Traumatic experience is as old as human experience, but since the ‘terror attacks’, cultural theorists have begun to problematise the nature of trauma itself. “Trauma” in psychoanalysis, refers to the violent creation of a traumatic wound, and the uncontrollable, repetitive effects of...

Briefly outlines recent developments in the commercialization of the public sector at the federal level of government in Australia. After six years of planning and implementation, debate continues over whether the dramatic changes in practice are achieving the proclaimed ends of enhanced...

States the Australian Public Service (APS) has been engaged in a comprehensive reform process for more than 20 years. A significant dimension of this reform process has been commercialization. With this growing commercialization, the relationship between civil servants, as APS managers, and...

Of many managerialist panaceas, the most prevalent one today is the assertion that private sector practices will solve the public sector’s “self‐evident” inadequate performance. This managerialist view assumes hegemonic proportions in Anglo‐Saxon public sectors and largely goes...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive classification of quid pro quo exchange transactions, so as to distinguish the different ways that desired exchange outcomes can be determined and that transactional processes can be conducted. This permits reflection on the...

This paper draws on the philosophy of social sciences to develop a framework that permits a critical analysis of management practice. It uses this framework to construct a taxonomy that enables the identification of the competing philosophical paradigms that underpin contending perspectives on...