The Department of Homeland Securitys Internal Problem

Alex Tabish

PADM: 7420

Valdosta State University

Tabish Research Paper 2

In a subcommittee hearing discussing homeland security, Chairman Michael McCaul

stated: vulnerability in leadership is a vulnerability in homeland security (McCaul, 2014). The

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been plagued with internal issues regarding lack of

employee engagement and employee satisfaction since its start, with ratings consistently the

worst among all federal departments (Office of Personnel Management, 2016). As a result, there

have been many shortcomings and lack of foresight by the DHS on their employees and their job

performance, ultimately jeopardizing the safety of all Americans. The importance of the DHS

and its mission cannot be overstated. Therefore, the Department needs to ensure efficiency and

effectiveness when providing services. A change in culture and leadership style, one that

empowers employees, focuses on the growth of individuals and agencies, provides flexibility,

removes waste, and creates a strong culture of service-orientation, will allow the DHS to reach

its full potential and successfully protect the homeland.

The DHS is the result of the largest reorganization of government agencies in modern

time. There was no blueprint for the DHS, nor anything similar around the world. The DHS

currently enrolls around 240,000 employees, has grown to be the third-largest cabinet agency

(Department of Homeland Security, 2016). There are 22 agencies consolidated in the DHS in an

attempt to create a unified focus on homeland security and accomplish the singular and important

goal of keeping America safe. The results of bringing together so many different agencies have

faced many challenges, including internal and external problems. The reorganization has created

a counterproductive and disorganized environment for the Department to operate in. For

examples, the goal of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to provide assistance

in the event of natural or man-made disasters, however, an overwhelming amount of their work

is not terrorism related. Whereas other departments services within the DHS e center around
Tabish Research Paper 3

counter-terrorism, since 1993 roughly .001% of FEMA work has been categorized as terrorism

(FEMA Disaster Declarations by Year, 2016). Despite the lack of terrorist-related activities, the

DHS has allocated $170 billion to FEMA, which included 23 percent and the largest portion of

the FY2014 DHS budget (Coburn, 2015). Such a large amount of agencies with wide-ranging

goals have allowed the leadership to create a cultural resistance to change and unity. To fully

address such issues, strong leadership is needed; one that empowers others, provides guidance,

and motivates employees to accomplish organizational goals.

Leadership is a key factor in determining organizational success (Bass & Avolio, 1997).

The complexity of defining leadership has been studied for centuries, however, House and

Javidan (2004) define leadership as a managers ability to influence and enable employees to

achieve organizational success. There should be significant emphasis placed on the achievement

of organizational success, rather than individual, as the success of the DHS - keeping the

homeland free of any terrorist activities is such a vital aspect of the sustainability of our

country. Similarly, when employees are empowered as suggested, they show higher signs of

satisfaction and commitment to their organization (Kirkman and Rosen, 1999). When faced with

new challenges, such as the never-ending case with the DHS, effective leadership can help

facilitate the improvement of organizational performance (McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). This

finding is especially helpful in 2016, as the threats of lone wolf terrorism and concerns over

cyber security have rapidly become more urgent. Leadership directly relates to employee

motivation, which subsequently relates to job performance (Belonio, 2012). Therefore, when

employees are discouraged and a lack of motivation is found within the organization, one should

question the leadership style and culture.

Tabish Research Paper 4

In an attempt to gain insights into the different federal agencies, the Office of Personnel

Management (OPM) conducts the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS). The

FEVS is a self-reported survey given to all federal employees that measure employees

perceptions of their organizations, the challenges they face, and the presence, or lack thereof, of

successful characteristics (Office of Personnel Management, 2016). The 2015 FEVS survey

found the DHS had a 53 percent employee engagement rating, the lowest of all federal agencies

(Office of Personnel Management, 2016). The Department had experienced declining overall

employee engagement results for five consecutive years dropping from 61 percent in 2010 to 53

percent in 2015. One aspect of employee engagement measured is Leaders Lead, which

measures the employees perception of the behaviors, integrity, and communication of leadership

(Office of Personnel Management, 2016). The DHS reported a 38 percent in this category,

compared to the 79 percent reported by the leading agency, the Federal Trade Commission, and

53 percent government-wide score. Moreover, supervisors, or the interpersonal relationship

between supervisors, and intrinsic motivation, employees feelings of motivation relating to their

role in the workplace, were both significantly lower than government-wide averages (Office of

Personnel Management, 2016). The results of the 2016 FEVS indicated a 3-point increase in

overall engagement, however, this still ranks the DHS at the bottom of all agencies.

