ANALYTICAL UNITS IN FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS - ORIGINS, FUNCTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR EFFECTIVENESS

This paper presents an overview of the organizational entities (indivi duals and groups) within government which provide information, analysi s, and advice to senior officials and politicians. These entities are referred to as analytical units. Much of the existing Canadian literat ure on such units has focused on policy units and evaluation units at the federal level. This paper extends the analysis to the provincial l evel and to a wider range of analytical activities. A major focus of t his paper is on social policy ministries at the federal and provincial levels. A historical overview of the development of analytical units, based on the existing literature, is presented. As little has been wr itten about these units in Canada since the early 1980s, the authors p rovide an update to the 1990s and project some possible future trends. The reasons for the development of analytical units are presented alo ng with a discussion of their structural location and how they functio n within their host organizations. A considerable overlap exists in th e analytical functions carried out by these units. A mapping of this o verlap is presented and discussed. There appears to be a clustering of analytical activities into a three-part continuum of: forward-looking activities such as policy formulation/analysis and planning; ongoing activities to ensure organizational efficiency and effectiveness such as internal audit and operational review; and technical and evaluative activities such as research and evaluation. Based on their analysis, the authors present five suggestions regarding how staff in analytical units may be able to increase their contribution to their organizatio ns and five suggestions, for the consideration of senior officials, re garding how they may be able to enhance the quality of the analysis th ey receive from their analytical units.