How Downsizing Affects Organizational Memory in Government: Some Implications for Professional and Organizational Development

ABSTRACT This paper examines some ways that downsizing can affect professional and organizational development in government by posing some possible scenarios based on social and organizational theories. The paper maintains that the depletion of social capital in the past two decades may lead to some predictable consequences in the future. For instance, downsizing has necessitated incumbents' having to play multiple and often conflicting roles: a condition that culminates in stress and burnout and, eventually, to turnover. Because organizations carry little promise for continued employment and advancement, career paths will be truncated; "revolving doors" may happen, in which individuals cycle in and out of government service frequently. The removal of individuals with "institutional memory" may deplete the supply of mentors and coaches, who provide both career advice as well as promote a common perspective on organizational problems. The decline in organizational problem solving ability, in turn, can lead to ways to "reinvent" mission and essential programs. This may engender searches for fundamental values, re-constructed heroic stories, and an emphasis on defining and getting "in touch" with vital customers. The latter turn of reinvention is creative rather than destructive, for it provides a means for regenerating a basis of knowledge lost during downsizing. Hence, although downsizing may reduce human resources and fuel organizational decline, ultimately, the decline can lead to re-birth. INTRODUCTION Rapid and extensive downsizing has profoundly affected individuals' professional development in government and also organizations' abilities to adjust to internal and external change. Human resource development links both individual and organizational development (Pace, Smith, and Mills, 1991 ). It may also be viewed from the general systems theory (Senge, 1990) that improving individual behavior improves overall organizational capacity. Increasing individual capacity through formal skills building programs as well as informal, on-the-job developmental activities augment the resources organizations use to identify, define, and adapt to changing environmental conditions (Knowles, 1978). The converse is also true; decreasing either human or organizational resources results in an overall decline in a system's ability to adapt and to survive changes. Cutting personnel weakens organizational performance. In the last 15 years, losses of seasoned employees have led to some serious organization problems. Between 1985 and 2000, the federal government alone lost over 1,000,000 employees. This was 19 percent of the workforce, with some agencies losing between a third and a half of full time employees (Musell, 2001 ). Compounding the downsizing problem was personnel loss through retirements and privatization. Over third of the federal employees will be eligible to retire in 2005. In the next two years, federal agencies will send nearly 85,000 jobs out for bid; by Fiscal Year 2002, agencies will be able to convert ten percent of government posts to the private sector without competition (Peckenpaugh, 2001). The General Accounting Office (2000) has reported several instances in which federal agencies have not been able to meet critical mission requirements because of reduced staffing resources. As consequences, they are unable to adequately adapt to the increased performance expectations from the public as well as the Congress. * Agriculture: the Food Safety Service suffers from inconsistent oversight, poor coordination, and inefficient deployment of resources; * Commerce: there is lack of sufficient numbers of experienced staff with the right expertise, which limits the ability to monitor and enforce trade agreements; * Energy: there is an inability to oversee the cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste sites; * Health and Human Services: the Health Care Finance Administration lacks the ability to handle Medicare's future population growth and to manage medical technological advances; * The Immigration and Naturalization Service: do not have the ability to combat the growing problem of alien smuggling; * The USAID: there are chronic staff shortages which delay reconstruction in areas of natural disasters, such as in Central America and the Caribbean; * Veterans Affairs: a reduced capacity to process claims has resulted in more processing errors and backlogs. …