Similarly, the DHS ranks lowest in global satisfaction at 49 percent (Office of Personnel

Management, 2016), up slightly from 47 percent in 2015. Moreover, job satisfaction,

organizational satisfaction, and pay satisfaction all rank at the bottom of their respective

category and all fall well below the government average. The same study found only 49 percent

of the employees would recommend the DHS as a good place to work. Organization satisfaction,

while only at 56 percent in 2010, has seen the most significant drop falling to 42 percent in 2016
Tabish Research Paper 5

(Office of Personnel Management, 2016). Such low ratings of job satisfaction are significantly

alarming as job satisfaction is directly related to job performance (Seo, Ko, & Price, 2004).

Therefore, it is safe to assume these employees who are not satisfied are not doing an adequate

job protecting the homeland.

Using a proprietary weighted formula from the OPMs FEVS survey, the Partnership for

Public Service creates an annual Best Places to Work rankings. The criteria used is based on

three questions from the FEVS survey: I recommend my organization as a good place to work,

considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job, and considering everything, how

satisfied are you with your organization (Partnership for Public Service, 2015). The most recent

rankings have DHS the lowest of the 19 large agencies with an aggregated score of 43.1, a .9

decrease from the previous year (Partnership for Public Service, 2015). Even more concerning, a

closer look shows six of the bottom eight agency subcomponents are a part of the DHS

(Partnership for Public Service, 2015). Despite all the low ratings, the beacon of hope and the

central theme of this paper can be found in the discrepancy in one data point. While satisfaction

and engagement remain the lowest among federal employees, 85 percent of DHS employees

believe the work they are doing is important (Office of Personnel Management, 2016). This gap

highlights the downfalls of current leadership and culture and suggests an opportunity for

improvement.

The unsatisfactory culture and lack of employee engagement have lead to a high turnover

at the DHS, leaving many key positions vacant, and employees unsure who the leadership is.

The annual FedScope survey found top career managers in the Senior Executive Service were

leaving at an alarming rate relative to other government agencies (Markon, Makashima, &

Crites, 2014). The turnover and absence of such senior positions would leave any organization
Tabish Research Paper 6

fractured and unable to fully carry out missions and objectives. Somehow the culture at the DHS

has manifested into such a dysfunctional environment that employees leave and the leadership in

unable to fill the positions and keep on the missions. For example, the importance of terrorism

and immigration are central missions of the DHS, however, at one point the Customs and Border

Protection went five years without an established director and during the Obama administration,

the Office of Intelligence and Analysis has had six different directors (Markon, Makashima, &

Crites, 2014). Research by Bordreau (1992) found there to be a strong relationship between

employee turnover and job performance thus highlighting the need to limit the amount of

turnover. These results could explain such poor performance in some of the DHS agencies,

specifically the TSA. A recent audit found TSA to have a staggering 95 percent failure rate of

security screenings (Laing, 2016). Therefore, a strong sense of leadership needs to be

implemented to fully address the cultural issues that have plagued the DHS to stop such high

rates of turnover and ensure safety for all Americans.

In an attempt to address the morale issues, leadership has fumbled with their approaches.

A 2016 inspector general report found the DHS does not have metrics in place to measure how

much they spend on training, the effectiveness of training, an effective governance structure to

develop training, or have clearly defines roles, responsibilities, or delegated authorities (Office of

Inspector General, 2016). Moreover, the report found the DHS had not address the 29 different

recommendations regarding training and the efficiencies (Office of Inspector General, 2016).

Such carelessness presents a perception the DHS does not care about their employees or their

training, a dangerous precedent to set.

Regardless of having such metrics or effective training, the government has spent over $2

million in the past couple years in an attempt to understand why employees at the DHS are
Tabish Research Paper 7

unhappy (Markon, 2015). The studies have unsurprisingly not resulted in a change or fixed the

morale issues, but rather fueled a precedent of waste that has plagued the culture. One initiative,

DHSTogether, was developed in 2009 intended to promote wellness and resilience in the DHS

(Department of Homeland Security, 2016). However, shortly after the launch, a report conducted

by the Institute of Medicine found the program to be lacking resources and support from

leadership, a disconnect between small initiatives, lacking specific goals, and no measurable

objectives (Institute of Medicine, 2013). A similar initiative, Unity of Effort was developed in

2014 and focused on creating conditions for the Department to act in a more unified fashion

(Department of Homeland Security, 2015). While the initiative was sound in logic, the

leadership and culture again proved to be counterproductive. Grant Thorton, along with the

Department of Homeland Security and Defense Business Council (2015) found the most

common obstacle for employees to be leadership buy-in and only 64 percent of DHS employees

believed the initiative would impact their agency.

Another recent example of the inability to create a productive culture for the DHS can be

found in the DHS attempt to consolidate the offices of all agencies under the DHS umbrella. In

2006, the DHS proposed a plan to create a consolidated headquarters for the DHS in the

Washington D.C. region. A central hub would surely create more information sharing, centralized

leadership, and solidify the legitimacy of the efforts to current internal issues in the DHS. Initial

predictions had the complex to be finished by 2016, however, a 2014 report declared the project

to be $1 billion over budget and a decade behind schedule (U.S. House of Representatives

Committee on Homeland Security, 2014). This inaccuracy has resulted in the criticism of many

government officials and the public alike. Additionally, $126 million of the FY2017 was cut

from the headquarter complex spending to surely furthering the stagnation (Heckman, 2016).
Tabish Research Paper 8

Like many other instances, this sluggishness reinforces the culture surrounding the DHS that it is

not a legitimate agency. Too often government officials have attempted to correct the

shortcomings surrounding the agency, however, the culture and leadership have stunted the

growth and development.

These examples of waste and negligent spending of taxpayers money have troubled the

relationship America and public officials have with the agency. What was created to protect the

homeland has slowly become a massive expense. In 2015, the DHS was given a budget of almost

$61 billion and has spent over $544 billion since 2003 (Painter, 2014). While it remains hard to

put a monetary value on some of the most important aspects of the nations security, the

leadership and culture has no accountability and has been spending money recklessly for quite

some time. Recent report suggested the DHS has spent between $100 and $150 billion on failed

and wasted contracts (Brill, 2016). Waste of such magnitude is hard to justify to Americans who

are seeing their tax dollars wasted and demanding accountability from leadership.

Such waste has not only impacted the employees perception of leadership and culture but

also affected the public image of the DHS. The Department and some of its agencies have

consistently continued to have some of the worst public images in government (Bucci & Inserra,

2013). Much of this poor reputation can be attributed to leadership. When there is quality

management and leadership in an organization there will also be an increased reputation of the

organization (Dowling, 2004). The leaderships inability to create a positive reputation has led to

decreased employee satisfaction, low approval ratings for key agencies and central missions, and

a lack of communication with society through the rollout of apathetic public awareness

campaigns. A 2014 poll found 65 percent of the country was unhappy with the DHS handling of

immigration, one of their central missions (Gallup, 2014). Similarly, a poll conducted by major
Tabish Research Paper 9

travel agencies found 87 percent of Americans believe the Transportation Security

Administration (TSA) is only doing a fair to poor job with their work (Laing, 2015).

Employees want to be proud of where they work and based on the aforementioned importance

placed on the DHS, employee satisfaction should be much higher. The lack of such can be

attributed to the leadership and culture of the DHS and suggest a dire need of change within the

Department. When a company has a good reputation, employees commitment to his or her job,

as well as reinforce the beliefs, missions, and objectives will all strengthen (Men, 2010).

This type of wasting resources does not only occur within the DHS, as there are also

examples of the leadership and culture above the DHS. One of the most significant challenges

the DHS currently faces is Congress (Coburn, 2015). There are 119 committees, subcommittees,

and other congressional oversight groups that have jurisdiction over the DHS (Inserra, 2014). In

perspective, the Department of Defense, with nearly nine times the budget, only responds to one

committee, the Armed Services (Inserra, 2014). This type of oversight means there are countless

different stakeholders pulling the Department in different directions hoping to achieve different

priorities. This type of culture is obviously counterproductive and restrictive on individuals and

agencies as they attempt to navigate the politics and bureaucracy associated with different

administrations.

The 9/11 Commissions Report focused such Congressional oversight, calling it

dysfunctional (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004). One

of their 41 recommendations was to address this oversight, creating a single point of oversight

and review for homeland security (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United

States, 2004). To date, this is currently one of the remaining nine recommendations that have yet

to be addressed from the original forty-one (Bipartisan Policy Center, 2011). Perhaps this is
Tabish Research Paper 10

because Congress wants to play a role in homeland security, a top priority among Americans, or

perhaps there is little trust of the DHS leadership. Regardless of the reasons, the same culture and

leadership issues that have plagued inside the DHS are apparent further up the leadership

hierarchy. Considering the power Congress has over the DHS, including cutting funding, and

eliminating jobs, the DHS must focus on maintaining relationships with countless government

officials rather than focusing on their mission to protect the homeland. With proper leadership,

this culture could change to one of empowerment for employees by removing all of the

bureaucracy for all stakeholders.

