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FORUM on Corrections Research
The Rejuvenation of the Public Service and the Mission of the Correctional Service of Canada: A Time to Grow
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Across the Public Service of Canada, we are beginning to see the start of millennial thinking. As the
year 2000 approaches, the feeling that fundamental changes are about to happen will probably grow. The
challenge of such change is real. The need for revitalization of the Public Service is also real. The
Correctional Service of Canada, as part of the Public Service of Canada, needs to focus not only on what
we have already started but also on the challenges that remain. Our Mission positions us to meet these
challenges and it should also enable us to contribute to the overall process within the Public
Service. In his recent talk to the Correctional Service of Canada's Senior Management Conference the Clerk of the Privy Council and head of the Public Service, Mr. Paul Tellier, made it very clear that he and senior department heads were focusing on the next decade and beyond. Canada as a whole is on the verge of major changes. While the Public Service will continue to operate in an environment of restraint, the mix of forces that affect its capacity to act will change dramatically. Issues of public policy are becoming increasingly globalized and integrated. While this is more evident on the economic side of public policy, questions of social and justice policy also take on greater complexity and inter-relatedness. There is an increasing challenge to authority and dogma. This challenge has a direct impact on service-oriented operations such as the Correctional Service of Canada. Any restraint is increasingly subject to challenge and scrutiny. The face of the Public Service must reflect a changing social mix within the country. The pace of that change is also accelerating. The Public Service is not now representative of this country. Further, the Service is managed under legislation that is showing its age and is in need of reform. In response to challenges such as this, the Clerk and senior deputy ministers have formed a series of task forces to begin to come up with directions and solutions. This is no long-term exercise. Mr. Tellier will be supported by Mr. John Edwards, a career public servant and former Public Service Commissioner, who has been appointed Manager of Public Service 2000, the name for the initiative to renew the Public Service of Canada. The Clerk has stressed that action is necessary. Therefore, the deputies who are involved have to report to their colleagues early in 1990. While no ready solutions can be conjured up, this process is indeed driven by a sense of urgency, one that reflects our concern to get on with our Mission which is, after all, our strategic vision of the future. An important part of this process is a paper by Professor Timothy W. Plumtree, entitled Tomorrow's Public Service. Professor Plumtree is the author of Managing Beyond the Bottom Line, a very useful analysis of public sector management. This paper was presented to the Assistant Deputy Minister Update in October 1989, at which time Mr. Tellier announced the beginning of the process of rejuvenation. Professor Plumtree's views, therefore, provide a useful intellectual backdrop for this process. Professor Plumtree points out: "If the principles of liberal democracy are the bedrock of parliamentary government, the public service is the structural steel on this foundation that sustains the edifice of government. It is an integral part of the constitutional framework of this country. Ultimately, a vision for its future endorsed by the elected government could have a significant impact on how this country is administered, and even on how it is governed.' This Service must underline the importance of the exercise, but also reinforce the power of having a strategic vision. Professor Plumtree goes on to outline the underlying trends that will affect the Public Service. These are similar to Mr. Tellier's views at the Senior Management Conference. From both sources, it is clear that there will be two underlying and contradictory trends for the Public Service in the next decades. The first one is for a far more flexible and responsive Service that can reduce costs, cut through procedural impediments to action and be much more client-centred. In Plumtree's words, "If the public service wants a better image, the ethic of 'service to the customer' needs to become a more deeply entrenched institutional norm." The other trend is toward what Plumtree calls "procedural rectitude". This is a recognition that the demands for fair and unbiased action by those affected by government activity will grow. Procedural safeguards that protect all parties reduce the speed with which agencies can respond. The tension between the forces is already evident within the Correctional Service of Canada and will grow. Professor Plumtree concludes that this is an important time in the life of the Public Service. It has seen much change internally. Canadian society is changing. There will be more change once the impact of major economic and social policy legislation is felt. Therefore, it is legitimate to confront the issues of change. His conclusion is: "Organizations facing problems of this order tend to take refuge in dealing with the more tangible aspect of the institution: pay rates, corporate