Memo on Decentralization
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Institution:
Introduction
This memo focuses on effectiveness of decentralization by giving attention to the growth and development of the Health and Human Services Department. It provides a discussion on the political factors affecting the organizational structure of large agencies like the HHS while expanding on its outcomes. It also gives an account of the implications for future based on DHHS. The memo ends by giving an analysis and conclusion of how organizational structure affects DHHS.
Effectiveness of Decentralization
Attention was focused on the Health, Welfare, and Education Department’s operations when the federal government’s involvement in social programs increased. Since then, the department has operated much like a collection of separate entities with some describing the department as a feudal system where authority and power were found in separate components with the head of the empire working more like a titular leader than one with real control (Radin, 1999). As it grew in the span of time, the Office of the Secretary had to manage Decentralized departments by controlling the budget process and managing legislation. It grew and became the crucial force in the society playing a major role of reaching for a set of policy goals within the department and molding together the separate forces.
Effects of Political factors on organizational structure
Political factors have caused an impact on the balance between decentralization and centralization in the Department of Health and Human Services despite efforts by the Secretary to establish dimensions that emphasizes autonomy and decentralization. These factors can influence the selection of organizational structure since the structure that the organization chooses indirectly or directly will influence the changes in these factors (International Anti-Corruption Conference, n.d) Instances where political factors have influenced the organization structure of large companies include directives that come from the Department from the white house, the National Review Performance. There has also been an attempt by attention from the Congress and the White House that has always caused OpDivs to go to move to the department for help in strategizing an effective response to criticism and queries. Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Office of the assistant secretary for public affairs are offices that are sensitive to pressure from the external environment. These offices seek to protect the Secretary and the Department as a whole from political reactions and negative pressures.
Outcome of the Department of Health and Human Services
Management strategies employed by the Department of Health and Human Services have a clear distinction from the control approaches and command. Within the department, the focus is on substantive policy matters than formal management processes. Despite being relatively formal, the budget agenda does not communicate a central control agenda, that is, it is highly transparent and collaborative. Techniques of decision making employed invest in high levels of consensus and interaction model. Information exchanges has been emphasized and treated to be crucial that control in the Department and there is also a focus on substantive matters rather than on management practices. The office of the secretary, with few exceptions, highlights specific policy concerns. Specific number of teams that represent either administration has been established each year by the secretary. These initiatives in many instances call for collaborative efforts across separate program components (Shalala, 1998).
In many instances these initiatives call for showing the reality that several crucial issues across bureaucratic lines. In both FY 1999 and 1998, teams that had been proposed the year before were created with specific agencies charged with chairing the effort. Each team was called upon to describe the interagency cooperation required; the goals of the initiative and to signal matters that need the secretary to attend.
Implications for the future based Department of HHS
Under the leadership of Donna Shalala, HHS provides lessons for the future leaders as well as those that are faced by the management of decentralized departments. The style of management should be focused on the leaders’ predictions and strengths. The approach used will be distinctive to the person involved since it is impossible to establish a single measure of management effectiveness. Individual preferences cause an impact on the role of the top officials in the organization. For instance, the Chief Secretary and the Deputy Secretary are recognized by the background, personalities and interest of the secretary.
Selection of top officials with knowledge and expertise of the field for which they have responsibility is crucial, since those individuals are likely to be most effective in operating as a unified group. It also offers a base for management approaches that emphasize delegation and discretion to specialized units. The team approaches provides room for response and flexibility to emerging issues. The budget process can be employed to facilitate exchange of information and to realize approaches and cutting programs, while working within an environment of limited resources (Shalala, 1998).
In conclusion, the management approach employed in the Department of Health and Human Services is without doubt, one of a variety of administrative strategies used in public agencies. The choice of a strategy depends on a number of variables that include skills, experience and personality of the leader, and expectations of the players in the external environment. It is also crucial to acknowledge that many programs for which the Health and Human services department is responsible depends on others for implementation. The staff of Health and Human Services provides services contained in the Department’s portfolio while local, state and other organizations have significant levels of discretion over program implementation. In this case, any move to come up to expectation that any federal agency can control, can be seen as unrealistic. While the Health and Human Services may not be the only way to manage a large and diverse organization, it does not give an alternative to traditional control and command strategy as suggested for such agencies.
References
International Anti-Corruption Conference. (n.d.). International Anti-Corruption Conference. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from HYPERLINK “http://iacconference.org” http://iacconference.org
Radin, A. (1999). Managing Decentralized Departments. The Case of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: State University of New York at Albany, from HYPERLINK “http://www.businessofgovernment.org” http://www.businessofgovernment.org
Shalala, E. (1998). Are Large Public Organizations Manageable?, Public Administration Review, July/August, Vol. 58. No. 4.
