Organisational design

Organisational design is the art of dividing an organisation into operational parts and then connecting those parts together to optimise organisational performance. It involves considerations about what work needs to be done, how the work is supported, how roles are defined, and the governance arrangements that establish direction, control, co-production and accountability.

The VPSC undertakes research and provides advice on design in public sector organisations.  It has also developed the Organisational Design guide to shed light on some common issues for public sector leaders and managers in relation to organisational design.

The guide is part of the Leading Public Organisations series, which covers three vital, yet often challenging organisational dynamics: design, change and culture.

Organisational culture

Organisational culture is the collective values, beliefs, customs and behaviours of the majority of people who work for a particular organisation. A ‘functional culture’ is one in which there is alignment between the values held by the individuals who work for the organisation and between the values required to achieve organisational performance.

The VPSC undertakes research and provides advice on culture in public sector organisations, and developed the Organisational Culture guide to help organisational leaders become informed decision-makers, commissioners and/or consumers of actions relating to organisational culture.

This guide is part of the Leading Public Organisations series, which covers three vital, yet often challenging organisational dynamics: design, change and culture.

Organisational change

Organisational change is the process of moving from old structures, ways of working, values or ways of thinking to adopt new structures, ways of working, values or ways of thinking. Change management is the act of directing and controlling this process in a systematic way.

The VPSC undertakes research and provides advice on change in public sector organisations, and developed the Organisational Change guide to help organisational leaders become informed decision-makers, commissioners and/or consumers of actions relating to organisational change.

The guide is part of the Leading Public Organisations series, which covers three vital yet often challenging organisational dynamics: design, change and culture.

Workforce planning and succession risk management

The VPSC undertakes research and provides advice on workforce strategy and succession risk management in the public sector. It has produced toolkits on these topics.

The VPSC has developed the strategic workforce planning toolkit to provide a source of information on the common elements of workforce planning for small to medium-sized Victorian public sector organisations.

Workforce planning is a tool that assists organisations and managers plan for the future, anticipate change, manage the workforce and meet business goals.

It provides a framework for making workforce decisions that align with meeting the strategic goals of the organisation.

The workforce plan identifies how future staffing and skill needs will be met (i.e. via recruiting, development, internal deployment, recruitment, succession planning, etc.). This ensures that planning is proactive and talent surpluses and shortages are avoided, where possible.

The succession risk management toolkit provides a framework for assisting senior leaders across the Victorian public sector to identify and mitigate succession risks.

Succession risk management addresses the possibility that a vacancy in a critical role will not be filled satisfactorily within an acceptable timeframe.

The aim of succession risk management is to mitigate the risk of vacancies in critical roles.

Staff currently performing critical roles will inevitably leave. When they do, it is important to minimise the period of time when the role is vacant. Also, new types of critical role will be created and it will be important to fill these quickly and with appropriately qualified staff.

The aim of succession risk management is to ensure that inevitable vacancies in critical roles have minimal negative impacts on the organisation and its work.