This issue

– ethical culture and innovation
– the psychology of COVID-19
– public integrity and COVID-19
– Aboriginal designed and led initiatives
– workplace diversity and inclusion
Plus what I'm reading.

Research brief: More ethical, more innovative?

Are ethical public sector organisations more likely to be innovative? This question is at the heart of a paper, by ANZSOG faculty member Professor Zeger van der Wal and Mehmet Demircioglu, in the Australian Journal of Public Administration. The paper examines the effects of ethical culture and leadership on innovation. Read our brief on the paper.

Reimagining Government

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of governments in dealing with a society-wide crisis, but also provided us with an opportunity to rethink how they serve their citizens.

ANZSOG and the Centre for Public Impact are Reimagining Government in a series of six webinars, which will bring 

together senior practitioners, academics and leading thinkers from across the globe. These thinkers will be guided by the ‘enablement paradigm’ a belief that the best role for government is not to manage or control but to create the conditions that lead to good outcomes for society.

Together apart: the psychology of COVID-19

Until a vaccine is developed to halt the coronavirus, controlling the spread of infection depends on behavioural changes and ultimately human psychology. A new monograph looks at the psychology surrounding the current pandemic.

Dealing effectively with the pandemic  means understanding how people behave just as we need to understand how the virus behaves. Many psychological issues are shaping the impact of measures governments around the world are using. Governments are seeing psychology not only as relevant to individual-level outcomes (e.g. the effects of the pandemic on mental health) but also as integral to societal level outcomes (e.g. the maintenance of social cohesion or conversely the development of public disorder).

The pandemic is about group psychology in particular. People are acting as members of a community and for the interests of their community. If they do so, we are likely to come out from the pandemic in better shape. However, we need to be vigilant about the ways in which the group is defined. If we slip from ‘we-thinking’ to ‘we-and-they-thinking’ then trouble looms.

The monograph considers a range of issues including leadership, behaviour change, social isolation, social order and disorder.

Public integrity is integral to a resilient response to the COVID-19 crisis. An OECD policy brief discusses the integrity challenges facing governments and recommends measures for an effective response and recovery from the crisis.

What are the integrity challenges?

The brief identifies three major issues:

1. Integrity challenges in public procurement.
2. Accountability, control and oversight of the economic stimulus packages.
3. Increased risks of integrity violations in public organisations.

Public procurement

• The risks of fraud and corruption in public procurement are elevated in emergency procurement processes. Past crises (e.g. Hurricane Katrina, 2014-16 Ebola outbreak) have shown how these processes can be abused.
• Urgency during a crisis increases the risks of procuring supplies that do not meet quality standards and/or are procured through corrupt means. Procurement can also be vulnerable to price gouging from suppliers.

Economic stimulus packages

• Experiences with economic stimulus packages during the 2008 global financial crisis highlighted the risks of corruption, fraud, waste and abuse.
• Governments are relaxing controls in order to urgently spend funds, amplifying strategic and operational risks. This puts pressure on public financial management systems and internal control systems.
• This is exacerbated by disruptions to the institutions that are responsible for accountability and oversight in government. For example, parliamentary oversight committees may have been suspended.

Integrity violations in public organisations

• Evidence has shown that economic downturns lead to increased occupational fraud, embezzlement, bribery, and other integrity violations.
• These risks increase when three factors are at play: financial pressure, opportunity and individual rationalisation (e.g. “everybody does it” or “if I don’t take the opportunity, others will”).

The need for Aboriginal designed and led initiatives

A paper in Public Health Research and Practice looks at Aboriginal childhood obesity and the need for Aboriginal designed and led initiatives.

The problem

Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in Australia. Around one in four children aged 5–17 years is currently overweight or obese. Aboriginal children are more profoundly affected than non-Aboriginal children with the gap in weight status between the two groups widening. Obesity is the second biggest contributor (16%) to the gap in health status between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

Socio-environmental factors contributing to obesity include prolonged financial stress associated with food insecurity, urbanisation, substandard and overcrowded housing and lack of adequate access to health services. Aboriginal people also contend with poor dietary behaviours due to the transition from traditional to Western diets as a result of colonisation.

Policy settings

There are very few national policies and guidelines for obesity prevention and treatment for Australian children. This is especially the case for Aboriginal children. Most Australian states and territories have a suite of programs targeting obesity in childhood through healthy eating and active living strategies. With the exception of a few programs, the reach and effectiveness among Aboriginal children is either not known or has not been adequately assessed.

The need for Aboriginal designed and led initiatives

Where programs have assessed Aboriginal participation, completion rates have generally been lower compared with the general population. The problem cannot be addressed without proper Aboriginal governance and leadership and collaborative program development for Aboriginal-specific obesity interventions. Empowering Aboriginal communities to have control over programs that affect their health and wellbeing are more likely to result in positive health outcomes. Funding and support are essential to simultaneously facilitate the building of an Aboriginal health workforce to develop, coordinate, deliver and evaluate programs.

What works: Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace

This report from the University of Massachusetts provides research-based evidence about effective strategies to reduce discrimination and bias and increase diversity in workplaces.

Research shows achieving diversity is no different from the steps necessary to achieve other business goals. In order to change behaviour, organisations must:

• develop appropriate goals and metrics
• share them with stakeholders
• embrace accountability for outcomes.

In the case of diversity, this means organisations must collect diversity data and analyse them by examining flows over time and comparing them to similar organisations.

Advantages of collecting and analysing diversity data

• Keeping track of personnel transitions allows companies to see where diversity problems are—recruitment, hiring, promotion, pay and/or retention.
• Collecting relevant metrics allows organisations to develop diversity goals and make timelines for reaching them.
• Keeping track of discrimination complaints and outcomes helps companies to develop practices to restore dignity, demonstrate commitment to equal opportunities, and save on the cost and trauma of legal solutions.
• Transparent metrics allow stakeholders to hold top management accountable for outcomes.

Pitfalls of collecting and analysing diversity data

• Counting diversity numbers but not analysing the data or comparing to peer organisations means organisations do not have information on where their problems are.
• Making diversity numbers transparent without clear plans to address disparities may incur pressure from internal and external stakeholders.

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis