Improving the Performance of Government Employees

CHAPTER 2Organizational Systems

I first became exposed to the concept of organization systems design in the 1990s, when my office was seeking to undergo a fundamental change in its performance, culture, and approach. A new leader had arrived in our office, and he questioned the way we did business. He felt that, although we were doing pretty well, we could do a lot better, and, quite frankly, he wanted to modernize our approach to work.

Prior to that, I (and most of my peers) tended to both look at and manage performance in a very reactive manner; if there was a problem, I looked to see who was at fault and whom I should blame. As many other managers did, I tended to fault people for our performance problems and did not think to look more deeply ...