Reviewing the Reviewers: Lessons from the Australian Public Service Capability Review Programme
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Abstract
In October 2022, the Australian Government re-instated a formal programme of capability reviews across major Commonwealth agencies, building on a recommendation of the 2019 Independent Review of the Australian Public Service. The Capability Review Programme, administered by the Australian Public Service Commission, assesses agencies against five domains and eighteen elements of organisational capability, culminating in a four-point maturity rating and a forward-looking excellence horizon. This article examines the Programme’s design logic, methodological architecture, and early implementation through the theoretical lens of dynamic capabilities. It argues that the Programme constitutes an attempt to institutionalise the three dynamic capability functions at the whole-of-service level, but that its long-term efficacy will depend on resolving three structural challenges: the partial independence of reviewing personnel, which constrains sensing; limitations of the maturity rating instrument, which degrade diagnostic quality; and the translation gap between review findings and sustained capability uplift, which represents a seizing failure.
Keywords: Australian Public Service; capability review; organisational assessment; public sector reform; dynamic capabilities
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