The first day of the 28th session of the Public Management (PUMA) Committee was devoted to a symposium on "The New Public Executive". The purpose of the meeting was to enable Committee members to engage in an in-depth discussion of a specific, topical issue raised in the context of the PUMA work programme on Modernisation: the leadership challenges facing public sectors. What can governments do to meet these challenges in acquiring, forming and motivating the next generation of senior managers?

Plenary Session

Chair:  Mr. Knut Rexed, Vice-Chair of the PUMA Committee

Delegates heard presentations from the following speakers:

• Prof. Allen Schick of the Brookings Institute, on the challenges facing the New Public Executive in a changing society
• Michael Wintringham, State Services Commissioner from New Zealand, on The New Public Executive
• Mr. Georges Monard, President of the Federal Public Service for Personnel and Organisation in Belgium, on Human Resources Management for Senior Civil Servants in the Belgian Federal Administration
• M. Antoine Godbert, Interministerial official responsible for the senior civil service in France, on Managing Senior Management
• Mr. Patrice Stern, of ICS Interconsultants, France, on Leadership (see also his note on leadership - in French only).

Break-out Sessions

Participants broke into three breakout sessions to discuss the following topics:

• Public Leadership in a Changing Society
• How to Find and Form the Next Generation of Public Executives?
• How Well do Individualised Incentives Serve the Collective Interest?

Plenary session

During this session, nominated country representatives of the three break-out sessions reported back on results, and other countries were invited to reflect on the feedback from their national perspective. A panel of invited speakers and chairs then each gave a short account of what they felt came out of the discussions and posed questions for the future.

Panel members: Professor Allen Schick; Professor John Murray of the Trinity College School of Business Studies, Ireland; and Jean-Michel Saussois, Director of the Public Management Programme, Ecole supérieure de commerce de Paris

28th Session of the PUMA Committee, continued

Modernising Government: People, Structures and Performance

OECD Modernisation Review by the Secretariat on the Modernisation Review

Part 1 – Modernising Public Employment

Part 2 – Changing Organisational Structures

• Presentation by the The Netherlands - Modernisation of Government

Part 3 – Governing for Performance

• Presentation by PPT: 2003 Governing for Performance in Australia

Part 4 – Toolkit for managing conflict of interest

• Presentation by Walking the Line: Managing Conflicts of Interest

Administrative reform in Russia

Public Administration Reform in the Russian Federation by Deputy Minister Mikhail Dmitriev, First Deputy Minister, Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade

Documents

• Provisional Agenda
• Modernisation and the New Public Executive
• Managing senior management: senior civil service reform in OECD member countries
• Public sector modernisation: Modernising Public Employment
• Public sector modernisation: Changing Organisations
• Public sector modernisation: Governing for Performance
• Summary record of the 28th session of the Public Management Committee
• Country factsheets