Third, whether protection of merit within the public sector concentrates too much on individual rights rather than addressing systemic barriers. The focus on positions and jobs is too narrow. We cannot rely on the erratic discipline of individual grievance procedures to preserve merit. We need to examine the rigidities in workplace structures, systems and culture if we are to ensure that Australians of all backgrounds can participate fully on the basis of merit. Fourth, whether our increasing recognition of the need to build effective management teams has had sufficient impact on the way in which we interpret merit.
Merit remains individualistic.
An emphasis on the need of the team to have a diversity of skills, experience and perspectives would help to contextualise the interpretation of merit. It would also lead us to assess the principles of merit and open competition in terms of career development, investment in training and formal mentoring structures - not just at the moment of appointment or promotion. Peter Wilenski was, as so often, right - merit is a dynamic concept which changes in response to social mores and community attitudes. Unfortunately, perhaps, too little of that dynamism and commitment to change has been evident in the manner in which we have interpreted and enforced merit within the public sector. A new Government is reconsidering the values set out in the ethos of public service and how the Public Service Act might be re-written to reflect its core principles.