Professionalizing the management of political advisers

Political advisers play a vital role in the functioning of government but typically receive little support and variable management. Taking a positive public administration approach, this article presents solutions to this by arguing for more professional practice using data collected using an appreciative inquiry methodology. It draws on extensive interviews with political advisers in prime ministers’ offices in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand and civil servants, who were asked to share positive practices they experienced, developed or observed and ideas for improving future behaviour. It presents practical tools for managing political advisers generated from this data, and a proposal for an Office of Political Staff Support to improve the effectiveness of government. It also contributes to filling the gap in previous literature on how to resolve problems in the workplace conditions for political staff, building on rigorous analysis of the data in NVivo that maximized interpretive validity to provide innovative and evidence-based recommendations for professionalizing the management of political advisers.