Organizational Design
Any operating organization should have its own structure in order to operate efficiently. An organizational structure is the hierarchy of people in regards to the management of an organization. An organization’s structure is also supposed to describe the functions of each hierarchy or level within the organization. It is also important to note that an organization’s structure can be an important aspect that can be used to describe the character of an organization and its values.
Every organization needs a structure for it to operate systematically thus enabling it to keep its activities well-coordinated. In some cases, organizations evolve through structure as they progress and enhance their processes and manpower.
The agency ‘Bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives’ has a functional organizational structure. This is a design that groups similar or related occupational specialties together. The organization is divided into segments based on the functions that are involved during its management. This allows the organization to enhance the efficiency of these functional groups.
The strengths of a functional organizational design include:
- The organization is able to maximize the economies of scale that results from specialization.
- There is little duplication of duties and efforts and this boosts the agency’s efficiency especially where functional skills are paramount.
- Employees have an in-depth knowledge and skills pertaining to their functional department.
However, this design also has some weaknesses. Some of the weaknesses functional design includes the following:
- Being the solitary pinnacle of authority within the organization, the director or top manager, may be left out during the decision making process within the organization.
- The overall goals of the agency may end up being overshadowed as most employees focus to achieve small scale objectives.
Global Linkages and Personnel Management
As an agency, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives (hence referred to as ATF), is made up of different groups. Each group has its own roles and a director who has the authority to co-ordinate the completion of such duties. Due to the volatility of the job description, all the special agents require top security clearance. In order to achieve this, they are all required to pass a comprehensive series of single scope background investigations.
The agency has several filled offices all over the United States, more specifically in major cities. In addition, they have established global linkages by setting base in various countries including Canada, Iraq, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and the Caribbean, all of which are supervised by the Miami field office.
ATF uses a more theoretical approach in the management of its personnel in that there is hardly any hands-on approach in the management of personnel. While this may cover a wider management scope, it is lacking in the interaction that is greatly achieved when a more practical approach to personnel management is adopted.
Personnel Recruitment and Hiring Practices
ATF special agent recruitment is very competitive. There are some major components of the agency’s human resource system’s goals and practices in regards to the guidelines that are followed when selecting a qualified workforce. This is a minimum threshold for an applicant to qualify to become an ATF special agent.
Qualified applicants must possess, at minimum, a four year bachelor degree along with a work experience of more than four years at a state or local police department. The hiring process includes an agreement of non-disclosure meaning that the specifics of the process are not entirely revealed. Nonetheless, applicants must be subjected to a thorough background check in order to achieve a top secret clearance.
In addition, the agents must excel in multiple physical fitness tests, written tests, medical exams and interviews to be considered for selection for training. The training program, which is at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre in Glynco, Georgia lasts twenty seven weeks and it is mandatory for ATF special agents to complete it. Currently, this training program consists of a fourteen week special agent basic training course, a one week pre-basic and the twelve week basic criminal investigator training program. It is only after this that the special agents commence a three year probationary tour having been released to a field office.
Employee Skills Training
New hires are usually enrolled for the basic special agent training which consists of a two-part program. Criminal Investigators Training Program (CITP) is the first part. This training provides the fundamentals in the concepts, methodologies and techniques of seeing through criminal investigations. The Special Agent Basic Training (SABT) is the second part of training. It covers a wide range of disciplines including firearms and ammunition identification, interview techniques, report writing close quarter counter measure etcetera.
For existing agents, some add-on training is incorporated due to the dynamic scope of the environment they operate in. For instance, tactical training, physical training, arson and explosive training are some of the programs adopted by the agency for the development of knowledge, skills and overall competencies.
These approaches to training have the following strengths:
- Employees are up to date with the dynamic environment that they operate in.
- It continues to sharpen and perfect their skills thus building on their efficiency.
- Execution of tasks is usually more precise.
The following weakness can also be associated to such approaches to training:
- Training methods may prove redundant if nothing new is introduced.
- The monotony in training approaches limits diversity.
- Repeated training methods may keep the agency at a stagnant growth.
Recruiting and Training Recommendations
The agency could do away with old training methods that have grown irrelevant in relation to the current times. This will help the employees to remain competitive and current and this will serve to improve results.
Another recommendation that could be applied by the organization during its recruitment and training of workers, is to modify training methods so that they prove useful when applied to real life scenarios. Consequently, this will improve practicality and applicability of training methods. Employees should be able to associate what they learn during training to what they do in the actual job.
Training methods should not only look to equip trainees with new skills but should also identify their strengths and weaknesses towards achieving the development of the whole individual. For already existing employees, more effort should be put in keeping them at the agency while at the same time demanding of them competitive performance. This can be achieved by offering competitive pay and allowances and this will consequently lead to minimum employee turnover.
Conclusion
In summary, public personnel administration is a key component in every organization. It forms the foundation on which the human resource is managed and thus the importance of proper personnel management cannot be over emphasized.
The main objective of personnel management is to ensure that human capital is being both economically and efficiently used, in line with the set regulations, laws and public policies. Personnel management evaluation is a process through which managers can have a basis of comparison between actual results and the established objectives. Therefore, it can be concluded that constant and consistent evaluation of public personnel administration is of great essence to this and other agencies.
REFERENCES
"History of ATF". Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
U.S. Department of Justice . Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Retrieved 18 January 2013.
Atf.gov. History of ATF from, Inc. - 1789–1998 U.S. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
ATF Executive Staff. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
