Analyze the DHS’s overall structure in terms of formalization, centralization, and complexity. (What type of departmentalization exists? Is the DHS more organic or mechanistic?)

Every organization displays a specific type of organizational structure. For example, if you are a criminal justice major, your classes are housed in the CJ department and the College of Professional Studies. But have you ever asked why? Or is it something you just take for granted?

In this course we have built a case that structure follows strategy. Following 9/11 the U.S. reorganized many of its agencies and created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Your assignment requires you to submit a position paper that analyzes the Department of Homeland Security’s overall structure.

Instructions:

Find the DHS mission statement.

Analyze how well the DHS’s structure fits with its strategy/mission.

Find information about the DHS that would indicate how it addresses the six elements of structure:
work specialization (having each discrete step of a job done by a different individual rather than one individual do the whole job);
unity of command (management principle that no employee should report to more than one boss);
span of control (the number of employees a manager can effectively and efficiently manage);
authority (rights inherent in a managerial position to give orders and expect them to be followed) and responsibility (an obligation to perform assigned activities);
centralization (the higher the level in which decisions are made) versus decentralization (pushing down of decision-making authority to lower levels in an organization); and
departmentalization (the grouping of activities in an organization by function, product, customer, geography, or process).

Analyze the DHS’s overall structure in terms of formalization, centralization, and complexity. (What type of departmentalization exists? Is the DHS more organic or mechanistic?)

Analyze the DHS size, technology, and environment. (Assess its size, degree of technological routineness, and environmental uncertainty.)

Based on these assessments, what structure would you predict the DHS to have? Does it have this structure now?

Submit a thorough Position Paper using the Position Paper Requirements by the date listed in the syllabus.