Are policy-makers interested in social research? Exploring the sources and uses of valued information among public servants in Australia

Abstract

This article explores the use of research and expertise within a selection of government agencies at state and federal levels in Australia. A recent survey of public officials provides new data on the reported use of evidence and expertise sourced from within the public service and from external sources. The survey instrument targeted the policy, program and evaluation staff in human service agencies and central policy coordination agencies. The survey findings provide new information on public servants' policy skills and organisational context, their attitudes to non-government sources of expert evidence and knowledge, and their perceptions of the relevance of academic social research. Data are reported on the relative importance assigned by public officials in state and federal agencies to various sources of expert information. Factors that hinder and facilitate the uptake of external research by policyrelated officials are canvassed, with special attention to organisational cultures and practices. Some similarities and differences between types of agencies are noted, especially those between state-level and federal agencies. The broader political context of policy work is also highlighted.

Mainstreaming and Beyond: Policy Capacity and Climate Change Decision-Making

“…The availability of government employees' contact information has recently led to a surge of survey-based scholarship that has been undertaken mainly in Canada (Howlett 2009;Wellstead, Stedman, and Lindquist 2009) but has included studies in the Czech Republic (Veselý 2013) and in Australia (Head et al 2014). This scholarship has identified a number of key variables affecting policy work and policy capacity, which are highlighted below.…”

Knowledge Brokering: Bridging the gap between academia and policy making in Australia?

“…Another key finding from the survey of policy personnel which has been reported elsewhere (Head et al, 2014) is that a significant proportion of policy personnel (36%) agreed that their agency lacked processes for 'translating' external research for agency needs. Smaller proportions were in agreement that: 'the use of research is a low priority of my unit ' (19%) or that 'staff are not encouraged to use research evidence' (15%), suggesting that interest in research is high but the act of integrating it into everyday working practice is difficult to achieve.…”

“…The research culture dependent variable is that used for other results from the same empirical study and reported elsewhere (Head et al, 2014).…”

“…Note that the index created for the study by Head et al (2014) was created using a factor analysis of six possible items relating to accessing and using research. Following the factor analysis this reduced to four items which made up the 'Lack a Research Culture' index.…”

“…This finding is further supported when looking at 'instrumental' research use (as opposed to conceptual and symbolic -identified by Weiss (1977)). A core finding reported from the same empirical studies amongst policy officials (Head et al, 2014) show that having specific staff whose role is to link policy officials to researchers outside the public service significantly increases the odds that academic research will be used to shape and inform policy decision making (this being instrumental research use). This is confirmed in other studies which show the importance of formal linkage arrangements in research utilisation (Belkhodja et al, 2007).…”