Q1. Government agencies and organizations that discourage whistleblowing do so at their own peril. If a bureau’s employees are unable to raise concerns on wrongdoing in their area of work, a scandal is going to erupt in the media. This could throw its reputation into tatters. Organizational leaders as an evolutionary well governance advancement in management are continually adopting policies that encourage whistleblowing. To this end, therefore, whistleblowing is the act of an employee alerting their employer, a media person, a customer or a regulator about an illegal activity taking place at their work place. Its popularity among public sector agencies is promoting accountability, and taking of individuals responsible at the work place.
The staff members are the frontline soldiers in an organization. In the work ecosystem they are the ones who will have firsthand access to important information especially illegal activities perpetrated in the organization.
Top level managers should make it easy for employees to raise concerns. This can be achieved by enabling employees to have easy routes to address concerns. Having an open door policy, is a great way of forming an easy address route.
In this case for instance, employee Steve Pilfer could report concerns to a higher authority in the bureau had there been a route for employees to address issues they face in the work place. His direct superior is harassing him by delegating to him duties not in his job responsibilities.
On the other hand, Charlatane’s wife could report misuse of power by her husband. This were if there were not to be a conflict of interest among them. Asking his wife to lie about the status pro quo at the bureau could be brought to light if Clara subscribed to the open door policy and blowed a whistle about the dealings of Charlatane. This could have gone a long way in saving the bureau’s employees shame of persistent fraud. It could also bring a sense of self-worth among fellow workers when such corruptive and intimidatory behavior is brought to book.
In order to fix and bring order back to the bureau, the employees’ attitude towards whistleblowing can be examined and adequate measures taken in that regard. This arises from the context of conflicting norms in work industry that whistleblowers will be critized and alienated. All employees should be aware of the existence of whistleblowers protection programs even under the constitution. The Public Interest Disclosure Act (1988) protects voluntary whistleblowers from victimization or worse detrimental treatment.
In this light, and incorporation of other policies such as an open door policy will grant viability of whistleblowing in the bureau of Engraving.
Q3. The use of gimmicks to address operational challenges comes short of professional mannerisms. In the “Notes of the Theory of Organization”, Luther Gulick (1937) points out that education and specialization can help leaders in succeeding in whatever they do. Being an expert in one’s area of specialization demands a lot of authority from other employees. This boosts one’s self esteem and improves employee overall performance.
For example, in this case study, Pilfer an accountant is forced to oversee tasks that he has no clue in by his superior. Pilfer could be able to resist such a task were it that he was an authority in his field.
Government agencies are in need of experts who can make decisions positively influencing many people than amercing such skills in the private sector. These people can benefit the nation and make everyone’s life better.
The delay between bureau and congress could be addressed from the view point of convenience. Conduction of meetings with the congress are hard to come by and yet when they do they consume a lot of man power in terms of discussions on way forward. Since the Bureau of Engraving is given mandate by the constitution and its duties are to be overseen by the congress, a clear timeline can be set to ensure that such constitutional requirements are not overlooked. The congress would be able to come to a meeting with the bureau at agreed times, this can be after set targets have been accomplished or such duties have been completed.
Over the past three decades, various government agencies have made use of various budgetary approaches and formats. The development of more sophisticated budgetary philosophies illustrates how government operations have grown in scope. This is illustrated by systems that are now capable of interpreting policy regulation into sound financial plans. Various budgetary approaches continue to be used day in day out. However, of great popularity in such kind of a government agency is performance budgeting. The plan will include manufacturing goals as well as other inanimate supporting goals. The performance approach is considered more superior as it addresses useful information worth of legislative consideration. Information addressed in such a budget plan can be easily examined by administrators whose time in most cases to such matters is limited. Performance budgeting also includes narrative descriptions of each activity and program. This organizes the budget into quantitative cost estimates useful in decision making.
In this regard, V.O Key (1940) in his “The Lack of Budgetary Theory” article he states that budgeting is important to governments as it enables the electorate to trust their leaders. Without such budgets, governance could be rendered useless or rather baseless.
