Editorial

ETHOS Digital Issue 01, Oct 2017

ETHOS is expanding. The print edition will still be published biannually, with a sharper focus on thematic clusters of ideas: our forthcoming December 2017 issue will look at ideas related to the changing future of work.

Between print issues, we are introducing a new digital-only edition of ETHOS, with articles of general interest to public policy and governance in Singapore. These will include interviews, reviews, lectures and opinion pieces, as well as more media-rich material to come, as we find fresh ways to present and consider important perspectives.

Hence, an edition of ETHOS will now be available every quarter, with a broader range of thoughtful and practitioner-focused content presented in a variety of formats.

For this inaugural issue of our ETHOS Digital Edition, we feature a conversation with the Honourable Jocelyne Bourgon, a distinguished Canadian public servant and Fellow of Singapore’s Civil Service College. Her new publication, The New Synthesis of Public Administration Fieldbook, documents efforts to rethink public sector work as one of enabling greater societal value amidst the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Max Everest-Phillips, Director of the UNDP’s Global Centre for Public Service Excellence, reviews its contribution to the field of public administration. Catherine Fieschi reflects on the complex nature of our identities and the institutions needed to support them as they evolve. In the ETHOS Roundtable, a bevy of experienced public servants from three different countries discuss the impact of digital technology on the business of the public sector.

Times change, and we change with them: yet our contributors suggest that as the public sector adapts its methods to new contexts and demands, it must also clarify and deepen its core sense of what it values, and how it can best reposition itself to serve the public good.

Thank you for your continued readership and interest. We hope you find our new offerings engaging and useful. If you have comments or suggestions, please do let us know.

Alvin Pang

Editor
ETHOS
ethos@cscollege.gov.sg