When Government Fails to Oversee Treatment of Foster Children

When People and Organizations Are Too Rigid

Interpretation of Bolman and Deal (2008) is understood as the job role of the individual has become so rigid that that they fail to focus on the big picture or are just unclear about what their job responsibility is.  The person lacks creativity and does not consider how their behavior will impact the end result when dealing with a customer, client or citizen. The individual is boxed into a role or an organization functions with stringent rules and procedures that does not allow them to veer away from the job function or use proper judgement when dealing with the public.  

I found two interesting articles that reflects this: 

The first case - TSA and the elderly.  Here two elderly women were humiliated and tremendously embarrassed as they were stripped search by TSA employees at Kennedy Airport.  The women were 89 and 85 in age.  

According to Shapiro (2012), one woman was forced to show her colonoscopy bag and the other, who declined to go through the scanner and admitted to wearing a defibrillator bag, had her clothing removed instead of being patted down. Apparently, TSA said they had volunteered.  There is nothing about volunteering when you have the pressure of the TSA standing in front of you.  One of the women was in a wheelchair and with a walker in her lap because she had injured her leg (Shapiro, 2012).  TSA later admitted publicly that they the workers had violated procedures (Shapiro, 2012).   

Reference:

Schapiro, Rich. (2012, January 18).  TSA admits wrongdoing in in cases of two elderly woman who claim there were stripped search.  New York Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/tsa-apologizes-elderly-women-strip-search-kennedy-airport-article-1.1007725# 

The second case - Fish and Wildlife Service goes after a tree trimmer. 

Structure and Organization

This week’s reading of Boleman and Deal (2008) provided an interesting read.  Essentially, they discussed organizational structure, provided examples of what happens when an organization has a fluid structure and when the structure fails; who developed structural perspectives; and raised the question on whether organizations and people need structure.    According to Boleman and Deal (2008), structure is a blueprint of official sanctioned expectations and exchanges among internal players and external constituents which can help or hinder an organization.  They presented two cases:  management of the USS Kennedy which exemplified the complex workings of an aircraft carrier and the 9/11 terrorists attacks.  The aircraft contained more than 5,000 workers managed by a captain, yet on this aircraft everyone is assigned to a job and color coded in uniforms to identify who does what.  Seems as if everyone had a clear understanding of what their job role was.   In times of war you would need to know, otherwise small mistakes could lead to large catastrophes.  The case of 9/11 demonstrated what happens when you do have structure but that structure is so rigid with many layers that it fails the system.   In this case, government agencies had internal structures but failed miserably when external factors weren’t considered in communications.   Government agencies seemed to have worked more as an individual unit as opposed to working as a whole with external agencies. 

There were two important people that developed structural perspectives, Frederick W. Taylor and Max Weber.  Taylor termed “scientific management,” which is an approach to breaking down tasks and retraining workers to get the most out of each motion and second while at work (Boleman & Deal, 2008).  Then there was Weber.  He believed in a “monocratic bureaucracy,” where you have fixed division of labor, hierarchy of offices, rules, separation of personal from official property and rights, ability to select personnel and employment is long-term (Boleman & Deal, 2008). 

Do we really need structure in an organization?  Yes we do, whether large or small.    That is, if we are to have a successful business or be capable of providing public services.  In a small organization it might be acceptable to have an informal structure due to its size and the ability to manage people and their roles better, but large organizations cannot do without, primarily because of the number of personnel that needs to be managed.  In my opinion, a well put together structure in a large organization is one where a hierarchy exists, both employees and leaders understand their respective roles and use their positions to help advance the organization.  It is organized with leaders that know how to use their core processes, technology,

Structure in the Workplace

Structure creates order. With rules and policies in place, workers understand that employment is contingent upon meeting the organization's requirements.    It creates a hierarchical view and allows employees to identify where authority and responsibility ultimately lies; it creates accountability among workers. Structure delineates who does what job with an understanding that if you stray too far away from your responsibility there is disruption in workflow. Structure creates a level of respect in action, regardless of how you truly feel about management.   According to Fayol, a good leader possess and instills in others to have the courage to accept responsibility, while creating a sense of discipline among workers is imperative to the flow of business.   Structure develops by identifying the best methods to run an organization by analyzing your workforce and the skills they possess to determine whether technology or further training is needed so that your organization can be more effective and efficient (Taylor).

While I prefer the classicl view, I believe that public organizations have become less bureaucratic because technology has replaced some of the of job responsibilities that were formerly held by public employees, leading to less red tape.  For instance, tolls on public highways allows the flow of traffic to flow more easily due to scanners in place.  Before, tolls were occupied by public employees who needed to take the time collect and exchange money with the client.  In the past you had to visit a local government entity to pick up a form from an employee, technology now allows you to download a form by a click of a button.  On a larger scale, although technology may have removed some responsibilities on a lower scale, when major issues occur, ultimately the people and the bureacracy look to higher-ups to hold accountable, such is the case with Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi issue.