MPPAL students publish articles in 'Canadian Government Executive' magazine

Articles by 11 master of public policy, administration and law (MPPAL) students from York University are being showcased in Canadian Government Executive (CGE) magazine in 2019 and 2020.

MPPAL students in the School of Public Policy and Administration wrote original articles as part of public management coursework that began in Fall 2018. Their articles offer insights on the prospects for public sector development from the upcoming generation of public service leaders.

"We are excited to announce … a new section called the Millennial Outlook. This section will feature students and young professionals in the public sector sharing issues they are dealing with to help us anticipate what the future of public service will be like," said CGE Managing Editor Marcello Sukhdeo.

Professor John Wilkins, adjunct faculty member with the School of Public Policy and Administration, who coached student writing efforts, introduced the series in an overview entitled “People first, policy second.” In it, he highlights students’ preoccupation with people and capacity issues as precursors to excellence in public policy, and says: “Good people who are good leaders make good policy for good governance … an honourable legacy to which millennials can aspire.”

The six MPPAL students featured in CGE magazine in 2019 include:

Yunus Jawaheer – When corporate culture hinders talent management
• The nature, scope and quality of corporate culture influence whether individuals decide to stay or leave their job. Institutionalizing change in corporate culture is a daunting undertaking. Leaders ought to recognize the transformative challenges and commit to consolidating incremental changes over time.

Lauren Inouye – Want to retain staff? Let them leave
• Fostering exchange, collaboration and innovation will enable the OPS [Ontario Public Service] to serve Ontarians better. It will also sustain institutional relevance and develop the capacity to lead and grow. Staff may leave in the short term, but they will thrive … and they will always come home.

Kiran Hamid – Mental health: the blind spot in the public service
• Managers must champion mental health exercises that are applicable to their workplace. Examples include managing stress in a fast-paced call centre or managing high workload volumes in a high-demand workplace. Employers need to lead the fight against mental health and be a beacon of hope in the workplace.

Andres Urrutia Bustos – The middle manager’s edifice for success
• Instead of gambling, middle managers try to minimize negative outcomes while simultaneously trying to leverage better outcomes. Fluid, honest communication with senior management is capital, so that everyone understands the calculated risk and executes actions to maximize the chances of success.

Antoinette Sarpong – Let’s get physical
• Fortunately, the key to Millennial retention transcends borders. It’s simply about management supporting the four drives that motivate employees and, by extension, offering more flexibility that shifts organizational culture. Organizations that do this will attract future thought leaders while ensuring that the brightest young minds stay in the public service once they get there.

Monica Mann – Besting the private sector at its own game
• Canada has one of the top public services in the world, so governments must be doing something right. But this does not mean that the public sector can become complacent or ignore emerging data. It must continue to evaluate and track employment trends to understand how to attract and retain the best and brightest.

Five more articles are scheduled for publication in the magazine, and this year’s MPPAL students drafted  articles in the Fall 2019 term to augment the body of work. The aim, over time, is to discern trends in public service careers, to track issues in public management, and to offer CGE readers valuable insights from the frontier.

There is an open invitation to prospective authors to contribute articles. CGE has a domestic and international readership of more than 65,000 senior public executives.