This book exposes the inherent complexities and challenges found in government environments and offers insights to help bureaucrats, and those working alongside bureaucrats, better understand the dynamics of provincial government in Canada.The authors are career civil servants with more than 60 years of service between them. They share practical advice and include insights from senior bureaucrats and academics, about how best to navigate relationships within the government sector. ...

Winner: Donner Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Public Policy Writing by Canadians (2016)Winner: New Brunswick Book Award for Non-Fiction (2016)Recent decades have shown the public's support for government plummet alongside political leaders’ credibility. This downward spiral calls for an exploration of what has gone wrong. The questions "What is government good at?" and "What is government not good at?" are critical ones - and their answers should be the basis for goo...

For decades, public service organizations have been under constant and growing pressure from citizens and stakeholders to provide more integrated, effective and accountable programs and services. Governments are beginning to acknowledge that they can’t own every issue and increasingly look to collaboration, networking and consultation at many levels as they design and develop polices, programs and service delivery mechanisms. Building Better Public Services explores the challenges facing publ...

Thinking Government: Public Administration and Politics in Canada, Fourth Edition introduces students to power relations between elected politicians and unelected public servants, while also covering important topics such as the institutions of the federal government, financial and human resources management, and accountability and responsibility. Johnson explores the ways that the ideological framework of this country shapes what Canadians, their political parties, and their gove...

If you want to improve quality, save money and provide better services to your customers, this book is for you.

At any given moment, there are hundreds of campaigns under way that seek to persuade citizens or decision makers to think, act, or vote in a certain way. But what separates campaigns that win from those that don’t?This book shows how to combine old-school people power with new digital tools and data to win campaigns today. It explores the traditions and practices of organizing and how to marry these with digital communication tools to scale up campaigns and win. Over a dozen case s...

If there is an X PRIZE for collaborative thought leadership of the social ecosystem, this book would get it.Dr. Peter H. DiamandisChairman and CEO, X PRIZE FoundationThe World that Changes the World is thought leadership at its best—envisioning the future through reflection and analysis of past trends and contemporary challenges.Senator the Hon. Ursula StephensAustralian Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclus...

Boundaries between business and government are increasingly fluid and often transcended. Yet it remains important to acknowledge and make appropriate use of the fundamental differences between these sectors.Five areas that offer the most critical challenges to business and government in Canada today are corporate governance, lobbying and influence, security and privacy, public-private partnerships, and geography and development. This book is an exploration of the systemic dynamics ...

For decades, the idea that more education will lead to greater individual and national prosperity has been a cornerstone of developed economies. Indeed, it is almost universally believed that college diplomas give Americans and Europeans a competitive advantage in the global knowledge wars. Challenging this conventional wisdom, The Global Auction forces us to reconsider our deeply held and mistaken views about how the global economy really works and how to thrive in it. Drawing on...

From schools to hospitals, from utilities to food banks, over the past thirty years corporatization has transformed the public sector in Canada. Economic elites take control of public institutions and use business metrics to evaluate their performance, transforming public programs into corporate revenue streams.Senior managers use corporate methodology to set priorities in social services and create “market-friendly” public sector cultures. Even social activist organizations increa...

A former Ford Foundation director takes a critical look at the role of for-profit companies in philanthropy—and exposes the troubling risks and downsides.A new movement is afoot that promises to save the world by bringing the magic of the market to philanthropy. Nonprofits should be run like businesses, its adherents say, and businesses can find new sources of revenue by marketing goods and services that benefit society. What could be wrong with that?Plenty...

The business of business is business. So why should corporations be involved in development? This groundbreaking new book makes the case that governments and their international agencies, grouped under the umbrella of the United Nations, have failed in their attempts to rid the planet of underdevelopment and poverty. If development is the objective then it seems that the solution and the responsibility lies with the private sector - particularly through the Corporate Social Responsibility ...