Department Of Homeland Security: Theory X And Theory Y
Introduction
The Department of Homeland Security was formed through the Homeland Security Act of 2002. It is a cabinet level agency which comprise of 22 component agencies with about 240,000 employees (Johnson, 2015). Creation of DHS was a resultant effect of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in U.S.A. hence became the largest restructuring of the federal government after President Harry Truman and Congress created the CIA, Defense Department, and National Security Council in the 1940s. The missions of the agency include counterterrorism; border security; aviation security; port security; maritime security; cyber security; detection of nuclear, chemical, and biological threats to the homeland; protection of our national leaders through …show more content…
the Secret Service; training of federal law enforcement officers; enforcement and administration of our immigration laws and policies; and responses to disasters, including national disasters etc. (Johnson, 2015). The National Strategy for Homeland Security (2002) defined “Homeland security as a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur” (p.2). Homeland security, apart from the definition, is a combination of law enforcement, disaster management, immigration, and terrorism issues which are different from Homeland defense that involves “the protection of US sovereignty, territory, domestic population, and critical defense infrastructure against external threats and hostility” (Reese, 2013. p.2).
However, for about 15 years since integration of these separate agencies into one, there are still lots issues that often results to employee dissatisfactions which causes high employee attrition within the agency. Some recent research on the problems militating against DHS, include lack of effective leadership, weak communication, and lack of a common core culture and to some extent a shared organizational identity and assumptions about mission, strategy, and goals” (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security, 2013). For instance, some research suggested that employees’ low morals which lead to high level of attrition was the resultant effect of lack of strong, unified culture within the DHS, which hamper the spirit of the corporation; team work and overall performance efficiency among each component agency (Department of Homeland Security 2015). Lack of common core culture may also, lead to conflict among the DHS component organizational cultures which is somehow different from previous legacy agencies that form DHS today. For instance, Bureau of Customs and Border protections (CBP), which is one component of DHS, has many different legacy agencies (legacy customs service, legacy immigration service, legacy agriculture, border patrol, etc) that were merged together to form CBP. All these legacy agencies brought with them their legacy organizational culture into their new parent agency.
However, some of these legacy agencies culture and leadership styles are in conflict with one another and often deviate from overall DHS culture. As such, DHS needs a strong unifying culture that will foster teamwork and a spirit of the corporation among all component agencies and also serve as binding forces that hold the employees together. By coining a simple phrase like “one team, numerous challenges” and use it as a unifying language among all DHS employees, it will help to promote the spirit of oneness and cultivate an esprit de corps among DHS component agencies as well as overall employees within the Department of Homeland Security. Although changing organizational culture takes time “because an organization’s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions time” but once it takes root, it is usually difficult to transform (Denning, 2011). Both with strong leadership and a common core culture, DHS can grow stronger and become a successful organization in the future (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: protecting America's front line 2013).
Statement of the Problem
As mentioned earlier, some of the challenges faced by the DHS include “the attempt to combine and coordinate diverse legacy agencies into a single, cohesive organization capable of fulfilling a broad, vital, and complex mission; ability to integrate management operations under an authoritative governing structure capable of effectively overseeing and managing programs that cross component lines”, etc. (Roth, 2015). These challenges often manifest in the agency response to complex programs such as hurricane Karina response; most often resulted in high attrition of employees. This is because “The building blocks of a successful organization involve effective leadership, strong communication, and a common core culture. Lack of those elements, will hamper efforts in any organization, including workforce resilience programs” (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: protecting America's front line 2013). Currently, it seems that DHS lacks some of these elements are the reason why every year, the agency scores lowest among its peers in Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey especially when it comes to employee satisfaction and engagement (Department of Homeland Security 2015). For instance, lack of employees’ satisfaction leads to low morale; causes high employee’s attrition, and employee turnover are costing DHS in terms of recruitment and training, and also, cost the organization human resources such as experienced valuable employees and talents (Hokanson, Sosa-Fey, & Vinaja, 2011). Moreover, inability to retain employees by the agency will make it difficult for the DHS to fulfill its mission of combating emerging threats ranging from disaster response to terrorism to cyber attacks” (Kaplan, R, 2014).
