Details of an intensive retraining programme for the Civil Service will be available by the beginning of next year, and strategy plans for all Civil Service departments will be presented to the Oireachtas by May 1st, 1998.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, announced the dates at the start of a conference on "Sustaining High Performance - The People Paradox", held by the Institute of Personnel and Development in association with The Irish Times yesterday.
The conference looked at developing the potential of personnel within business organisations. Mr Ahern took the opportunity to provide an update on the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) in the Civil Service.
He said that the lesson of developing competitive advantage through higher levels of performance from people had been well learnt in Ireland. The very good model of social partnership in this State had played a vital part in creating economic growth and "allows us to deal with the issues and challenges that arise".
The National Centre for Partnership would replicate the success of partnership at the level of local enterprises, while the SMI would enhance it in the Civil Service.
The public service ethos would remain fundamental to the Civil Service. "What we are trying to do is to preserve and enhance those ethics and values, while at the same time building an organisation which is highly responsive to customers and their needs".
Staff in the Civil Service are being involved at all levels in designing change, he said.
"Details of the intensive training programme that is required for effective implementation of this system are being developed, and will be available before the roll-out of the system to all departments and offices at the beginning of the year.
"The behavioural changes which we are seeking can be achieved through a major investment in our most valuable resource, our people, and we recognise this."
The opening session heard the Irish national rugby coach, Mr Brian Ashton, and Mr Terry Neil, of Andersen Consulting, discuss parallels between high performance in sporting and business organisations. Mr Neil, who chairs the board of Andersen Worldwide, said that sporting organisations were much more effective in developing potential and used more relevant and realistic training environments.
Although top business organisations spent up to 4 per cent of their total costs on "people development", there were often no formal links between business strategy and human performance. Successful business organisations were those that focused and linked all investment to measurable performance outcomes.
Prof Bill Roche, dean of University College Dublin, said that the question of developing high performance among employees was assuming critical importance, not just for human resource managers and workers, but for shareholders, trade unions and the wider community in which businesses operate.