The Effective Management of the Department of Environment - Essay Example

1. 2. 3. 4. CARSON STANTON CASE In the September of the U.S Government of Hope had appointed Carson Stanton as the Secretary of the Department of Environment (DOE). Before his work in state policy development, Carson Stanton had worked for 12 years as an environmental attorney in private practice, after which he became policy advisor for two years to the governor of Hope. Prior to him receiving a law degree from the largest research University in Hope, he had worked for five years at the state capitol, Garner, in the economic development office. The Governor had made the following agenda for Stanton to follow – Improving Innovation, promotion from within, and managing all state agencies (excluding Education) within the reduced appropriations, which was 3 % in 2015, and 1 % in 2016. The fiscal year which started on July 1, 2013 and ends on June 30, 2014 saw a budget cut of 2 % when compared to the previous year. Considering that Hope comes in Name 2 the lowest quadrant of student success in comparison to other states, the governor laid out his policy and budget agenda expecting the increase and improvement in the states education statistics along with decrease in Hope’s unemployment statistics which is 8.5 % when compared to the 6.7 % of other states due to the drop in hiring. The state is ranked 21st with a rate of 9.6 % in comparison to the low of 7.0 % and the high of 13.0 %. In 1986, the DOE of Hope was created with the mission to improve, protect and restore the quality of the natural resources air, land and water. It also propagated the advancement in smart growth along with promoting economies that could sustain and communities that were healthy and viable. The duties of the divisions within the department are the following: the redevelopment of resources, reducing health hazards, environmental protection, and improvement of existing safety measures and adequacy of air, water and land resources, promotion of clean energy and improving and advancing the level of customer service. It was also a dire necessity for the state to address its responsibility for the landfill management consisting of both hazardous and solid waste. Special approvals and permits were required for the disposal of various kinds of wastes. The previous DOE secretary Sharon Brooke had raked up an issue with the governor about the location and size of two particular landfills. She was more interested in outsourcing waste, rather than managing it within. Hope has 15 Superfund sites and in the year that followed, a problem with one waste disposal site would require attention. Name 3 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides for the cleanup of this site, through the Superfund, but however, it remains incomplete. To complete the cleanup project and make it federal regulation compliant, another $50 million will be required. On joining office, Stanton was aware of a variety of issues that necessitated immediate attention, such as the vacancies within the agency, issues related to compliance, budgets and policies among other problems. A foundation started by the local public named ‘Raising Hope’ contacted Stanton and asked him if he would like to take his senior staff on a retreat. Stanton was very enthusiastic about it and believed that it was an opportunity to bring people together and felt that he could use the time profitably to work things out for the Department. The immediate issue on his agenda would be the lack of vision in the department. He understood that this retreat would be a useful way to bring out his plan of action and address the existing issues within the department, in addition to procuring the innovative ideas of those who attended. The effective management of the DOE necessitates new ideas and strategies to support it, and therefore recent advancements made in the IT sector and the Digital-Era Governance hold great significance where the DOE is concerned. Many of the leading –edge’ countries are gradually adapting to the ‘digital- era Governance (DEG) and incorporating a more holistic approach to its Governmental spheres. DEG offers current opportunities by creating self-sustaining change through technology. Public services has Name 4 been revolutionized by the impact of the IT and information system. It has served to alter the way public services are used because now they have been introduced as business processes for its citizens. The NPM had very complex systems and its ethos of public interest was always in conflict with citizen services and therefore created a negative impact on the working. (Davis Richard, 1999) as cited in (Patrick Dunleavy et al. 2005) claims that the widespread growth of the Internet, web services, IT and Information services and the e-mail system has served to bring about important administrative change far beyond our comprehension. This would be a breakthrough for the DOE as there is no time lost between problems and solutions. The digital aspect brings the agenda’s and working progress of the DOE to the public, while they in turn provide necessary statistics and information to a large extent. Stanton needed to identify the various workings, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities of the DOE. The Internet provides for a lot of information as well as foundations like ‘Raising Hope’ could provide data necessary to the DOE. Apart form these general sources; the DOE itself is divided into many divisions that pursue various streams of management for the DOE. ‘Clean Energy’ is one such division in the DOE that manages landfill permits. It works in liaison with the Emergency Preparedness and Legislative Liaison to help with cleaning up of Superfund sites. Name 5 Focus groups, surveys and interviews of various outsiders and external sources are very important as they give insight into some of the information they may have overlooked. This information provided by these sources keep the organization from coming to the wrong conclusions or poor decision making, while also making the actions more legitimate (Thomas, 1995; Feldman and Khademian, 2000) as cited in Dunleavy Patrick et al 2005). With all divisions working toward the agenda for the DOE, Stanton would receive enough data to manage and overcome any obstacles. The stakeholders of the DOE would be the citizens of the state since they are directly