When it Comes to Public Policy, It’s all About Implementation
Public policies don’t just implement themselves. Their success is often contingent upon the way public servants are managed.
Although the Canadian public service is viewed as one of the most effective in the world, issues such as differences in supervision styles, work-life balance, goal clarity, respectful and ethical workplaces, employee motivation, and work satisfaction still plague our nation’s public service.
Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also show that Canada’s federal government is in the middle of the pack internationally when it comes to levels of trust from its citizens, and that those levels have eroded significantly over the past decade.
As Canada Research Chair in Comparative Public Management, Dr. Étienne Charbonneau is focusing on identifying and understanding the management practices and tools that will improve performance in Canadian public organizations. To this end, he and his research team are examining how managers in the public service behave within an environment with competing demands.
More specifically, Charbonneau and his research team are trying to assess and better understand the practices that can be used to improve overall performance; the reach and influence of public administration research about Canadian public organizations; and the interplay between new means of accountability and public support for governmental organizations.