All of this oversight could be deemed a form of decentralization and checks and balances.

However, with so much oversight coming from the Legislative branch of government, there

leaves little flexibility for the agencies to operate as autonomous departments. The United States

Constitution aimed to create a system of checks and balances within the government, giving

power to local and state authority. While some criticism (e.g., see work by Mitchell & Pate,

2003) has called for the DHS to centralize more and create a unified decision-making system,

this doesnt seem to be the case for the Department. In his review of the DHS, Perrow (2006)

called for a more decentralized approach for the DHS to take due to its size and complexity.

However, some aspects of the DHS have centralized their decision-making, thus making it

challenging for other agencies and local authorities. For example, the National Response

Framework (NRP) provides uniform guidelines (Perrow, 2006). The language in the NRP

undermines the authority of local and state government, deeming them incapable of making the

best decisions for their constituents. Because local and state governments rely heavily on federal

funds, they too must follow the guidelines put forth by the NRP, however, in doing so they have

lost their autonomy to act. Most of the time, they are the closest to the situation and have a better
Tabish Research Paper 11

understanding of the challenges and obstacles faced than officials in Washington D.C. Leaders

should be focused on organizational goals and if the goal is to ensure homeland security, the

most knowledgeable stakeholder should lead efforts to prevent and resolve problems.

Decentralizing the decision-making and power among agencies could help alleviate some

of the cultural problems the DHS currently has. A successful leader involves other employees in

the decision-making process, sharing the power and establishing a strong form of teamwork

(Laub, 1999). As previously mentioned, there are 22 different agencies within the DHS, with

responsibilities covering everything fisheries, river floods, animal diseases, energy reliability,

computer crime, citizenship training, tariffs on imports, drug smuggling, and the reliability of

telephone networks (Perrow, 2006). The wide-ranging nature of such jurisdiction and protection

should empower others to grow and take leadership roles in the security of such fields. Until

broad, all-inclusive approaches are removed and leadership defines clear objectives to ensure

safety, there will continue to be the undermining of local and state authorities, further removing

them from the checks and balances power.

Until these issues are resolved, the DHS will continue to slowly deteriorate, as will our

security. The waste, restrictive oversight, and lack of a service-orientated, empowerment culture

will stunt the growth of the DHS and continue to waste taxpayers funds. This is not an issue one

single person can accomplish, but rather a long-term cultural shift. With a few small changes,

this is a possibility though. There is strength in numbers and if unified the DHS can ensure

sustainability at the forefront of innovation and success fighting domestic terrorism.

Tabish Research Paper 12

References
Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1997). Full Range Leadership Development: Manual for the
Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Mindgarden.
Belonio, J.R. (2012). The Effect of Leadership Style on Employee Satisfaction and Performance
of Bank Employees in Bangkok. AU-GSB E-Journal 5 (2).

Bipartisan Policy Center. (2011). Tenth Anniversary Report Card: The Status
of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations. National Security Preparedness
Group. Retrieved from: http://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-
content/uploads/sites/default/files/CommissionRecommendations.pdf

Brill, S. (2016). Is America Safer? The Atlantic. Retrieved from:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/are-we-any-safer/492761/
Bucci, S., Inserra, D. (2013). Top 10 Issues the New DHS Nominee Must Face. The Heritage
Foundation. Retrieved from: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/10/top-10-
issues-the-new-secretary-of-homeland-security-nominee-must-face

Bucci, S., Rosenzweig, P., & Inserra, D. (2015). Reforming DHS: Missed
Opportunity Calls for Congress to Intervene. The Heritage Foundation.
Retrieved from:
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2015/01/reforming-dhs-
missed-opportunity- calls-for-congress-to-intervene

Coburn, T. (2015). A Review of the Department of Homeland Securitys Missions and

Performance. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. U.S. Senate
113th Congress.

Department of Homeland Security (2015). Unity of Effort: One Year Later.

