch and the Trawalla Foundation funded Pathways to Politics Program for Women.