Purpose of the Study
This exploratory case study of leadership, organizational culture and organizational innovativeness of the Department of Homeland Security is aimed at investigating ways to reduce high attrition rate through acculturation of the Department of Homeland Security current culture and how to innovate the agency and make it more employees friendly. This qualitative research study will use case study approach to ascertain the link between organizational culture and organization performances. The study will select 60 DHS employees within the north eastern part of the United States to investigate the effect of organizational culture on DHS leadership. Also, 10 public and private companies in the United States will be selected (based on the result of Best Companies to work for in America) and reviewed to ascertain their organizational culture and how it affect their employees. For instance, the review will focus on how their organizational culture helps to improve performance and make the organization best place to work. The data for this study will be collected through multiple sources such as questionnaires, review of companies’ organizational culture, and telephone interviews of CEO/ Top leadership of identified organizations and focus group.
Research Questions
These research questions below will help to detailed on how the research purpose will be fulfilled. The questions will focus on the meaning of organizational culture; how organizational culture can make or break an organization; how leadership of organizations can use organizational culture to enhance mission and agenda of the firm; and also, how organizational culture can spore innovation and guide against employees dissatisfaction and employees attrition. Also, it will guide toward proper recommendations to address those issues cultural issues affecting organizations.
Q1. What are the elements of organizational culture in DHS?
Q2. How does cultural elements affect DHS mission?
Q3. Does lack of unified organizational culture contributes to employees’ dissatisfaction?
Q4. How can DHS leadership utilize unifying culture to foster innovation and improve employees’ performance?
Q5. How can DHS culture be transformed to give all her employees one unifying culture?
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for the study will be based on performance and the organization culture Theory X and Theory Y by McGregor; and the theory of Open-Book Management by John Stack (Wambugu, 2014). The Open-Book Management theory proponent opined that the most efficiency, most profitable and effective way to operate a business is to allow everyone involved in the business to have a voice in the way the company is run and also, give them a stake in the financial outcome (Stack, 2003). This management approach will energize everyone to focus on helping companies to succeed, but at the same time share reward to all the stakeholders including employees. The management approach may instill a culture of good working ethics, innovation; generate entrepreneurships and motivation that will help the organization accomplish its missions. This management approach also encourages innovation and spirit of teamwork, empower employees in the sense that “employees will understand why they're being called upon to solve problems, cut costs, reduce defects, and give the customer better service” (Wambugu, 2014). This theoretical approach supports the notion that strong organizational climate and organizational culture are two alternative constructs for conceptualizing the way people experience and describe their work settings (Schneider, Ehrhart, and Macey, 2013).
Moreover, Theory X and Theory Y are based on the McGregor (1960) philosophical view of humankind, which he adopted from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory (Wambugu, 2014).
McGregor grouped employees hierarchy need into lower-order needs (Theory X) and higher-order needs (Theory Y), and opined that “these two opposing perceptions conjectured how people view human behavior at work and organizational life” (Wambugu, 2014). For instance, Theory X assumed that management's role in the organization is to pressurize and control employees to perform based on the insinuation that human beings are pressure seekers who dislike work; do not want responsibility, and have little or no ambition etc. as such it's the duty of managers to make them do their job, and often with threats of punishment in order to get them to achieve the organizational objectives. On the other hand, Theory Y assumed that management's role in an organization involves developing the potential in employees and help them to achieve their maximum potential towards common organizational goals based on the views that people among other things learn to accept and seek responsibility, creativity, ingenuity which will have the potential to boost the organizational performance (Wambugu, 2014). These theories could be used by management either ways to encourage employees, but better results would be gained by the use of Theory Y, rather than Theory X (McGregor, …show more content…
1960).
Brief Review of the Literature
History and Mission of DHS
Due to failure of intelligence which led to September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, President George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security in October 2001 and later converted it to a full cabinet department with a bill signed in November 2002 (Zimmerman, 2011). Creation of the DHS falls into the overall Federal government’s goal of reducing loss of life and property during emergency and its continuous efforts to prevent constant and evolving threats of terrorism and natural disasters (Kemp, 2012). The stated mission of the department was to protect US territory from terrorist attacks, respond to increasing threats originating from both nature and humans (Zimmerman, 2011). For instance, the agency is responsible for preventing terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage U.S territorial borders, enforce and administer immigration laws, strengthen national preparedness and resilience, detection of nuclear, chemical, and biological threats to the homeland; protection of our national leaders through the Secret Service; training of federal law enforcement officers, etc. (Johnson, 2015). The Department of Homeland Security also, works with States, Local, Tribal and other stakeholders and Non-governmental organizations such as Red Cross.
