Into the Mystic: Cultural Change and TQM Teams in the NSW Public Sector

Cultural change in the guise of quality customer service was promoted in the NSW public sector by former Premiers Greiner and Fahey. This paper explores the impact of a management strategy of cultural change and TQM teams within one public sector agency - Buildcorp - of the former NSW Department of Industrial Relations, Employment, Training and Further Education (DIRETFE). The paper argues that cultural change failed to achieve its objective of a quality customer service culture because of workplace management practices which emphasized 'downsizing' of Builcorp's workforce and therationalisation of work processes.