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National Library News

October 1995, vol. 27, no. 10

Speaking from...
Management Services

Re-engineering the Administrative Function

The federal Public Service, as we all know, is now undergoing such drastic cuts and financial reductions that the great majority of sections that survive this wave of cutbacks will have to go through an exercise of fundamental re-engineering, if they have not already done so. In many cases, this exercise must tackle not only methods and procedures, but also the mandate or mission, if not, indeed, the very existence of the organization. In this context, re-engineering the administrative function must take into account new directions, systems and policy changes coming out of Central Agencies as well as the way internal support services are provided for program activities. But could the administrative function not simply be reduced and re-engineered to the same extent as its parent organization?

There is no doubt that every administrative process and procedure currently provided to departments and client organizations must be reviewed. At the very least, this approach must achieve certain minimal results, since, under the reduction program, government departments and agencies have been instructed to focus some of their efforts on actual overhead. What does this mean? How will these reductions be implemented?

It would be naive to expect that re-engineering processes and procedures alone will achieve major benefits from the outset. In fact, many exercises of this type have already been conducted and have produced the desired results. The era of "doing more with less" is over for all intents and purposes. We definitely have entered the era of "doing less with less", and it is therefore clear that some of the services traditionally provided by the personnel, finance, accommodation, purchasing and other units will be eliminated or provided by other sources. Art Silverman, Assistant Deputy Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, told participants at a session given by the Financial Management Institute of Canada that managers in the federal Public Service have been "spoiled" by the support services. Obviously, that time is now drawing to a close, and line managers will have to become more involved in administrative decisions.

Furthermore, administrative services are moving away from the "process" and towards consulting. In future, administrative services will support managers with a limited number of specialists. These consulting specialists will be able to provide options from which operational managers must choose, and subsequently accept responsibility for their administrative decisions. In conjunction with this reorientation, there is a clear trend towards the automation of processes and databanks. Thus, user-managers will have immediate access to the administrative information they require, and after obtaining suitable advice and counsel, they will be able to activate personally the appropriate process for the actions they intend to take.

The future will certainly involve re-engineering administration, and many other functions as well.