The organization of the Department of Labor is the Department whose activity is based on the workers’ development and providing services for protection. It creates a security system for American workers, provides unemployment insurance, helps veterans, and provides job-related training (Datla, 2015). The Department of Labor has its specific organizational structure. The main offices are the Secretary of Labor and the Deputy of Secretary, who oversee multiple other offices, such as the Executive Secretary, Office of Administrative Law Judges, Benefits Review Board, Office of the Solicitor, and many others (Datla, 2015). This hierarchy involves managers, the principal secretaries of the departments and offices, whose primary role is to plan, organize, and coordinate the tasks and activities of their workers. The leaders being a part of the hierarchy, implement the tasks of the offices connected not only with the duties implementation but mainly with the inspiration, motivation, and influence of the workers of their departments.
The Department of Labor has its mission, goals, and visions. The mission is to improve, develop, enhance and promote the well-being of people who relate to labor, namely employees, workers, job-seekers, and retired people (Datla, 2015). The Department aims to improve people’s working conditions and provide fair and quality employment opportunities, ensuring rights and benefits (Datla, 2015). Primary goals are based on increasing the number of workers and steadily fulfilling the budget. The Department keeps its coherent and productive activity by observing its performance measures, such as unemployment rates, budget allocation, and budget usage efficiency. Many employees in the Department of Labor are 17,395 employees in total (Datla, 2015). As can be seen, this Department is crucial for developing the country’s economy and impacts employment and people’s welfare indicators.
The next important step is to analyze the budget of the Department. There are two types of spending to be allocated for the budget – mandatory and discretionary. Mandatory or direct spending is designed for different statutes and laws, such as insurance and pensions (Datla, 2015). Meanwhile, discretionary spending belongs to the budget authority and is a matter of the yearly appropriation process (Datla, 2015). The Department requests resources for various service provisions and allocates them for its budget. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs had a total budget of 140 billion USD in 2013. The money from the Department of Labor was designed for veterans’ health insurance, employment benefits, and education (Datla, 2015). So, the total budget for the Department of Labor was 67 5 billion USD in 2014 (Datla, 2015). The next analyzed element is the stakeholders, who play an essential role in the organization’s budgeting process.
The stakeholders and groups are crucial to Department’s functioning. They involve private sector companies, philanthropic organizations, and federal agencies (Datla, 2015). There are challenges faced by the authority, which for example, refer to Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is the agency that aims to develop health standards and workplace safety. The problem is that it took too long to enforce new safety standards and regulations (Datla, 2015). The second challenge is provoked by the lack of inspectors, which negatively impacts the agency’s mandate (Datla, 2015). At the same time, the best Department’s progress is recorded for improper unemployment insurance payments reduction. The management focuses on program integrity by creating agreements that help to receive appropriate funds (Datla, 2015). So, the Department of Labor undertakes complicated tasks connected with budget allocation and the offices’ activities, combining different strategies to improve the overall indicators.
It is necessary to pay attention to such a person as Thomas Perez. He appeared to be an effective leader working for different departments and improving the services. He leads the Department of Labor and shows the best work ethic, ensuring all American workers gain their potential in their professions. As a Secretary, he can contribute to Immigration Reform, inviting farm and seasonal workers and increasing the country’s population (Datla, 2015). Also, he can elaborate on different effective employment programs, decreasing the unemployment rate, and protecting persons who want their American dream to come true (Datla, 2015). So, he can be a strong Secretary at formal and informal authority. Thomas Perez possesses valuable qualities and strengths to provide organizational change. Having great experience in other positions, he succeeded a lot. Perez’s main strength as a Secretary is that he knows how to develop the right solutions to various emerging problems, providing opportunities to people. Being a core player, Thomas Perez shows that he uses potential without limits. The strategies he can use during the work are better source allocation and setting a clear direction for the Department. These strategies can be implemented with the help of improved communication with the team and other departments, scheduling regular meetings to discuss challenges, and control performance measures.
After the case analysis, I realized that leading and managing a public organization is complicated. Department cooperation with different offices affected my thoughts because this process has a significant impact on the Department, a public organization, and society. Many different processes depend on each other. Being a cold-minded and decisive leader is vital because bad decision-making inside your organization can lead to dramatic consequences and recess the economy of a state. Another element that affected my thoughts is the level of responsibility. Leaders and managers must thoroughly process all the data to carry out an organization’s efficient activity and task implementation.
References
Datla, A. (2015). Reclaiming the American Dream: Thomas Perez and the Department of Labor. Harvard Kennedy School. Web.