title: Public Administration in Blak and White: Uplifting the Cultural Capability of the Australian Public Service
Creators: name: Conway, Lisa
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2024

description: This thesis demonstrates that the Australian Public Service (APS) needs to identify and address institutional whiteness to build its cultural capability as both an employer and as a public administration that designs and delivers policy that impacts the outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (the Mob). While research about building cultural capability in public administration has focussed on increased awareness and understanding of Indigenous cultures, little is known about the impact the dominant societal culture has on decision making impacting policy implemenation. Using the APS's largest service delivery agency, Services Australia (the Agency) as a case study, this research sought to identify opportunities for the APS to uplift its cultural capability with a hypothesis that the impact of the dominant White culture of the public administration was not considered when designing and implementing policies that impacts Mob. Indigenous research methodology and methods were used to gather knowledge from a variety of workers in the APS, including current and retired senior managers within policy and central agencies, and at all leadership levels of the Agency, to determine what workers considered when making decisions that impact Mob. Findings indicate that white culture is embedded in systems, processes and resources impeding the APS's ability to effectively design and implement policy for non-White Australians. Furthermore, decisions in the Agency are susceptible to bias and inconsistency due to all knowledge not being collected and considered prior to decisions being made. It is recommended that to increase its cultural capability, the APS must first address the cultural blindness that prevents it from being able to identity the institutional whiteness that permeates this public administration. To do this, the APS must place culture at the centre of everything it does and provide its workforce with the tools needed to understand and be aware of the culture of the APS, the workplace, and themselves. Only then will the APS be in the position to begin scaffolding other necessary skills that will build its cultural capability and become an employer that can retain Mob in its workforce. Born of this research is a model the APS needs to adopt to build its cultural capability by addressing the cultural blindness impeding the identification and countering of institutional whiteness, improving cultural safety for the Mob. The model consists of a staged process for addressing cultural blindness, building cultural capability and then embedding required changes into ongoing systems and processes to maintain that capability. In addition to this model, a framework has been developed to improve retention of Mob in the APS, which includes cultural strengthening of Indigenous employees to give a sense of belonging within the work community, and ensure Mob have the cultural knowledge and the skills to share as appropriate with their non-Indigenous colleagues to truly build cultural capability.