Benefits Management and Its Applicability in the Australian Public Sector

Abstract

The existing project management (PM) literature on Australian public sector benefits management practices is generally more normative and aspirational than grounded in practice. A literature review for this study found various research gaps in existing literature. The existing literature highlights the struggle organisations face in managing benefits, starting with benefits identification and formulation, but it does not say much about the challenges these organisations face in this process. Various benefits management frameworks are available in the PM literature, but these are either conceptual or lack evidence of being used in practice. The PM literature also lacks debate on the effectiveness of project governance and the role of project and benefits owners in managing benefits in Australian public sector organisations. There is insufficient information in the PM literature on enablers and inhibitors of benefits management in Australian public sector organisations.

In order to fill these gaps in the extant literature, this study posed two main questions: 1) How is benefits management being practised in the Australian public sector? 2) What are the inhibitors and enablers of benefits management in the Australian public sector? This study employed the thematic analysis (TA) method to inductively identify current benefits management practices in the Australian public sector at the federal level.

Based on 35 semi structured interviews with practitioners actively involved in benefits across six public sector organisations, this study identified seven major themes through the analysis of the interview data. While this study confirmed various findings from previous research, it also discovered many benefits management practices previously yet unidentified in the literature. This study is the first extensive study of benefits management practices in the Australian public sector, acknowledging the few limited studies conducted in the Australian public sector context.