Certificate Program in Public Sector
Leadership and Governance
Meeting the Need for Public Sector Executive Development
Public Management in the Modern State
Canada, as every advanced nation, depends heavily on government policies, programs and services for the effective functioning of its economy and society. Government responsibilities include law and order and the administration of justice; education and health; the social safety net; financial and economic regulation and development within the global economy; national defense; and international development and the promotion of global peace and security. While there are always differences of view and shifting policies regarding the nature and extent of government activities, these differences play out within a broad scope of responsibilities which is common to all advanced nations.
To deliver on these essential functions, governments in the modern state face very significant organizational and management challenges. Meeting these challenges falls to the senior ranks of the public service; and the ability to do so has a critical impact on a nation’s overall performance.
Public Sector Executives Today
The management cadre of the federal government today is undergoing a major demographic shift, as senior managers retire in large numbers, and the public service is running up against a shortage of experienced managers in the replacement ranks due to downsizing and restrictive staffing in the 1990s. The result is a need for many managers to assume senior positions today without the benefit of a wide experience which would have been more common for the previous generation.
The demographic question is only part of much bigger challenges faced by public sector executives today. Rapid and far reaching changes in the structure of the national and global economies, in technology and business practices, in demography and immigration, in shifting global politics and centres of power, must be met by changes in what governments do and how they operate.
As managers move to senior executive positions, they must deal with a much broader range of realities, often beyond their previous experience: relations with the political level and with Parliament, national fiscal and financial affairs, the functioning of Cabinet, the legislative process, international relations, large scale IT systems, and people management involving hundreds and thousands rather than small teams. They must also understand the interrelationships between their organization and the government as a whole, involving many other departments and agencies with different areas of specialization, other levels of government, and other countries and international organizations.
Few senior managers will take up their roles with all the requisite knowledge and skills. Most will need to fill in more than one gap in their formation. All will need to learn how to think and operate on a horizontal plane, looking at the immediate and the long term simultaneously, and making “strategic” more than a buzz word. Executives must continue to learn and grow even more intensively in senior positions than they did on the way up.
Background to the Certificate Program
In January 2007, the University of Ottawa launched its Certificate Program in Public Sector Leadership and Governance, following consultations by David Zussman, Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management, with federal Deputy Ministers. The Program was designed to address the above challenges by helping to prepare emerging public sector leaders to assume greater responsibility as older seasoned executives retire in increasing numbers.
Since then, nearly 40 participants in Cohorts I and II have successfully completed the Program. Cohort III (24 participants) will graduate in September 2011, and Cohort IV (also 24 participants) in September 2012. Further cohorts will be launched each autumn.