The challenge of sustaining respect in a central budget agency: what can Ireland learn from New Zealand?

Abstract

A primary leadership challenge facing central budget agencies is sustaining the respect of finance ministers. Lessons are drawn in this article from the corrosive effect that missed opportunities to take the lead on economic strategy and public service modernization had on the long-term respect commanded by the Irish Department of Finance, and from the strategic re-orientation the New Zealand Treasury undertook to correct its tendency to ‘over-reach’ itself in these areas following a process of capacity-building and cultural transformation in the 1980s.

Keywords:

• Irish Department of Finance
• leadership failure
• New Zealand Treasury
• respect

Notes

* Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), which also includes the president of Ireland and Seinad Éireann (upper house).

* In terms of Ireland's Freedom of Information Act 1997, only policy advice tendered outside of cabinet consideration is subject to public disclosure.

* Nagel (1998, p.243) quotes Lange as saying: ‘I have more respect for [the] Treasury than I have for the Labour Party, in the sense that they were a consistent, cohesive…group of people that exercised strength and muscle and an all-pervasive right to go to the prime minister to achieve their end’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joe Wallis

Joe Wallis is professor and head of the Management Department, School of Business and Management, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Shaun Goldfinch

Shaun Goldfinch is an associate professor, Nottingham Business School, UK.

Andy Klein

Andy Klein is an assistant professor in the Management Department, School of Business and Management, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.