Maximizing Management Effectiveness

Some of the same forces driving the revolution in military affairs and Defence's human-resource and recruiting challenges are also driving major changes in attitudes, expectations of government, and management practices.

Telecommunications, the Internet and intranet, increased computing power and speed, digitization, data warehousing, electronic commerce, and other new information-management processes, techniques, and capabilities are all revolutionizing the way businesses and large organizations are being managed. These technologies are also creating new opportunities to enhance the operational effectiveness and command and control of the Canadian Forces, to strengthen intelligence, and to improve service delivery.

Just as significantly, Canadians are demanding more from government. Canadians are better educated and better informed, and stakeholders want to be engaged in public policy. Nevertheless, 69% of Canadians believe that the Canadian Forces leadership is doing a good job (up 8% over 2001), and 57% believe that the Department is changing for the better (up 5%).

Collectively, these trends are reinforcing the need to continue efforts to strengthen management practices within the Department and the Forces. Clearly, more needs to be done to demonstrate to employees, Forces members, and Canadians that Defence is committed to being an employer of choice and a sound steward of the fiscal resources that Parliament provides.

To maximize management effectiveness, Defence will move forward in fiscal year 2002-03 to:

• promote its modern-management agenda, which includes implementing its financial information strategy, modern comptrollership, procurement reform, risk management, migration toward an integrated defence-management framework, and performance measurement⁴;
• implement a new information-management strategy and governance structure; and
• improve internal communications.
• Defence's modern-management agenda includes putting in place the management practices required to support continuous improvement in the delivery of Defence programs and services. As part of these efforts, Defence's Alternative Service Delivery policy will be rewritten to align with the new Treasury Board policy regarding continuous improvement and innovation in the delivery of programs and services. DND will continue two major initiatives to enhance the effective and efficient delivery of support activities—the Supply Chain Project and the Base Service Index Initiative.