DHS’s management and Cultural Issues
However, these heterogeneous and immiscible collections of agencies that made up DHS have different cultures, policies, traditions, missions and responsibilities which hinder the agencies from functioning as a unified department (Zimmerman, 2011). For instance, critics maintained that for over a decade of the DHS formation, the agency has not developed an integrated framework for organizing and managing component units and “regional elements to ensure that their department policies, strategies, and priorities are coordinated when implemented” (Kahan, 2013). Report from the U.S. Government Accountability Officer (2016) concluded that “failure to effectively address DHS’s management and mission risks could have serious consequences for U.S. national and economic security” (para. 1). During the Homeland Security Congressional hearing in 2006, members present pointed out numerous challenges facing the agency, which include “numerous vacancies in key positions, high turnover among senior officials, staff shortages in critical areas, inadequate training for certain employees, and potential lapses in security” (The Committee on Homeland Security, 2006).
Moreover, according to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (2013) “DHS has grappled in recent years with number of issues related to acquisition; financial management, and human capital, among others” (para. 5). Coburn (2015) reveals that available evidence shows that DHS is not successfully executing any of its five main missions. Although, he blamed Congressional “parochial politics and overlapping jurisdictions between various congressional committees and subcommittees, which often hinder and impede DHS’s mission and programs and constitute the most significant challenges DHS faces”. OIG Report by Roth (2015) pointed out that foremost issues affecting both the Department and her component units include challenges emanating from the effort to combine and coordinate diverse legacy agencies into a single, cohesive organization capable of fulfilling a broad, vital, and complex mission.
Mayer, Carafano, and Zuckerman, (2011) opined that the DHS lacks a strong policy leadership position and maintained that channeling the national homeland security enterprise in the right direction had proved the most difficult challenges faced by the Federal government due to the standard Washington practices of over centralization, complacency, and entrenched politics. They called on the Congress to fully fund DHS key programs and promote the leader of the Office of Policy to the undersecretary position.
Employees’ Satisfaction/Attrition
More so, report by the DHS Employee Task Force (2015) relied on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted in 2014 to put together many challenges faced by the Department with regard to employee satisfaction and engagement throughout its history of the agency. They listed some issues causing low morale in the agency to include lack of confidence in leadership at many levels, perceived shortages of means to carry out job responsibilities, insufficient communications with supervision and higher management, and inadequate career development opportunities as fundamental issues. According to the Committee on Homeland Security (2006), DHS management doesn’t seem to have a clue about motivating employees, and employees are not receiving the right and fair treatment regarding the discipline, and their standard of living has been cut. All these are causing low morale and in effect driving away talented and committed employees through attrition. As pointed out by Mehdi, Raju, & Mukherji, (2012), that employee attrition and turnover should be important management concerns since loss of key employees can affect a firm's performance in negative way and also, impact the organization’s internal operating culture. For instance, Shukla, & Kumar, (2016) opined that lost of high performing employee leave the firm, it will creates a gap in the existing Knowledge and skill of the organization.
Furthermore, some factors that may lead to employee attrition include irregular work hours, family pressure, health problems, peer pressure, lack of growth options within the organization, other career options, lack of motivation, rewards, and recognition, salary, inexperienced middle and Frontline management approach (Thaly, & Sinha, 2013, p.36).
Also, an employee’s intention to quit is impacted by abusive supervisor behavior and the interaction effects of organization brand and culture and self-esteem. Attrition also imposes high costs in terms of recruitment, training, retention and productivity (Mehdi, Raju, & Mukherji, 2012). Attrition management currently has become more important in the present business management where organizations always seem to be in scarcity of talent. As such Management should employ a better work life balance, performance based benefits, career development programs, etc. in order to manage attrition and nurtured talented workforce in the organization (Shukla, & Kumar, 2016). This is because abusive supervisor behaviors usually trigger higher rates of attrition; their ill-mannered behavior spreads like wildfire (Mehdi, Raju, & Mukherji, 2012). According to Gaan, (2007) employee job satisfaction will help to increase his/her possibility of staying on the job for a long time and managers should make efforts to maintain job satisfaction as part of the intervention measures aimed at boosting retention since “there is a direct link between job
satisfaction and turnover intention” (P.101).
