The Centrelink Experiment
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The Centrelink Experiment
Innovation in service delivery
Table of Contents
Professor John Halligan
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Centrelink as a field of study
Why Centrelink? Organisational distinctiveness and challenges
Organisational imperatives for a new agency
Changing management and policy environments
Public sector reform: new public management and beyond
Policy environment of social welfare developments
Engaging the external environment
Implementing new service delivery models
Leading and managing major change
Transforming a large organisation
Leading change
Overview of book
Balancing conflicting imperatives
Chapter coverage
1. Designing a delivery agency
Explaining organisational innovation
From traditional bureaucracy to new delivery options
The Department of Social Security and the two-network question
Delivery modes
Policy ideas and options
One-stop shops
Trends in service provision and diffusion
The agency trend internationally
Impetus from a new government
Anticipating the new government’s agenda
Interpretations: opportunities, events and personalities
Translating the concept
Conclusion
2. Centrelink’s development
Concept and responsibilities
Organisation, staff and funding
Administrative imperatives
Developmental stages
Creation and establishment (1997–98)
Consolidation and design (1998–2000)
New service delivery model (2000–02)
Review and redesign (2003–04)
Conclusion
3. Strategies and management structure
Formulating strategies for Centrelink
Planning and building the strategic framework
Precursor: DSS planning
Centrelink phase one, 1997–98
Consolidating corporate strategies, 1998–2003
Consolidation and growth, 2001–06
Extending the planning
Balanced scorecard for reporting performance
Management structure
Transition from the DSS
Designing new structures
Reviewing Centrelink’s strategic planning
Conclusion
4. Leading and managing change
Leading transformational change
Agents of change and their roles
Leadership and philosophy of change
Leading organisational change
Vision and strategies
Aligning organisational structures and the guiding coalition
Changing organisational culture
Strategic human resource management
Integrative leadership
Learning culture and the virtual college
Culture and change
5. Reinventing service delivery
Challenges and constraints in a customer focus
Customer satisfaction
Creating a service culture
Understanding customer attitudes
Designing the delivery structure
Phase one: service integration
Phase two: one-to-one service approach
Phase three: life-events model of service delivery
Phase four: re-engineering
Customer access through IT and channel management
Channel management: extending and managing customer access
Assurance and accuracy
Customer relationships
6. Governance
New governance arrangements
Centrelink board
Phases
Board’s role
Committees
Relations between the board chairman and Centrelink's CEO
The board members
Composition of board and departmental secretaries
Challenging the government on IT
Reciprocity in the relationship with the minister
The fate of governance
7. Relationships with client departments
Bases of relationships
Central relationships
Department of Family and Community Services
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Central agency: Department of Finance and Administration
Relational issues
Roles in the DFaCS–Centrelink relationship
Interface
Funding and the price of services
Transaction costs of managing the relationship
Changing client relationships: purchaser–provider to alliance
Interpretation
Purchaser–provider
Conclusion
8. Entrepreneurship and challenging boundaries
Constraints on and opportunities for positioning the agency
Policy innovation by an executive agency
Positioning within the Public Service
Establishing limits on the one-stop shop
Gateway to the welfare system
Competing for business
The contestability of Centrelink’s core business
Extending the client base
Community engagement
Conclusion
9. Lessons from Centrelink’s formative years
Centrelink concept of delivery agency and government design
Romancing the agency concept: how design decisions were made
Agency positioning for innovation and opportunities
Environmental change and the impact of integrated governance
Core relationships
Redefining client relationships
Customer-led service delivery
Governance models
Overall lessons and significance
Responding to tensions and conflicts in models
The role of transformational leadership
Centrelink’s significance
Epilogue: Back to the future
Centrelink in transition
Corporate governance
Internal governance
Internal structure
2006 and beyond
Appendix 1. The study
Original questions and objectives
Interviews, 2001–04
Appendix 2. Social welfare developments
1997
Work for the Dole program
1998
Youth Allowance
Job Network
Mutual obligation policies
1999–2000
Welfare review
2000
Family assistance changes
Job Network second contract
Rural Transaction Centres
2001
Welfare reform implemented through Australians Working Together
2002
Australians Working Together implementation
2003
Job Network third contract
Australians Working Together
Appendix 3. Strategic directions
Appendix 4. Comparing strategic directions
Appendix 5. CEO lessons
Appendix 6. Tables
Appendix 7. Roles of DFaCS and Centrelink in Business Alliance Agreement 2004
Bibliography