Collaborative Policy Development for Effective, Flexible Working

Abstract

In the post-COVID environment, work flexibility is an increasingly important factor in employee attraction and retention.  This new way of working is particularly challenging in the public sector as it is bound by high levels of rules, regulations and bureaucracy.  Academic literature on the post-Covid ways of working is limited as the research takes time to catch up to current practices and does not fully capture or address the novel issues currently faced by public sector managers. With the increasing demand for flexible working, it is vital to explore how public sector organisations exploit opportunities and avoid potential risks in this new way of working.  Through our empirical study with a public sector organisation, it is argued that the rapid shift to flexible working was possible as it leveraged off the pre-COVID organisational culture.  High levels of organic tacit knowledge exchange were possible through staff’s physical proximity in the workplace.  Under new flexible work practices, this is often no longer the case. For sustainable, effective knowledge exchange, operational policies must capture, consider and support operant knowledge exchange in this new geographically dispersed work environment.  Drawing on service design theory and public sector management literature, this study generates managerial and policy learnings, practices, and methodologies for collaborative work policy development. Firstly, we demonstrate that, as traditional operational policies focus on quantifiable, explicit knowledge and communication, a new user-centred approach to policy development is required.  It demonstrates the managerial need for collaborative policy development, which engages staff in capturing both explicit and tacit knowledge for effective operations.  Secondly, it identifies the implications of the loss of tacit knowledge exchange, particularly for staff new to the organisation. It highlights the implications of moving to online forms of engagement and collaboration and the impact on knowledge development and exchange.  Thirdly, we show the importance of critical reflection within co-creative policy development.  Critical reflection provides staff with opportunities and resources to question old practices, reflect on new practices and construct knowledge collaboratively.