Organizational Culture
More so, strong organizations culture, such as developing customer orientation levels among employees through the effective use of selection, training, performance management, and compensation, will minimize employee voluntary turnover by creating positive work environments (Subramony, & Holtom, n. d). Samuel and Chipunza, (2009) enumerated some measures that help in employee retention efforts both in the public and private sector organizations which also, mitigate against employee loss to include training, and development, challenging/interesting work, mentoring, encouragements and rewards, job security, potential for growth, etc. Also, strong culture within an organization is very important, because it plays a large role in determining whether it is a happy and healthy environment in which to work (Tsai, 2011). For instance, sound organizational culture will support workforce resilience through encouragement of norms, values, and expectations that are consistent with establishing structures (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: protecting America's front line, 2013). The study conducted by Schneider, Ehrhart, and Macey, (2013) concluded that organizational climate and culture present overlapping viewpoints for understanding the kinds of integrative experiences people have in work settings. According to Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security (2013), effective leadership is very important in the success of any organization and the execution of its programs. They opined that the combination of effective organizational leadership and appropriate communication with the workforce will inculcate a core culture that permits diversity and also, fosters a common set of key assumptions, norms, and values (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security, 2013). Jaskyte, (2004) maintained that managers should be familiar with how to shape and influence the work environment to make it favorable to creativity and innovation since innovation is becoming critical to the survival of organizations.
Summery
However, there is disconnect between the Department of Homeland Security employees on the Frontlines and their leaders based on response to the Employee responses several years of Federal Employees Viewpoint Surveys (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security, 2013). That is why the Department of Homeland Security needs transformational leaders at various levels, which will lead a cultural change and innovations within the agency. Roth, (2015) maintained that for DHS to achieve her cultural change, the agency must set the tone (such as the Unity of Effort Initiative), that will drive units changes, and empower employees. The agency must also establish cross-training opportunities and rotational or developmental assignments at multiple organizational levels could help DHS achieve a unified culture. Johnson (2015) insisted that DHS has made lots of modifications to improve employees’ morale, but expressed disappointed that those efforts, did not improve 2015 results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint survey (Department of Homeland Security, 2015). He promised to continue efforts to “improve employee satisfaction across a 22-component, 240,000-person department which will take time to achieve” (Department of Homeland Security, 2015).
Research Method
This qualitative case study research will investigate whether there is link between weak organizational culture and employees’ morale issues in the Department of Homeland Security. Qualitative case study design is necessary for this study because this research objective is to “develop an in-depth analysis” of issues causing employees’ dissatisfaction, which in-turn leads to high attrition rate among the DHS employees (Creswell, 2014; P. 14). Qualitative study was preferred for this research because qualitative research explores pertinent information that cannot capture in quantitative research, such as emotional issues like “dissatisfaction” which may cause by poor organizational culture and improper work ethics (Padgett, 2004). And also, qualitative research data collection requires systematic approach which will ensure that rich data are collected arranged and analyzed for this important issues affecting DHS (Padgett, 2004, p. 254). This researcher believes that instilling the right organizational culture and proper work ethics will help to reposition the agency and inculcate the spirit of corporation; teamwork; and innovativeness among the DHS employees.
Moreover, the study is necessary to understand whether or not the right cultural conditions exist to support the successful implementation of the Department of Homeland Security initiative; whether there are systems and structures in place to ensure the agency initiatives’ quality implementation. The study is also, important in identify those cultural areas which, while supportive of success in a previous agencies, will hinder success in a new agency; and finally the study will be necessary to identify those internal cultural strengths which can be leveraged to support success in the dynamic and uncertain environment such as DHS work place (Denison, and Neale, n. d). For instance, when management recruit people with the right skills, communicate the goals and priorities of the organization, support collaboration across work units to accomplish, promotes supportive culture with more focus on learning and mentoring, celebrate, recognize and reward desired behavior, support for work/life programs, promote diversity in the workplace, and so on; employees will have feelings of personal empowerment, share job knowledge with each other to accomplish work objective and agency mission.
This study will recruit thirty (60) DHS employees from various components, within the north eastern part of the United States. Advertisements which clearly specify that there will be adequate remuneration for those that volunteers to participate will be placed in targeted media soliciting for candidates for this research. Also, information that participation in the research is voluntary and that participant have rights to withdraw their participation at any time without fear of any consequence; will be clearly stated in the advertisements (Padgett, 2004, p. 242-243). However, before the commencement of this study, approval must be sort and obtain from my Institutional Review Board (IRB), ensuring that the proposed technique of the research conform with the 1979 regulation from the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which demands justice and fair treatment to the participants; treating all the subjects of the research or participants as an autonomous agent, and protecting those with diminished autonomy (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee, 2003). The participant interviews will be carried out in two forms; one-on-one participant interview and focus group interview (Creswell, 2014, P.14). This will help to maintain rigorous and trustworthiness for the study and ensures that the quality data were collected, through multiple interviews and data were carefully analyzed to ensure that the results obtained are rich, (Padgett, 2004; P. 216). The Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing (NUD*IST) will be used to codes and analyze the data (Padgett, 2004, p. 297-198).
