In 2004 a bold experiment in the use of joined-up approaches to policy-making and implementation, best captured in the design of new policy architecture and the creation of a co-location model for service delivery, was undertaken to address the entrenched disadvantage of Indigenous Australians. In this article we report on inhibitors, explaining the under-performance of the joined-up experiment, and facilitators, which explain, in part, the existence of a small number of examples defying the broader trend.

Enhanced performance has been the focus of public administration and management research for years. High performance organizations have characteristics that differentiate them from others; they also utilize high performance work practices (HPWPs). A core HPWP is performance management, which seeks to align individual performance with organizational outcomes. We posit that performance management can enable high performance through managing employee expectations. Drawing on a study undertaken in the Australian Public Service, we demonstrate how using an expectancy theory lens helps explain how performance management can support high performance. We suggest that all three elements of expectancy theory—valance, expectancy, and instrumentality—need to be in place to support the creation of goal and role clarity, critical components of high performance. This offers practitioners a way of structuring effective conversations and scholars the opportunity to consider the theoretical implications of linking expectancy theories, performance management, and high performance.

Improving well-being is an important human resource management issue within public sector organizations as it is linked with improved employee and organizational outcomes. A key antecedent to employee well-being is work–life balance, which can be supported or impeded by flexible working. The extent to which flexible working supports work–life balance and, ultimately, well-being depends on how flexible working is implemented, where managers play a central role. Managers can enable work–life balance by providing employees with work-family-specific support, which incorporates a range of behaviors, including facilitating access to flexible working. However, research to date says little about how and why managers engage in these behaviors and whether this differs within the same organizational context. This article addresses this gap, presenting four approaches to managerial support for flexible working: unconditional support, performance contingent support, no support, and support based upon the approval of others (transfer responsibility). It explores the reasons for each approach through the lens of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. It suggests that different approaches create the potential for employee well-being to vary considerably within the same organizational and team context. These findings inform how to support and manage flexible working arrangements in ways that optimize well-being in the public sector.

Public sector effectiveness necessitates planned change; however, many initiatives fail. For planned change to be successful, employees’ mental models need to be amended to support new behaviours. One mechanism to achieve this is employee performance conversations, which can elicit behavioural change through introducing new ideas to an individual’s reality. However, many conversations fail to create shared understandings of the need for change. Ford and Ford's [The role of conversations in producing intentional change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 541–570] typology identifies different conversational forms to create the shared understandings required to enact change. This paper reflects on the learnings from a management development intervention based upon Ford and Ford’s typology where managers applied the conversational forms to initiate mental model amendment, thereby enabling planned change. Analysis of qualitative data collected during the intervention suggests that using different types of conversations in a structured manner enabled shared understandings regarding why change was required and what success looked like. Managers recognized that slowing down the conversational process led to more effective mental model amendment, facilitating behavioural change. The paper demonstrates how different conversational forms enable leaders to discuss a planned change from an individual and organizational perspective and elicit mental model amendment to realize change. MAD statement This paper explores a new approach to undertaking employee performance management to enable organizational change. The paper applies Ford and Ford’s (1995) conversational typology as a practice model for developing the conversational competencies of managers and leaders. The paper highlights the importance of taking account of employees’ and managers’ different mental models in order to enable planned change. It argues that it is not more conversations that is needed, but instead the capacity to recognize and utilize different conversational forms to realize mental model amendment to elicit behavioural change and thus achieve change. The paper outlines an intervention that applies this new approach to employee performance management training.