newsletters, human resource planning systems and the like. Changing organizational culture to inculcate a different set of norms and values requires a broader and more subtle response. The difficulty in changing organizational culture lies not so much in knowing what to do as in accepting and acting on the consequences of a decision that change is required." Inherent in this process of change is that it must come from the top. It must be reinforced in a variety of ways: Top management must have a common vision; there must be substance, not optics; it takes time and there will be a healthy staff cynicism to address. Professor Plumtree concludes that the implementation of change needs to be discussed more across the government. There is no question that this is necessary, but how? The Challenge to the Correctional Service of Canada The Service is part of the Public Service and, as such, faces the same challenges that are felt generally. While there may be degrees of impact, our future too lies within the emerging mosaic of Canada. What do we do? How do we rise to these challenges? In the true sense of rejuvenation, we have already begun. The Mission Statement and the process that brought us to its creation and, now, implementation, provide a strategic framework for rejuvenation. We are indeed fortunate to have moved as far as we have. It can, however, only be the beginning. The Service needs to contribute to what is happening in the government in general. We tend to underestimate our experiences, especially as managers. We have unique correctional experiences that our counterparts in other departments are eager to hear. However, with respect to how we manage, the experience of the past year has been a singular one in government. The danger always exists that, in sharing our experience, we will be too sanguine about how far we have come. The challenge to us is to understand that the vision we have articulated in the Mission is a necessary precursor for action. The Mission, in the context of the emerging Public Service of Canada, poses some specific managerial challenges. Foremost is the challenge to shift our managerial emphasis from a process orientation to a results orientation. Our strategic objectives are clearly results statements. In an increasingly open organization, one that opens itself of volition and is opened by democratic processes, there is little patience with process responses to demands for results on the part of our clientele, our public and, ultimately, ourselves. Therefore, managers within the Service have to shift their cultural bias from process to results. This has a wide variety of implications for the Service. The fundamental one is that we must measure our success and failure in relation to what the Mission says we will do, contributing to the protection of society, by actively encouraging and assisting offenders to become law-abiding citizens. The bottom line becomes clear: a different management focus, one that can mean change in resource distribution, orientation on what information is important, different workplans and a clarity of purpose. The implications of all of these merit consideration that this article cannot fully address. Another fundamental shift that the challenge of rejuvenation poses is that of communication and information flow. The future for the Service and the Public Service in general will mean the abandonment of a hierarchical communication flow. This will happen either by design or by force of the new technology that is emerging. A healthy organization will maintain a proper flow of managerial information up and down the system. In one such as ours, that flow is vital for all levels to exercise their accountabilities within the organization and outward. However, as we address that issue, the new technology should enable the Service to jump the queue in terms of obtaining information. The old, orderly and perhaps comfortable notion is that information flows through the chain of command in terms of expressing their feelings about the work that is being done. We are therefore on the verge of an era when the flow of ideas, feelings and hard data about where and how we work will change. As a Service with a long history of quasi-military chains of command that exactly parallel the lines of accountability, this will be a challenging process. The greatest difficulty will be to maintain the integrity of the lines of accountability within the organization while, at the same time, giving positive manifestation to the need for a totally different way of talking to each other. The tight control of information up and down must go. What one does with the information that flows in a less structured system demands a new discipline on the part of managers. The challenge of rejuvenation within the Public Service is an exciting one. As this country changes in profound ways, the Public Service must keep pace. The leadership presently shown is a positive force for change. Each organization within the Public Service will have to face these changes within the context of its culture and history. It will also have to define its future. The Correctional Service of Canada already has a good foundation to begin addressing these issues. Indeed, we can contribute positively to that process. We have only begun to think through the heart of the meaning of those challenges. Our Mission was just a beginning. We need a continuous dialogue to sustain the effort. |
