Canadian Government Executive - Volume 25 - Issue 04

Our mission is to contribute to excellence in public service management EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR | J. RICHARD JONES john@promotivemedia.ca DEPUTY EDITOR | LORI TURNBULL lori@promotivemedia.ca MANAGING Editor | Marcello Sukhdeo marcello@promotivemedia.ca COPY EDITOR | James Brandon COLUMNISTS | JEFFREY ROY HARVEY SCHACHTER JOHN WILKINS EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD DENISE AMYOT, PENNY BALLANTYNE, Jim Connell, Michael Fenn, Lana Lougheed, John Milloy, Vic Pakalnis, Robert Shepherd, Andrew Treusch, David Zussman Sales & Events Vice President, Sales | Terri Pavelic 905-727-3875 x2 terri@promotivemedia.ca Director, Content & Business Development | David Blondeau 905-727-3875 david@promotivemedia.ca ART & PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR | Elena Pankova elena@promotivemedia.ca Subscriptions and Address Changes Circulation Services | 905-841-7389 circulation@promotivemedia.ca General Inquiries 21374, 2nd Concession Rd, East Gwillimbury, ON, L9N 0H7 Phone 905-727-3875 Fax 905-727-4428 www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca corporate Group Publisher | J. RICHARD JONES john@promotivemedia.ca Publisher’s Mail Agreement: 40052410 ISSN 1203-7893 Canadian Government Executive magazine is published 6 times per year by Navatar Press. All opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or any person or organization associated with the magazine. Letters, submissions, comments and suggested topics are welcome, and should be sent to george@promotivemedia.ca Reprint Information Reproduction or photocopying is prohibited without the publisher’s prior written consent. High quality reprints of articles and additional copies of the magazine are available through circulation@promotivemedia.ca . Privacy Policy: We do not sell our mailing list or share any confidential information on our subscribers. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca 6 / Canadian Government Executive // October/November 2019 web As the largest employer in Canada, the Public Service is a complex organization that has attempted over time to improve its operation to effectively deliver a range of programs and services to Canadians. Over the years, it conducted sweeping management reform initia- tives across its many departments and agencies to improve performance and productivity. About a year ago, the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, as part of its Executive in Residence Program, conducted an anonymous survey of over 350 federal executives to assess the results of public service management reforms across many federal organizations. The survey focused on recent horizontal management reforms and asked executives about the nature and evolution of their work, the cumulative results of reforms, and about sharing their views on the public service’s management of its reform agenda and initiatives. Robert D’Aoust, a federal executive currently in residence at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, writes about this survey in his article Public Service Management Reforms Executive Views and Consequences. He points out the “disturbing” views of executives of the federal government’s management reforms but with a silver lining that these views can assist to secure better progress in the future. Occupational health and safety (OHS) rules and regulations is another important aspect of public service. Some prefer prescriptive OHS while others performance-based OHS. Mark Rice, a public administrator and occupational health and safety professional, writes about the difference between prescriptive and performance-based rules, as well as, other categories of OHS rules. He explains the advantages and disadvantages of each category of rule, including how and when to leverage each category to achieve a government’s policy objective of improving OHS performance at workplaces within its jurisdiction. In this issue, we would like to share with you three articles in the Millennial Outlook sec- tion. This section was launched a few issues ago to tap into the minds of the next generation leaders as to what we can anticipate in the future public service. The contributors of these articles are part-time graduate students who are young professionals and mid-level manag- ers with busy lifestyles, balancing studies, work and family. Read more about the keys to building successful relationships between senior and middle management, the need for public service leaders to work with Millennials to thrive in the global economy, and the task of attracting and retaining talent in the public service. To round off this issue, Harvey Schachter gives his review on Decisive Intuition, a book by career coach Rick Snyder. The author makes the point that with the arrival of artificial intelligence, big data, and the digital age, intuition is needed more than ever to balance humanity and emotional intelligence with the vast swaths of data to make good decisions. Intuition is connected to a deeper intelligence inside us that enriches our lives personally, professionally, and creatively. But it is a skill. The good news is we can learn, develop and refine it. I hope you enjoy reading this issue. If you have comments or would like to contribute an article for a future edition or our website, please reach out to me. Marcello Sukhdeo Managing Editor, Canadian Government Executive marcello@promotivemedia.ca editor’s note