Growing an Agency Culture: Maximizing Opportunities and Meeting Challenges

 An Agency Culture | Cooperating | Guiding programming

The broad domestic and global trends, government priorities and constraints, and specific health challenges outlined above must be managed if the Agency is to enhance the health of Canadians, reduce health disparity, and strengthen public health capacity. Meeting our objectives will require that we foster the development of an agency culture. This means that we must establish an environment, build a set of values and foster relationships with stakeholders that support the Agency's accountabilities to the Minister of Health and to Canadians as a stand-alone government department. In building this agency culture, PHAC will change its approach to stakeholder engagement from a position of consultation and ultimate control to a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to engaging stakeholders as full partners in shaping and delivering results. We will also explore new approaches to partnerships, such as the one exemplified by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer 3.

---

 

From cooperating and controlling to influencing and leading

The well-established silos that have been built up will need to be broken down, including those that exist between the areas of chronic and infectious disease prevention, between health promotion and health protection, and between policy, research and programming. Breaking down these silos will require better linkages between PHAC’s information and knowledge development functions and its actions, a concept driven by the fact that PHAC is an evidence-based organization. The information that the Agency is collecting and managing must be translated into useful knowledge and shared for the benefit of decision-makers and stakeholders. The information must also be considered in the context of the more general knowledge available in order to inform the actions that the Agency is undertaking. Conversely, the actions that the Agency is undertaking need to direct both the kinds of information that are being generated and collected and the knowledge that is being created.

In practical terms, the Agency’s research activities need to support its programs and priorities, ensuring that high quality policy options and advice are available to decision-makers and those managing and delivering programs. Furthermore, the information that is gathered through PHAC’s programs must be translated into useful knowledge that can be used by other programs and our partners and stakeholders across the country. In addition, policy and programming decisions need to be based on evidence and context (including context related to society, culture, legal frameworks, capacity, and roles and responsibilities). Results, performance and accountability need to be clearly and effectively articulated.

 

Click on image to enlarge — JPG — PDF

 

 

From programs setting policy to evidence-based policies guiding programming

By strengthening the links between the Agency’s information and knowledge development functions and its actions, PHAC will be able to move away from actions based on individual interests and move toward strong Agency positions, based on evidence, on key public health issues and priorities.

Building an agency culture will also require that PHAC’s corporate services clearly support integrated business and human resources planning. Integrated planning, in turn, will reflect the Agency’s priorities, ensure the appropriate alignment of resources and make sure that accountabilities are clear.

Opportunities Increasing recognition of the importance of public health in contributing to improved health outcomes Role of CPHO as lead health professional in Canada responsible for communicating with the public on public health issues (e.g., publication of the CPHO’s Annual Report on Public Health) Established domestic and international networks which can be leveraged Global interest in public health and importance of international collaboration

Challenges Need to make difficult choices and align resources with priorities Changing environment Stakeholder expectations Increasing complexity of public health system Diverse responsibility for public health issues Level of resources in Canada’s public health system Managing as an evidence-based organization in a public service environment Determining the appropriate federal role for delivering on priorities Difficulties in monitoring, attributing and reporting on impact of our actions on the health of Canadians

---

3 The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer: PHAC will be working closely with the new Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, announced in November 2006, to implement the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control (CSCC). As a knowledge translation platform, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer will coordinate communities of practice to reduce the number of new cases of cancer, improve the quality of life of those living with cancer, and reduce the number of deaths from cancer.

 

---

Previous page

Table of Contents

Next page