>>> Home Page
>>> Go to Navigation/Site Map
>>> Go to Most Recent Posts

The Price Of Governement-Consolidation Submitted by Raymond Norton on November 18, 2009 - 6:17am.

Consolidation
Smart Mergers

Many bureaucratic agencies, have been forced to merge in an effort to reduce costs, centralize management, and eliminate duplicate services. In theory we would expect all of the above to be accomplished with a merger, but in reality the results, and unintended consequences can be far from what was intended, if the merger is not carried out properly.

More than any time in the past, agencies, departments, and organizations are merging. Some by necessity, others by strategic alliance. The school of thought is that by merging, services, and processes will become more efficient and streamlined, resulting in reduced costs. When it comes to government agencies, the results of a merger can be far from the desired results.

• The combining of agencies can lead to temporary, or permanent drop in productivity, as staff and employees focus on the merger, rather than their defined responsibilities.
• Combined different agencies with different focuses can cause the mission to become muddled, lacking clear direction, and timely decision making.
• Directives become delayed as they make their way through layers of bureaucracies.

These, and other factors can effectively neutralize any perceived benefit well-meaning decision makers may have thought could be achieved by a merger.

We need to think differently about consolidating. The first step is for leaders to determine the results they want to achieve, which should be the outcomes citizens value most.

• BFO
• Budgets
• outcome based budgeting budgeting BFO taxes governement

• Raymond Norton's blog
• Login or register to post comments
• 
• Printer friendly version
• Sign up for our Email Editions