Connecting our people: management support in a hub and spoke organisation: Summary report.

Over the last few decades in Australia, community services have been increasingly outsourced to non-government organisations (Green & Dalton, 2016). Australian non-government community service organisations have consequently grown significantly (Productivity Commission, 2010). Country community services confront additional challenges to those of their metropolitan counterparts in their management of complex and often expanding services across large geographical areas.

Hub-and-spoke service models aim to reduce geographical barriers to access. Hub-and-spoke management models comprise a centralised administration office (hub) which supports local service delivery centres (spokes) (McLennan et al., 2006). Services may be delivered to more places/clients with fewer resources and/or qualified practitioners, without the need for multiple service centres (Dew et al., 2013; Drabsch, 2015; McLennan et al., 2006; Nancarrow, Roots, Grace, & Saberi, 2015; Wakerman et al., 2008). While hub-and-spoke models work well for service provision, the experience of workers, particularly with regard to how connected they feel to their organisations, is unknown.