The Department of Homeland Security was formed through the Homeland Security Act of 2002. It is a cabinet level agency which comprise of 22 component agencies with about 240,000 employees (Johnson, 2015). Creation of DHS was a resultant effect of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in U.S.A. hence became the largest restructuring of the federal government after President Harry Truman and Congress created the CIA, Defense Department, and National Security Council in the 1940s. The missions of the agency include counterterrorism; border security; aviation security; port security; maritime security; cyber security; detection of nuclear, chemical, and biological threats to the homeland; protection of our national leaders through …show more content…
the Secret Service; training of federal law enforcement officers; enforcement and administration of our immigration laws and policies; and responses to disasters, including national disasters etc. (Johnson, 2015). The National Strategy for Homeland Security (2002) defined “Homeland security as a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur” (p.2). Homeland security, apart from the definition, is a combination of law enforcement, disaster management, immigration, and terrorism issues which are different from Homeland defense that involves “the protection of US sovereignty, territory, domestic population, and critical defense infrastructure against external threats and hostility” (Reese, 2013. p.2).
However, for about 15 years since integration of these separate agencies into one, there are still lots issues that often results to employee dissatisfactions which causes high employee attrition within the agency. Some recent research on the problems militating against DHS, include lack of effective leadership, weak communication, and lack of a common core culture and to some extent a shared organizational identity and assumptions about mission, strategy, and goals” (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security, 2013). For instance, some research suggested that employees’ low morals which lead to high level of attrition was the resultant effect of lack of strong, unified culture within the DHS, which hamper the spirit of the corporation; team work and overall performance efficiency among each component agency (Department of Homeland Security 2015). Lack of common core culture may also, lead to conflict among the DHS component organizational cultures which is somehow different from previous legacy agencies that form DHS today. For instance, Bureau of Customs and Border protections (CBP), which is one component of DHS, has many different legacy agencies (legacy customs service, legacy immigration service, legacy agriculture, border patrol, etc) that were merged together to form CBP. All these legacy agencies brought with them their legacy organizational culture into their new parent agency.
However, some of these legacy agencies culture and leadership styles are in conflict with one another and often deviate from overall DHS culture. As such, DHS needs a strong unifying culture that will foster teamwork and a spirit of the corporation among all component agencies and also serve as binding forces that hold the employees together. By coining a simple phrase like “one team, numerous challenges” and use it as a unifying language among all DHS employees, it will help to promote the spirit of oneness and cultivate an esprit de corps among DHS component agencies as well as overall employees within the Department of Homeland Security. Although changing organizational culture takes time “because an organization’s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions time” but once it takes root, it is usually difficult to transform (Denning, 2011). Both with strong leadership and a common core culture, DHS can grow stronger and become a successful organization in the future (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: protecting America's front line 2013).
Statement of the Problem
As mentioned earlier, some of the challenges faced by the DHS include “the attempt to combine and coordinate diverse legacy agencies into a single, cohesive organization capable of fulfilling a broad, vital, and complex mission; ability to integrate management operations under an authoritative governing structure capable of effectively overseeing and managing programs that cross component lines”, etc. (Roth, 2015). These challenges often manifest in the agency response to complex programs such as hurricane Karina response; most often resulted in high attrition of employees. This is because “The building blocks of a successful organization involve effective leadership, strong communication, and a common core culture. Lack of those elements, will hamper efforts in any organization, including workforce resilience programs” (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: protecting America's front line 2013). Currently, it seems that DHS lacks some of these elements are the reason why every year, the agency scores lowest among its peers in Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey especially when it comes to employee satisfaction and engagement (Department of Homeland Security 2015). For instance, lack of employees’ satisfaction leads to low morale; causes high employee’s attrition, and employee turnover are costing DHS in terms of recruitment and training, and also, cost the organization human resources such as experienced valuable employees and talents (Hokanson, Sosa-Fey, & Vinaja, 2011). Moreover, inability to retain employees by the agency will make it difficult for the DHS to fulfill its mission of combating emerging threats ranging from disaster response to terrorism to cyber attacks” (Kaplan, R, 2014).
Purpose of the Study
This exploratory case study of leadership, organizational culture and organizational innovativeness of the Department of Homeland Security is aimed at investigating ways to reduce high attrition rate through acculturation of the Department of Homeland Security current culture and how to innovate the agency and make it more employees friendly. This qualitative research study will use case study approach to ascertain the link between organizational culture and organization performances. The study will select 60 DHS employees within the north eastern part of the United States to investigate the effect of organizational culture on DHS leadership. Also, 10 public and private companies in the United States will be selected (based on the result of Best Companies to work for in America) and reviewed to ascertain their organizational culture and how it affect their employees. For instance, the review will focus on how their organizational culture helps to improve performance and make the organization best place to work. The data for this study will be collected through multiple sources such as questionnaires, review of companies’ organizational culture, and telephone interviews of CEO/ Top leadership of identified organizations and focus group.
