Empathy, Ethics and Efficiency: Twenty First Century Capabilities for Public Managers

Abstract

Over the next thirty years to 2050, public sector leaders and managers will need dramatically to develop their capabilities if they are to keep ahead of the demands and pressures that they and their organizations will face. Above all, public leaders need to reconnect the people working in government and the public sector with those whom they serve. Of course, public sector professionals need to possess subject matter expertise and to continuously improve their expertise at pace and in depth. But they also need to develop their capabilities in the three “E’s” of empathy, ethics and efficiency. These three capabilities will need to come to the fore over the next period. There will be a greater need for public servants to demonstrate empathy in their work; they will need to apply more nuanced ethical approaches to solving public problems and dilemmas; and finally, they will need to take ever more efficient approaches to allocating public goods and securing public services.