This book is about the systems of values, traditions, perceptions, and meanings existing in the Canadian federal public service since the First World War. Surveying that history, it considers the conflict of values arising from the attempt to add New Public Management values to older bureaucratic ones. These tensions are looked at from an ethical viewpoint, but also from that of the relationship between ends and means. Are the means proposed really likely to meet the ends proclaimed? Attempts to change a culture from the top down run against daily realities; the interests, training, and experience of all employees, elites, and others. Authors Dwivedi and Gow intend this overview to enable readers to appreciate the complex world of Canada's public servants.

A joint publication with The Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

O.P. Dwivedi is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph. He was bestowed with the Order of Canada in 2005, Canada's highest civilian honour, and has published widely on bureaucratic management as well as the environment, including co-editing Administrative Culture in a Global Context (de Sitter, 2005) and Sustainable Development in Canada: National and International Perspectives (Broadview Press, 2001).

O.P. Dwivedi's profile page

James Iain Gow is Professor of Political Science at the University of Montreal. He is the author of many articles and books including Histoire de l'administration publique quebecoise 1867-1970 (Montreal, Les Presses de l'Universite de Montreal and Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 1986) and Learning From Others: Administrative Innovations Among Canadian Governments (Canadian Centre for Management Development and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 1994).

James Iain Gow's profile page