Research Questions
These research questions below will help to detailed on how the research purpose will be fulfilled. The questions will focus on the meaning of organizational culture; how organizational culture can make or break an organization; how leadership of organizations can use organizational culture to enhance mission and agenda of the firm; and also, how organizational culture can spore innovation and guide against employees dissatisfaction and employees attrition. Also, it will guide toward proper recommendations to address those issues cultural issues affecting organizations.
Q1. What are the elements of organizational culture in DHS?
Q2. How does cultural elements affect DHS mission?
Q3. Does lack of unified organizational culture contributes to employees’ dissatisfaction?
Q4. How can DHS leadership utilize unifying culture to foster innovation and improve employees’ performance?
Q5. How can DHS culture be transformed to give all her employees one unifying culture?
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for the study will be based on performance and the organization culture Theory X and Theory Y by McGregor; and the theory of Open-Book Management by John Stack (Wambugu, 2014). The Open-Book Management theory proponent opined that the most efficiency, most profitable and effective way to operate a business is to allow everyone involved in the business to have a voice in the way the company is run and also, give them a stake in the financial outcome (Stack, 2003). This management approach will energize everyone to focus on helping companies to succeed, but at the same time share reward to all the stakeholders including employees. The management approach may instill a culture of good working ethics, innovation; generate entrepreneurships and motivation that will help the organization accomplish its missions. This management approach also encourages innovation and spirit of teamwork, empower employees in the sense that “employees will understand why they're being called upon to solve problems, cut costs, reduce defects, and give the customer better service” (Wambugu, 2014). This theoretical approach supports the notion that strong organizational climate and organizational culture are two alternative constructs for conceptualizing the way people experience and describe their work settings (Schneider, Ehrhart, and Macey, 2013).
Moreover, Theory X and Theory Y are based on the McGregor (1960) philosophical view of humankind, which he adopted from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory (Wambugu, 2014).
McGregor grouped employees hierarchy need into lower-order needs (Theory X) and higher-order needs (Theory Y), and opined that “these two opposing perceptions conjectured how people view human behavior at work and organizational life” (Wambugu, 2014). For instance, Theory X assumed that management's role in the organization is to pressurize and control employees to perform based on the insinuation that human beings are pressure seekers who dislike work; do not want responsibility, and have little or no ambition etc. as such it's the duty of managers to make them do their job, and often with threats of punishment in order to get them to achieve the organizational objectives. On the other hand, Theory Y assumed that management's role in an organization involves developing the potential in employees and help them to achieve their maximum potential towards common organizational goals based on the views that people among other things learn to accept and seek responsibility, creativity, ingenuity which will have the potential to boost the organizational performance (Wambugu, 2014). These theories could be used by management either ways to encourage employees, but better results would be gained by the use of Theory Y, rather than Theory X (McGregor, …show more content…
1960).
Brief Review of the Literature
History and Mission of DHS
Due to failure of intelligence which led to September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, President George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security in October 2001 and later converted it to a full cabinet department with a bill signed in November 2002 (Zimmerman, 2011). Creation of the DHS falls into the overall Federal government’s goal of reducing loss of life and property during emergency and its continuous efforts to prevent constant and evolving threats of terrorism and natural disasters (Kemp, 2012). The stated mission of the department was to protect US territory from terrorist attacks, respond to increasing threats originating from both nature and humans (Zimmerman, 2011). For instance, the agency is responsible for preventing terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage U.S territorial borders, enforce and administer immigration laws, strengthen national preparedness and resilience, detection of nuclear, chemical, and biological threats to the homeland; protection of our national leaders through the Secret Service; training of federal law enforcement officers, etc. (Johnson, 2015). The Department of Homeland Security also, works with States, Local, Tribal and other stakeholders and Non-governmental organizations such as Red Cross.