Retrieved from: https://www.dhs.gov/blog/2015/04/22/unity-effort-one-year-
later

Department of Homeland Security. (2016) DHSTogether Things You Should Know for
employees. Retrieved from: https://www.dhs.gov/dhstogether-things-you-should-know-
employees
Department of Homeland Security. (2016) About DHS. Retrieved from:
https://www.dhs.gov/about-dhs
Dowling, G. R. (2004). Journalists evaluation of corporate reputations. Corporate Reputation
Review, 7 (2).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (2016). Disaster Declarations for 2016. Retrieved
from: https://www.fema.gov/disasters/grid/year/2016
Heckman, J. (2016). DHS funding for new headquarters slashed in FY 2017 bill. Federal News
Radio. Retrieved from: http://federalnewsradio.com/budget/2016/06/dhs-funding-new-
headquarters-slashed-fy-2017-bill/
House R.J., Javidan M. (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62
societies, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage
Tabish Research Paper 13

Inserra, D. (2014). Expanding Government: Beware of the Senates Immense,

Obamacare-Style Immigration Bill. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved from:
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/05/expanding-
government-beware-of-the- senates-immense-obamacare-style-
immigration-bill

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2013). A Ready and Resilient Workforce for
the Department of Homeland Security: Protecting Americas Front Line. National
Academies Journals. Retrieved from:
http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2013/DHS-
Resiliency/DHS-Resilience-RB.pdf
Kirkman, B., & Rosen, B. (1999). Beyond self-management: Antecedents and consequences of
team empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 42 (1).

Laing, K. (2015). Poll: 87 percent of frequent flyers unhappy with TSA. The
Hill. Retrieved from: http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/256026-poll-
87-percent-of-frequent-flyers- unhappy-with-tsa

Laub, J.A. (1999). Assessing the servant organization: Development of the Organizational
Leadership Assessment (OLA) instrument. Dissertation Abstracts International, 60 (02)
Markon, J. (2015). DHS tackles endless morale problems with seemingly endless studies. The
Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/homeland-
security-has-done-little-for-low-morale-but-study-it--repeatedly/2015/02/20/f626eba8-
b15c-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html

Markon, J., Nakashima, E., Crites, A. (2014). Top-level turnover makes it

harder for DHS to stay on top of evolving threats. The Washington Post.
Retrieved from:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-level-turnover-
makes-it-harder-for- dhs-to-stay-on-top-of-evolving-
threats/2014/09/21/ca7919a6-39d7-11e4-9c9f- ebb47272e40e_story.html

Men, L.R. (2010). Measuring the Impact of Leadership Style and Employee Empowerment on
Perceived Organizational Reputation. University of Miami Journals. Retrieved from:
http://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/KEPRRA-the-Impact-of-Leadership-
Style-and-Employee-Empowerment-on-Perceived-Organizational-Reputation.pdf
McCarthy, J. (2014). Approval of Obama's Handling of Immigration Falls to 31%. Gallup.
Retrieved from: http://www.gallup.com/poll/171755/approval-obama-handling-
immigration-falls.aspx
McCaul, M. (2012). Building One DHS: Why is Employee Morale Low. Subcommittee on
Oversight, Investigations, and Management. United States Homeland Security.
McGrath, G. R & MacMillan, I. C. (2000). Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously
Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty. Harvard Business School Press Books.
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States., Kean, T. H., & Hamilton, L.
(2004). The 9/11 Commission report: Final report of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. Washington, D.C.: National Commission on
Tabish Research Paper 14

Terrorist Attacks upon the United States.

Office of Inspector General. (2016). DHS Oversight of its Workforce Training Needs
improvement. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from:
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/2016/OIG-16-19-Jan16.pdf
Office of Personnel Management (2016). Unlocking Federal Talent. Retrieved from:
https://unlocktalent.gov/
Partnership for Public Services. (2015). The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.
Retrieved from: http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/index.php
Painter, W. (2014). Total DHS Spending, FY2013-FY2014: Congressional Research Service,
Memorandum to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Perrow, C. (2006). The Disaster after 9/11: The Department of Homeland Security and the
Intelligence Reorganization. The Journal of the NPS Center for Homeland
Security Defense and Security, 2(1).
Seo Y, Ko J, Price J.L. (2004). The determinants of job satisfaction among hospital nurses: a
model estimation in Korea. International Journal Nursing Studies 41.
Thorton, G. (2015). The Mission Imperative: Securing the Homeland through Improved
Collaboration and Engagement Across the enterprise. The Homeland Security & Defense
Business Council 20/20 Project on the Homeland Security Enterprise. Retrieved from:
https://www.grantthornton.com/~/media/content-page-files/public-
sector/pdfs/surveys/2015/Homeland-Security-Executive-Survey-FINAL.ashx
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security (2014). Reality Check Needed:
Rising Costs and Delays in Construction of New DHS Headquarters at St. Elizabeths.
U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved from:
https://homeland.house.gov/files/documents/01-10-14-StElizabeths-Report.pdf