involved with the environment. The citizens would be able to give necessary information on the various issues pertaining to air, land or water since they are largely dependent on the use of these factors. If Stanton creates a good plan for the DOE and the public adheres to the agenda then there would be good advancement and respective goals would be reached. Crisis’ are always part and parcel of administration, but how well it is handled and managed is a whole new ball game. Basically, individuals look at crisis as something that is threatening and as such needs to be attended to immediately. This would be a major leadership skill that Stanton would require to manage the DOE. (Rosenthal, Boin and Comfort, 2001) as cited in Arjen Boin (2003) are of the opinion that in times of such crisis situations, it is but natural, that everyone looks up towards leaders to “do Name 6 something.” When leadership is exercised and normalcy is returned, people automatically accept their leadership and make them statesmen. However, on the other hand, when crisis fail to be resolved and tension continues to persist, leaders are looked upon as scapegoats. It is a commonly known fact that crisis present themselves as windows of opportunity, but how deftly it is handled, depends on the kind of leadership one has. According to (Ulrich Beck, 1992) the German sociologist, as cited in Arjen Boin et al., (2003) presently we live in a “risk society.” However, the expectations of the people are much higher than the efforts taken by leaders to end crisis situations. Crisis management requires good reform leadership that entails novel ideas and skills for framing the right policies and for successful administration. During crisis, leaders are under tremendous pressure to live up to the expectations of its citizens. In lieu of the above qualities for a good leader, Stanton’s visions seem to be far reaching. As a leader he understood that gaining people’s confidence and support is a step in the right direction. ‘Raising Hope’ is a network that helps in the management of the DOE. Raising Hope is a foundation created out of public- interest to help the office of Stanton to address problems pertaining to the public. It gives a platform for direct problem solving as the public is in direct contact with the senior officials, who are the main people in decision making. This would merge the line between the government and the people helping both mutually. Vertical Information Systems and Horizontal Information systems are two networks that seem to be missing in the plan of the DOE. Vertical information Name 7 system is a process wherein periodic reports and written and digital information are given to the managers, thereby helping efficiency within the hierarchy. Horizontal Information System is another system that needs to be placed within the Stanton office, so that the every departments agenda and knowledge is interlinked and there is a common goal that can be achieved. Now that the DOE has its divisions, which are, managed by directors who manage teams under them, another form of structural grouping required in the organization would be a geographical one. Every country and divisions within every country would have distinct necessities. The geographical grouping structure would aid in understanding the plethora of wants and needs from a particular section of the state, thereby bringing effectiveness to the DOE. Bryson has created the Strategy Change Cycle that is a strategic management process for public and nonprofit organizations. It adheres to the following guidelines of Poster and Streib (1999, pp. 309-310) cited in Bryson, et al. 1992. Fundamental Organizational issues need to be identified and responded to Addressing the purpose and value of strategies and missions Understanding and emphasizing external factors and trends which directly affect a mission or organization Stakeholder concerns need to be taken into account Name 8 Senior managers, staff and elected officials need to be actively involved Critical issues need to be confronted Importance should be stressed on developing plans and strategies Decisions need to be implemented now so that the future of the organization will be favorable Following these guidelines the Ten Step Strategic Planning Process by Bryson needs to be considered by Stanton. The following is Bryson’s Planning process - Agreeing and initiating on a strategic plan Mandates in the organization need to be identified Missions and values can be clarified Strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats need to be assessed Strategic issues of the organization need to be identified Management of strategic issues Strategic plans must be adopted and reviewed A vision needs to be established Implementation of the process must be developed Strategies and its planning process must be reassessed Name 9 The retreat by the foundation ‘Raising Hope’ would be a strategically good way to agree and initiate a strategic plan by understanding the current trends, wants and needs of the public. Their concerns can be addressed thereby making way for a more substantial strategic plan. The most important step would be to create a vision for the organization so that necessary plans and mandates can be implemented on a larger scale. Reassessing of the planning process is of lesser concern since the initial plan itself is created keeping in mind many factors. Stanton should first create a strategic plan, keeping in mind mandates from the government followed by building a hierarchy vertically and horizontally to implement the entire process. Then, once the vision is created, necessary steps need to be taken in crisis management so the plan stays on track and all problems are assessed and solved. This would be the plan of action that Stanton would need to implement for the DOE. References Boin Arjen and Paul ‘t Hart. Public Leadership in Times of Crisis: Mission Impossible. Public Administration Review. Vol. 63, No. 5 (2003) Bryson. M. John. Strategic Planning for Public and Non- Profit Organizations, Third Edition, A Guide to strengthening and sustaining Organizational Achievement. Jossey – Bass. A Wiley Imprint. Dunleavy Patrick et al., New Public Management is dead. Long Live Digital Era, Governance. Published by Oxford University Press. (2005) Daft. L. Richard.. Organization Theory and Design. Ninth Edition. Thomson – South- Western. Read More