DHS’s management and Cultural Issues
However, these heterogeneous and immiscible collections of agencies that made up DHS have different cultures, policies, traditions, missions and responsibilities which hinder the agencies from functioning as a unified department (Zimmerman, 2011). For instance, critics maintained that for over a decade of the DHS formation, the agency has not developed an integrated framework for organizing and managing component units and “regional elements to ensure that their department policies, strategies, and priorities are coordinated when implemented” (Kahan, 2013). Report from the U.S. Government Accountability Officer (2016) concluded that “failure to effectively address DHS’s management and mission risks could have serious consequences for U.S. national and economic security” (para. 1). During the Homeland Security Congressional hearing in 2006, members present pointed out numerous challenges facing the agency, which include “numerous vacancies in key positions, high turnover among senior officials, staff shortages in critical areas, inadequate training for certain employees, and potential lapses in security” (The Committee on Homeland Security, 2006).
Moreover, according to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (2013) “DHS has grappled in recent years with number of issues related to acquisition; financial management, and human capital, among others” (para. 5). Coburn (2015) reveals that available evidence shows that DHS is not successfully executing any of its five main missions. Although, he blamed Congressional “parochial politics and overlapping jurisdictions between various congressional committees and subcommittees, which often hinder and impede DHS’s mission and programs and constitute the most significant challenges DHS faces”. OIG Report by Roth (2015) pointed out that foremost issues affecting both the Department and her component units include challenges emanating from the effort to combine and coordinate diverse legacy agencies into a single, cohesive organization capable of fulfilling a broad, vital, and complex mission.
Mayer, Carafano, and Zuckerman, (2011) opined that the DHS lacks a strong policy leadership position and maintained that channeling the national homeland security enterprise in the right direction had proved the most difficult challenges faced by the Federal government due to the standard Washington practices of over centralization, complacency, and entrenched politics. They called on the Congress to fully fund DHS key programs and promote the leader of the Office of Policy to the undersecretary position.
Employees’ Satisfaction/Attrition
More so, report by the DHS Employee Task Force (2015) relied on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted in 2014 to put together many challenges faced by the Department with regard to employee satisfaction and engagement throughout its history of the agency. They listed some issues causing low morale in the agency to include lack of confidence in leadership at many levels, perceived shortages of means to carry out job responsibilities, insufficient communications with supervision and higher management, and inadequate career development opportunities as fundamental issues. According to the Committee on Homeland Security (2006), DHS management doesn’t seem to have a clue about motivating employees, and employees are not receiving the right and fair treatment regarding the discipline, and their standard of living has been cut. All these are causing low morale and in effect driving away talented and committed employees through attrition. As pointed out by Mehdi, Raju, & Mukherji, (2012), that employee attrition and turnover should be important management concerns since loss of key employees can affect a firm's performance in negative way and also, impact the organization’s internal operating culture. For instance, Shukla, & Kumar, (2016) opined that lost of high performing employee leave the firm, it will creates a gap in the existing Knowledge and skill of the organization.
Furthermore, some factors that may lead to employee attrition include irregular work hours, family pressure, health problems, peer pressure, lack of growth options within the organization, other career options, lack of motivation, rewards, and recognition, salary, inexperienced middle and Frontline management approach (Thaly, & Sinha, 2013, p.36).
Also, an employee’s intention to quit is impacted by abusive supervisor behavior and the interaction effects of organization brand and culture and self-esteem. Attrition also imposes high costs in terms of recruitment, training, retention and productivity (Mehdi, Raju, & Mukherji, 2012). Attrition management currently has become more important in the present business management where organizations always seem to be in scarcity of talent. As such Management should employ a better work life balance, performance based benefits, career development programs, etc. in order to manage attrition and nurtured talented workforce in the organization (Shukla, & Kumar, 2016). This is because abusive supervisor behaviors usually trigger higher rates of attrition; their ill-mannered behavior spreads like wildfire (Mehdi, Raju, & Mukherji, 2012). According to Gaan, (2007) employee job satisfaction will help to increase his/her possibility of staying on the job for a long time and managers should make efforts to maintain job satisfaction as part of the intervention measures aimed at boosting retention since “there is a direct link between job
satisfaction and turnover intention” (P.101).
