Redesign the existing set of control mechanisms for the executive branch, using a systems design approach. (2) The President's Management Council (PMC) should create a streamlined and cost-effective management control system for the federal government. It should begin by documenting the existing system of requirements for control (laws, regulations, rules), classifying the types of methods used (audit, reviews, evaluation), and identifying who does them. It should then assess alternative approaches to use as benchmarks and design a new vision of management control. The PMC should then use this information to design a new, more cost-effective system on behalf of the American taxpayers. The new management control system should reflect four characteristics: 1. It should be based on systems thinking. Subsystems, such as audits, inspections, investigations, reviews, appraisals, and evaluations, are part of the overall management system. These subsystems must be better defined and their interrelationships better understood in order to eliminate costly redundancy and confusion over accountability. 2. Line managers must be accountable for, and have authority over, management processes and systems. While this is an axiom in high- performing organizations, it is uncharacteristic of today's federal government. The new management control system would: --- Have line management primarily responsible for management control and be given the necessary resources to accomplish this (e.g., program evaluation staff). --- Have staff organizations performing a secondary support role for management control. Staff oversight would be minimized, though sufficient to ensure that line managers perform their control functions (i.e., by reviewing their control and improvement systems). Staff should not normally perform control functions for line managers (unless fraudulent activity is suspected). --- Shift the emphasis from compliance audits, performed by external staff organizations, to ongoing reviews and monitoring performed by line management. Oversight activities must be integral to line management's overall management control system. 3. It should be based on trust, not mistrust. The current approach to management control and staff oversight emphasizes the negative, causing employees to resist management controls rather than use them as guides for improving. Management in high-performing organizations assumes that most people, under most circumstances, are honest, well-intentioned, and eager to contribute to the organization's goals. The small minority who are not well-intentioned should be dealt with accordingly. The government's current approach implies that all employees are suspect; this does not create an atmosphere for constructive improvement. 4. It should be based on measurement and feedback. According to private sector quality management experts, "The right measures are critical to the effective management of work process. If you cannot measure your results, then you cannot control your process and improve your performance."(5) A key principle of measurement and feedback is that people respond to what is measured. Redirecting government from an emphasis on input measurement toward measurement of outcomes, results, and customer satisfaction will be a major step toward this objective. A second private sector measurement principle is based on the fact that there is variation in all processes. As a result, managers must properly analyze and interpret the meaning of their production data.(6) The final measurement principle recognizes that waste is present in all processes to varying degrees, but management and employees must continually reduce waste.(7) Some Baldrige Quality Award winners have succeeded in greatly reducing waste. For example, thanks to its "Six Sigma Program," Motorola now has some manufacturing processes that produce less than 3.2 defects per million potential defects.
You can attach your comments to this document. If you enter your email address in the empty box below and click on the submit button, you will receive via email a form that allows you to link your views to the NPR hypertext.
Subscribe Unsubscribe No Action