My research interests are in public management and, in particular, reform and relationships. This covers topics as diverse as the creation and evolution of public service markets, collaboration and joined-up government, to designing effective performance management systems. Increasingly I am exploring the intersection of public management practices and morality in areas of extreme complexity. My collaborative research projects have received several academic awards including: best articles in Public Administration Review and Review of Public Personnel Administration; best book award at the Academy of Management; and several best paper awards at Academy of Management.

In 2002 I was appointed an Associate Editor at Public Management Review and previously I was an editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration (2015-2021). I am currently a member of several editorial boards for journals from across the world: Public Administration Review; Public Administration; Public Management Review; International Journal of Public Administration; Policy Design and Practice; Journal of Public Affairs Education; Global Public Policy and Governance; Halduskultuur: The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture and Digital Governance, and Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration. Previously I was on the editorial boards of Journal of Management & Organization, Teaching Public Administration and Canadian Journal of Public Administration.

My teaching focuses on management issues in the public sector and the challenges faced by contemporary leaders in pursuit of public purpose. I have worked extensively with experienced professionals from across the world in both executive education and postgraduate programs and have been recognised for teaching excellence through various college, university and national level awards. As a keen observer of international practice in public management, I have had the opportunity to provide expert advice to a range of policymakers including in Australia, Chile, Bhutan, New Zealand, the United States of America, Vietnam, Canada, China and Singapore.

Between 2012-2018 I was an elected member of the executive board of the International Research Society for Public Management and I was elected to the board of the Public Management Research Association Board in 2021. I am an elected fellow of the (US) National Academy of Public Administration (since 2022), and was appointed a fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (Victoria) (since 2013). I have been a member of the Advisory Board for the Australian Public Service Centre for Leadership and Learning (2018-2020) and a member of the Infrastructure Victoria Expert Panel on the Role of Infrastructure in Addressing Regional Disadvantage (2019-2020). Since 2021 I have been a member of the Centre for Public Impact Australia Research Committee. In 2022, I was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Victorian Public Sector Commission.

In 2019, I was commissioned to co-author a major research paper to inform the work of the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service in relation to how commissioning and contracting could be done by the federal government: 2030 and Beyond: Getting the Work of Government Done. In 2020 I joined a network of practitioners and academics attached to the Agile Government Center, sponsored by the United States National Academy of Public Administration and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

Together my various activities across research, education and engagement seek to better understand how government works and to contribute to improving the outcomes of those activities.