The transformation of bureaucracy? Structural change in the Commonwealth public service 1983-93

Commentators have predicted bureaucratic organisations would undergo substantial change as a result of social and economic pressures. We ask whether reforms to the Australian public service over the 1983–93 period exemplify this process. We use the methods of organisational analysis to characterise the direction of change, basing our assessment on the standard structural variables of complexity, formalisation and centralisation, together with a cultural variable. We find evidence that, overall, departments of state in the APS were becoming less bureaucratic in their structure, culture and internal function in the 1983–93 period. However, the effect was not uniform across departments, or unambiguous — formalisation, for example, increased in some respects and decreased in others. Centralisation increased overall, despite devolution of some decision-making.

Uneconomical practices in the administration of employment service and unemployment compensation programs, Bureau of Employment Security, Department of Labor /

Mode of access: Internet.

Reorienting the federal-state employment service.

Mode of access: Internet.

The employment service : an institutional analysis.

Research and development contract no. 20-11-76-10.

Employment service statistics.

Mode of access: Internet.

The administration of unemployment insurance and the public employment service in Germany, January, 1938,

Foreword signed: Joseph P. Harris, director of research, Committee on Public Administration, Social Science Research Council.

List of permanent officers of the Commonwealth Public Service as on ...

Description based on: 30th June, 1951.

Training manual for employment service personnel /

WI docs no.: EMP 6/2:1938

History of the public employment service in Wisconsin.

WI docs no.: EMP 2.2:H 5

Monthly statistical bulletin of the Unemployment Compensation Division and the Employment Service Division.

Issues for Jan.- 1939 called v. 1, no. 1-

Employment service news.

Mode of access: Internet.

A survey by the New York State Commission Against Discrimination of the placement of older workers by the New York State Employment Service.

"October 1958."

Problems affecting the accuracy and timeliness of employment service reporting systems : report to the chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives /

"April 28, 1983."

A preliminary study of state employment service programs. Report of Employment Service Program Committee.

Mode of access: Internet.

Job seekers in New York State; an inventory of the active file of the New York State Employment Service by occupation, industry, age, and sex. Part 3, Relief and WPA registrants.

Mode of access: Internet.