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Assignment 1 Task Force Committee Report

Date: July 26, 2017

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is a multi-faceted government agency that has an extensive mission ranging from protecting and promoting U.S. agricultural, regulating genetically engineered organisms, administering the Animal and Welfare Act and carrying out wildlife damage and management activities. All of these efforts combined supports the overall mission of the USD (APHIS, 2016). APHIS operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a priority of defending America’s animal and plant from pest and disease. When pest or disease is detected in America’s animals or plants APHIS activates emergency protocols rapidly manage or eliminate the outbreak (APHIS, 2016). APHIS protects the U.S. in international trade by developing science based standards with U.S. trading partners to protect agricultural exports from unjustified restrictions. The mission of the organization continues to rapidly expand as changes in government leadership occurs. The agency is broken down into 6 operational programs, 3 management support programs, and 2 offices that support federal government initiatives (APHIS, 2016). The agency currently has an estimated 5,905 employees (FY 2013 estimate) with a budget of $1.043 billion (FY 2013 Request).

The organizational issue that adversely affects productivity is the idea of doing more with less. The agency is currently feeling the effects of the of the current government furlough. The agency didn’t anticipate the furlough to last this long causing them not fill many vacant positions that are critical to fulfilling the mission of the agency. The temporary solution to filling the vacancies was to disperse the responsibilities and duties of those positions throughout agency employees. By doing that it caused employees that already felt as if they had more than enough duties and responsibilities to feel even more overwhelmed. Over the past 6 months employees have performed the jobs that they were hired and paid to do along with the jobs of those vacant positions without additional pay. This has caused productivity to decrease in many area because employees can only reasonably do so much with limited resource. Many of the employees that are fulfilling this additional roles have not have not had the proper training to make them proficient in those areas.

The mission of APHIS is ‘To protect the health and value of American agriculture and natural resources” (APHIS, 2016). The agency has a huge mission that is of great need and value to the citizens of the United States. The agency facilitated the development of the current issue by focusing on the overall importance of its mission and forgetting that in order to accomplish the mission employees must have a sense of value. If the agency would have foster an environment that fulfilled all of the employees needs as suggested in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs employees would have a sense of job satisfaction or job involvement (Uhl-Bien, Schermerhorn, & Osborn, 2014). If the agency had facilitated ways to improve job involvement employee would show a willingness to work beyond expectations to complete the additional work requirements that has been assigned to them (Uhl-Bien, Schermerhorn, & Osborn, 2014). The agency has facilitated an environment of division between the various programs. The priority of the agency has become mission accomplishment while allow standards and quality of performance to slowly decrease. Overtime hours are at an agency high because employees have to spend a lot of extra work hours completing additional assignments causing high levels of stress and anxiety for many employees. Due to the high stress levels the mood in the work environment caused attitudes and grief among employees. The agency does not currently have a contingency plan for filling the unfilled position. By assigning employees the additional workload without giving them additional resources or a contingency plan for the future left many employees without a feeling of emotional commitment that reflects feelings that what one does is important, valuable, and of real benefit to others—in other words, “I am committed because of the self-satisfaction I experience from my membership in the organization.” Research shows that strong emotional commitments to the organization are more powerful than rational commitments in positively influencing performance ((Uhl-Bien, Schermerhorn, & Osborn, 2014).

The organizational culture of the agency at this time is characterized as week because it requires bureaucracy to maintain control maintain control of what’s going on within the agency (Kte'pi, 2017). Even though decreasing the budget is an effort to decrease the federal deficit, federal government furlough could become more widely implemented (Shepard, 2017). In hopes of sustaining productivity amongst civil service employees within the government while implementing furloughs a number of different things can be done to increase supervisory awareness on how furloughs affect the organizational commitment (OC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees (Shepard, 2017). A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of mandated furlough on organizational commitment and organizational behavior employees. The agencies weakness is the negative effect that the furlough is causing on the Organizational Commitment and Organizational Commitment Behavior within the agency. Another weakness is management’s inability to communicate effetely with employees causing employees to feel as if they are without a voice in the agency. The reduction of the workforce has led to lower production and higher turnover rates resulting in higher expenditures (Sheppard, 2017). The government has not had a furlough that has lasted for this length of time therefore not a lot of research has been conducted on how employees react during these situations or what management can do to sustain employees. Being that furloughs are unplanned due to the failure of the government to pass a budget reaction plans are typically over looked.

In order to continually support the success or the agencies mission practices will have to be modified in order to increase the morale within the organization. Managers will need to look at the workloads of all employees and evaluate the loads and foster an environment that promotes team work. Incentives should be put in place for those that take on the additional roles and responsibilities. Job announcements should be created for those positions within the agency that allows current employees to go and apply for the positions that they would like to fulfill. By doing this you allow employees to feel as if they had a choice in the matter. The incentives are what manager will use to get the employees to want to apply for those additional positions. Being that furloughs are so unpredictable supervisors can help employees find ways to plan for them. Implementation of open door policies to address concerns and stressors, such as increased workload (Shepard, 2017). Supervisors have the ability to modify things that are bringing upon stressors by alleviating the worst aspects and transforming the remaining energy into positive energy (Davenport 2015). Mangers need to focus on shaping the culture within their programs. According to Davenport, “The manager tool kit for shaping organizational culture contained for approaches that employees can benefit from:”

1.) Calibrating work to fit individual abilities and aspirations.

2.) Providing social support that builds employees’ productive energy.

3.) Enhancing autonomy, giving individuals stress-reducing control over the what, when, where, and how of work.

4.) Ensuring that intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are commensurate with employees’ perceived contributions.

Lastly work place wellness needs to be put in place that gives employee tips and helpful things to include in their day as well as resources that can help alleviate stress. Researchers from Stanford and Harvard estimated that stress in the workplace has contributed to at least 120,000 deaths each year and accounts for as much as $190 billion in health care cost (Davenport, 2015). Managers need to implement these techniques in order to foster a social environment that nurtures and sustains high levels of personal growth within the organization.

Executive Summary

The recent furlough within the government has created division and a decrease in morale and productivity with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Due to the furlough the agency could not hire employees to fill several vacant position causing an increase in the workload of the current employees. Levels of stress among employees is at an agency high and management is not effectively communicating with employees on how this situation is going to get better. The government doesn’t experience a lot furloughs making research on how it effects employees and the work culture limited making it hard to have a contingency plan to support employees when this happens. In order to raise moral and raise productivity management has to evaluate the current state of the workplace culture and implement changes that will give employees what they need to be productive. It is in the best interest of the U.S. Government to proactively retain a productive and dedicated workforce while finding ways to meet the financial challenges that remain ahead (Shepard, 2016).

References

APHIS (2016). APHIS home page: About APHIS. Retrieved from

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/banner/aboutaphis

Davenport, T. O. (2015). Thriving at Work: How Organizational Culture Affects

Workplace Fulfillment. People & Strategy, 38(3), 38.

Kte'pi, B. (2017). Organizational Culture. Organizational Culture -- Research Starters

Business, 1-5.

Shepherd, R. L. (2017). Federally Mandated FURLOUGHS: The Effect on

Organizational Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Defense

Acquisition Research Journal: A Publication Of The Defense Acquisition

University, 24(1), 162-189. doi:10.22594/dau.15-740.24.01

Uhl-Bien, M., Schermerhorn, J. R., Osborn, R. N. (2014). Organizational Behavior, 13th