Organization Overview The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) was established in 1991 by the Secretary of Defense to standardize accounting and financial operations and reduce costs associated with these services (“Agency Overview,” n.d.). DFAS is the official finance and accounting arm of the Department of Defense, therefore, it is a federal government agency. Located around the globe, DFAS has over 12,000 employees. The majority of employees work at one of the five primary sites located in Indianapolis, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Rome, New York; or Limestone, Maine. Additionally, there are satellite offices in Texarkana, Europe, and Japan as well as pay offices located at 38 military bases across the United States.
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There is a strong focus on constancy and control (Bateman & Snell, 2014) . “It values stability and assumes that individuals will comply with organizational mandates when roles are stated formally and enforced through rules and procedures (Bateman & Snell, 2014, p. 76).” As DFAS is an entity of the Department of the Defense, there is a strong military culture and much focus is put on respecting rank and position. In the civilian world, this also involves respect for an employees grade, and position within the organization, with those in the Senior Executive Service receiving the highest levels of respect. Many of the leaders within the management chain are former military and as such, are more used to using the directive style of management. The employees are likely to follow orders, and questioning them is not always well-received, even if the intentions are above-aboard.
The organizational chart identifies that DFAS uses a vertical organizational structure that is centralized. “Centralization refers to the degree to which decision-making authority resides at the top of the organizational chart as opposted to being distributed throughout lower levels (Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B., Wright, 2015, p. …show more content…
The first strength is that the agency can provide finance and accounting services to the customer for less money than what they can typically do it for themselves. This makes the agency viable. An additional strength of DFAS, is the professional workforce. The agency specializes in finance and accounting services, therefore, the majority of DFAS employees have either some college, a degree, or a certification.
DFAS has some weaknesses. The first weakness is in bringing millennial into the organization. DFAS has an agency only employs about 6% overall of people under the age of 30, this presents a diversity and succession planning gap. Another area of weakness is in bringing about change, as much of the workforce has been employed in his or her job for many years, and are reluctant to make any changes.
DFAS has several opportunities; the biggest one is innovation. Through the lean six sigma program, the agency has brought about some innovative changes, but there is still a lot of work to do. As budgets continue to be squeezed, they will be forced to look at even more ways to save money for the agency, the customers, and the taxpayers. A second opportunity facing DFAS is the brain drain. As the majority of the workforce retires, there is an opportunity to recruit new talent into the agency, and with new talent often comes new procedures, new ideas, and new
There is a strong focus on constancy and control (Bateman & Snell, 2014) . “It values stability and assumes that individuals will comply with organizational mandates when roles are stated formally and enforced through rules and procedures (Bateman & Snell, 2014, p. 76).” As DFAS is an entity of the Department of the Defense, there is a strong military culture and much focus is put on respecting rank and position. In the civilian world, this also involves respect for an employees grade, and position within the organization, with those in the Senior Executive Service receiving the highest levels of respect. Many of the leaders within the management chain are former military and as such, are more used to using the directive style of management. The employees are likely to follow orders, and questioning them is not always well-received, even if the intentions are above-aboard.
The organizational chart identifies that DFAS uses a vertical organizational structure that is centralized. “Centralization refers to the degree to which decision-making authority resides at the top of the organizational chart as opposted to being distributed throughout lower levels (Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B., Wright, 2015, p. …show more content…
The first strength is that the agency can provide finance and accounting services to the customer for less money than what they can typically do it for themselves. This makes the agency viable. An additional strength of DFAS, is the professional workforce. The agency specializes in finance and accounting services, therefore, the majority of DFAS employees have either some college, a degree, or a certification.
DFAS has some weaknesses. The first weakness is in bringing millennial into the organization. DFAS has an agency only employs about 6% overall of people under the age of 30, this presents a diversity and succession planning gap. Another area of weakness is in bringing about change, as much of the workforce has been employed in his or her job for many years, and are reluctant to make any changes.
DFAS has several opportunities; the biggest one is innovation. Through the lean six sigma program, the agency has brought about some innovative changes, but there is still a lot of work to do. As budgets continue to be squeezed, they will be forced to look at even more ways to save money for the agency, the customers, and the taxpayers. A second opportunity facing DFAS is the brain drain. As the majority of the workforce retires, there is an opportunity to recruit new talent into the agency, and with new talent often comes new procedures, new ideas, and new