A real difficulty with the degree of decentralization that is going on is
that success in employment creation in the current economy is going to
require more sophistication, more knowledge of the larger world
and larger economic forces, more capacity to link the local with the
regional, the national and the global rather than less.
The more decentralized decisions become, the less "worldly", the less
"plugged-in" (by and large) are going to be those who are making those
decisions.
Mikeg
On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, peter stoyko wrote:
>
> Greetings all...
>
> Let me thank Michael Gurstein for his thoughtful response to my comments.
> It rings true to my ears. Let me take this opportunity to add a few
> additional notes.
>
> On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, Michael Gurstein wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > From what I can see, in Canada we have the worst of both worlds. We have
> > national program stipulations which introduce absurd rigidities locally
> > (for us), and we have almost complete local decentralization which makes
> > us subject to the training and skill set of case officers and local
> > managers with no knowledge of or sensitivity towards any of the areas
> > where new opportunities for employment creation are emerging. (cf. my
> > recent posting on WiNS2000).
>
> [snip]
>
> > The labour market in Canada is so regionally specific that national design
> > and even national standards make little sense. What works or could work
> > in Cape Breton bares little or no relation to what could work in Southern
> > Ontario or rural Saskatchewan. In that sense decentralization is useful.
> > But to have the degree of decentralization which has been recently
> > introduced while having virtually no capacity for research, analysis,
> > longer term planning, or staff upgrading is a recipe for disaster.
>
> I tend to agree, for the (soon to be devolved) federal system is
> organised around two conflicting forces.
>
> On the one hand you have administrative decentralisation. An Human
> Resources Development Canada official was bragging (at last summer's
> Social Policy Conference at Queen's) that HRDC programme administration is
> the second most decentralised in the country (after Quebec's). The
> decision to decentralise in this way is informed (according to my
> interpretation of public servants' comments) by the fashionableness of
> "new public management's" decentralisation credo and programme evaluation
> evidence that suggests that decentralisation of active measures works
> better.
>
> But it is not totally decentralised, for on the other hand you have a high
> level of policy-making centralisation. This retention of decision-making
> power in the National Capital Region is informed by our Westminister
> model's policy-making centralisation convention (handmaden to politicians
> wanting new targeting) and the paradoxical desire, on the part of public
> servants, to implement more lessons from programme evaluations (of which
> they have accumulated over 25 years worth). The result: the system
> Michael Gurstein describes in Cape Breton.
>
> This is an important lesson for Blair, for a look at his government's
> administrative structures in the wake of the Next Steps reforms -
> according to Colin Campbell's interviews of British public servants -
> shows that this type of problem beleaguers the British state
> across-the-board. In other words, it is a state cut in half. At the top
> you have policy wonks wanting to test new ideas all the time (e.g. Market
> Testing) and at the bottom you have management drones charged with the
> duty to "manage", but must continuously react to new demands coming from
> the centre. UK Employment Zones, to return to the original topic, are a
> reaction to this - more discretion to local managers. Or are they a
> result of this, with all of the claw-backs and the promise of implementing
> success stories? This seems so very schizophrenic, and unfortuneatly
> for Blair, dangerously complicated.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
>
> Cheers, Peter Stoyko
>
>
>
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
ECBC/NSERC/SSHRC Associate Chair in the Management of Technological Change
Director: Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking (C\CEN)
University College of Cape Breton, POBox 5300, Sydney, NS, CANADA B1P 6L2
Tel. 902-539-4060 (o) 902-562-1055 (h) 902-562-0119 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca
