Managerial Flexibility in the Department of Homeland Security

1. Managerial Flexibility in the Department of Homeland Security R. Steven Daniels, CSUB & Carolyn L. Clark-Daniels, Bakersfield, CA

2. Mission of the Department of Homeland Security • Prevent terrorist attacks within the United States; • Reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism; and • Minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur (George W. Bush, 2002, The Department of Homeland Security, 8).

3. Research Questions • To what degree is effective leadership critical to the creation and implementation of DHS? • To what degree should homeland security functions be centralized in a single agency in the national government or decentralized to state, local, and private organizations? • To what degree does effective implementation of the Department require networking and coordination with governmental and nongovernmental partners?

4. Research Questions (Contd.) • To what extent are the missions of the combined organizations compatible with one another and the overall mission of DHS? • To what degree should the senior officials in DHS have the capacity to “get the right people in the right place at the right time with the right pay” (Ballard 2002, 2).

5. Critical Issues in Homeland Security • The development of a national strategy. • Status: Issued by President Bush, July 2002. Partially complete – no measurable objectives. • Identification of critical assets. • Status: Issued National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets and National Strategy for Securing Cyberspace, February 2003.

6. Critical Issues in Homeland Security • The creation of a central leadership. • Status: Department of Homeland Security created November 2002, implemented March 2003. Constant tension between decentralization and centralization. • The development of networking and coordination. • Status: Incomplete. Information sharing and funding intermittent. First responders funding tied up in intergovernmental bureaucracy.

7. Implementation of the Department of Homeland Security

8. Implementation of the Department of Homeland Security Table 1. DHS Organizational Elements Identified by USGAO.

9. Critical Issues of Managerial Flexibility • First, the Bush Administration has provided the Department with a range of tools to maximize the exercise of effective leadership. However, the nature of the homeland security problem may require catalytic leadership skills that require deliberation and negotiation among competing stakeholders. • Second, the intergovernmental and interorganizational reality of homeland security policy will place a premium on networking the creation of organizational and intergovernmental partnerships. These partnerships do not yet exist.

10. Critical Issues of Managerial Flexibility • Third, the numerous non-homeland security functions of DHS may well be seriously compromised despite requirements within the Act that such functions must continue to receive current levels of attention and resources. • Finally, managerial flexibility may well allow the organization to overcome the typical problems involved in agency mergers. However, the potential for political controversy in the exercise of those flexibilities may have serious consequences for agency productivity and morale.

11. Findings • Finding 1a: The nature of the terrorist threat will require an agency and a centralized leadership that will allow quick decisions and flexible response. • Finding 1b: The intergovernmental and interorganizational structure of the homeland security system will require catalytic leadership that is collaborative, deliberative, and consensual. • Finding 2: The current system provides insufficient incentives for the development of public-private partnerships. • Finding 3: DHS contains significant non-homeland security functions (especially in the Customs Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Coast Guard).

12. Findings • Finding 4: The new agency contains several agencies with serious managerial problems identified by the U.S. General Accounting Office. • Finding 5: The managerial flexibilities granted in the Homeland Security Act will allow the Department to create a more flexible human resources system over the next five years. • Finding 6: The exercise of personnel flexibilities by the Department will be subject to political controversy and may lead to decreased productivity and morale.

13. Recommendations • Recommendation 1: The Secretary of Homeland Security should develop a strategic plan for the Department with the collaboration of the key homeland security stakeholders. • Recommendation 2: Strategic human capital management should be a critical component of this plan. • Recommendation 3a: In the short term, the human capital plan should focus on the personnel flexibilities currently available under federal law, including those added in the Homeland Security Act. • Recommendation 3b: Other personnel flexibilities should only be pursued with the consultation with employee representatives required under the Act.

14. Recommendations • Recommendation 3c: The President and the Secretary of Homeland Security should not use the national security provisions of Title V to decertify the existing public sector unions in DHS. • Recommendation 4: DHS should accelerate the identification of critical infrastructure and the development of the corresponding public-private partnerships. • Recommendation 5: The DHS strategic plan will need to explicitly identify non-homeland security functions and outcomes and provide adequate mechanisms and resources for assuring continued high levels of performance. • Recommendation 6: DHS should prepare for homeland security failures within the next five years.