ANZSOG research project to examine how to build a pro-integrity culture

What do pro-integrity practices look for like public servants in their everyday contexts? And how can these practices manifest cultural change in support of integrity? These are key questions inspiring a new ANZSOG research project that will use an innovative action research methodology that involves practitioners and leaders to co-research their own pro integrity practices. 

The project in partnership with the Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC) is part of ANZSOG’s unique and influential research model, which links public sector research needs with academic experts to co-produce relevant, accessible and impactful analysis and insights for the public service.  

Improving Public Sector Integrity Through Action Research will be led by Prof Susan Goodwin and Dr Assel Mussagulova of the University of Sydney. These highly respected researchers combine deep understanding of action research as a practitioner-led method, and the psychological and motivational dimensions to integrity in the public service.  

Integrity is both a perennial and highly salient topic in public administration. Recent events like the Robodebt Royal Commission, the Victorian Ombudsman’s investigation of public sector politicisation, and Queensland’s Coaldrake Review, as well as the 2019 Thodey Review of the Australian Public Service, have focused attention on public sector integrity. There is now widespread interest within the sector in moving beyond policing corruption to policies and practices that embody a culture supportive of integrity.  

However, this kind of culture is not merely a set of principles which individuals simply apply. It is in the ‘day to day’ that these practices and cultures are reiterated and reinvented, and sometimes eroded. Building awareness of this is part of the solution: practitioner-led engagement in what constitutes pro-integrity culture.  

This is why the project is focused as much on the methodology as the substance of integrity. Action research aims to catalyse cultural change within organisations through structured experimentation, reflection, and learning. Researchers collaborate with individuals and groups to identify and justify practices for improvement, co-design solutions, and monitor and critically analyse the effects of changes through a continuous process of reflection. 

Work and organisational innovation and change is often very context specific and not always systematic in how it occurs or is supported. Scaffolding how to think about innovation and change in everyday practices, how to decide what counts as evidence of change, and how to organise and report back that evidence of change are critical ingredients in the action research approach.  The value-add for participants is in gaining experience in describing the specific outcomes and sharing this for generalisable findings about practical improvements and culture change within similar organisations. 

Over 12 months, the project will first deliver a rapid review of promising practices relevant to integrity and the public sector, and then build four case studies with VPS teams or communities of practice in various departments to develop and test feasible and local innovations. Case studies, teaching materials, and learning sessions will disseminate the findings and broaden the impact of the research. 

The project builds upon ANZSOGs longstanding leadership in this area, as a major contributor to the Thodey Review and in more recent work on the opportunities and challenges of building a pro-integrity culture, and on practitioner-led learning.  

It is expected that ANZSOG’s project will contribute to technical and practical understandings of public sector integrity, while also extending action research as a proven approach to professional learning into the science of public administration. 

For more information on ANZSOG’s Research Model Projects visit our website. For publications from current and past projects visit our freely available Research Insights series. To receive ANZSOG’s regular updates about its research program and findings Subscribe here and follow ANZSOG on LinkedIn to learn about the latest developments in public administration in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.