Organizational Culture
More so, strong organizations culture, such as developing customer orientation levels among employees through the effective use of selection, training, performance management, and compensation, will minimize employee voluntary turnover by creating positive work environments (Subramony, & Holtom, n. d). Samuel and Chipunza, (2009) enumerated some measures that help in employee retention efforts both in the public and private sector organizations which also, mitigate against employee loss to include training, and development, challenging/interesting work, mentoring, encouragements and rewards, job security, potential for growth, etc. Also, strong culture within an organization is very important, because it plays a large role in determining whether it is a happy and healthy environment in which to work (Tsai, 2011). For instance, sound organizational culture will support workforce resilience through encouragement of norms, values, and expectations that are consistent with establishing structures (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security: protecting America's front line, 2013). The study conducted by Schneider, Ehrhart, and Macey, (2013) concluded that organizational climate and culture present overlapping viewpoints for understanding the kinds of integrative experiences people have in work settings. According to Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security (2013), effective leadership is very important in the success of any organization and the execution of its programs. They opined that the combination of effective organizational leadership and appropriate communication with the workforce will inculcate a core culture that permits diversity and also, fosters a common set of key assumptions, norms, and values (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security, 2013). Jaskyte, (2004) maintained that managers should be familiar with how to shape and influence the work environment to make it favorable to creativity and innovation since innovation is becoming critical to the survival of organizations.
Summery
However, there is disconnect between the Department of Homeland Security employees on the Frontlines and their leaders based on response to the Employee responses several years of Federal Employees Viewpoint Surveys (Ready and resilient workforce for the Department of Homeland Security, 2013). That is why the Department of Homeland Security needs transformational leaders at various levels, which will lead a cultural change and innovations within the agency. Roth, (2015) maintained that for DHS to achieve her cultural change, the agency must set the tone (such as the Unity of Effort Initiative), that will drive units changes, and empower employees. The agency must also establish cross-training opportunities and rotational or developmental assignments at multiple organizational levels could help DHS achieve a unified culture. Johnson (2015) insisted that DHS has made lots of modifications to improve employees’ morale, but expressed disappointed that those efforts, did not improve 2015 results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint survey (Department of Homeland Security, 2015). He promised to continue efforts to “improve employee satisfaction across a 22-component, 240,000-person department which will take time to achieve” (Department of Homeland Security, 2015).
Research Method
This qualitative case study research will investigate whether there is link between weak organizational culture and employees’ morale issues in the Department of Homeland Security. Qualitative case study design is necessary for this study because this research objective is to “develop an in-depth analysis” of issues causing employees’ dissatisfaction, which in-turn leads to high attrition rate among the DHS employees (Creswell, 2014; P. 14). Qualitative study was preferred for this research because qualitative research explores pertinent information that cannot capture in quantitative research, such as emotional issues like “dissatisfaction” which may cause by poor organizational culture and improper work ethics (Padgett, 2004). And also, qualitative research data collection requires systematic approach which will ensure that rich data are collected arranged and analyzed for this important issues affecting DHS (Padgett, 2004, p. 254). This researcher believes that instilling the right organizational culture and proper work ethics will help to reposition the agency and inculcate the spirit of corporation; teamwork; and innovativeness among the DHS employees.
Moreover, the study is necessary to understand whether or not the right cultural conditions exist to support the successful implementation of the Department of Homeland Security initiative; whether there are systems and structures in place to ensure the agency initiatives’ quality implementation. The study is also, important in identify those cultural areas which, while supportive of success in a previous agencies, will hinder success in a new agency; and finally the study will be necessary to identify those internal cultural strengths which can be leveraged to support success in the dynamic and uncertain environment such as DHS work place (Denison, and Neale, n. d). For instance, when management recruit people with the right skills, communicate the goals and priorities of the organization, support collaboration across work units to accomplish, promotes supportive culture with more focus on learning and mentoring, celebrate, recognize and reward desired behavior, support for work/life programs, promote diversity in the workplace, and so on; employees will have feelings of personal empowerment, share job knowledge with each other to accomplish work objective and agency mission.
This study will recruit thirty (60) DHS employees from various components, within the north eastern part of the United States. Advertisements which clearly specify that there will be adequate remuneration for those that volunteers to participate will be placed in targeted media soliciting for candidates for this research. Also, information that participation in the research is voluntary and that participant have rights to withdraw their participation at any time without fear of any consequence; will be clearly stated in the advertisements (Padgett, 2004, p. 242-243). However, before the commencement of this study, approval must be sort and obtain from my Institutional Review Board (IRB), ensuring that the proposed technique of the research conform with the 1979 regulation from the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which demands justice and fair treatment to the participants; treating all the subjects of the research or participants as an autonomous agent, and protecting those with diminished autonomy (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee, 2003). The participant interviews will be carried out in two forms; one-on-one participant interview and focus group interview (Creswell, 2014, P.14). This will help to maintain rigorous and trustworthiness for the study and ensures that the quality data were collected, through multiple interviews and data were carefully analyzed to ensure that the results obtained are rich, (Padgett, 2004; P. 216). The Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing (NUD*IST) will be used to codes and analyze the data (Padgett, 2004, p. 297-198).