Transforming Australian local government: insights into leading management practices

Over the last two decades there has been considerable reform in the Australian public sector in line with 'New Public Management' (NPM) principles. Local government has not been exempt from this reform. Successfully implementing reform requires the adoption of a range of new organisational and management practices. This Australia-wide study identifies the importance of contemporary management practices in local government, practices which are consistent with NPM, and examines differences which occur based on geographical location and council classification. The results suggest two things: that top-down state government reform, as occurred in Victoria in the 1990s, is a catalyst for managerial reform as managers search for new ways to cope with the pressure placed on them; and, that the tyranny of distance impacts on rural and remote local government councils, which have a lower take up rate of contemporary management practices. The results also indicate that people management practices are considered more important to managers than other more systems oriented practices.