Securing the Intangible: The Continuing Need to Improve Morale at DHS

Abstract

This essay briefly examines the problems of staff morale at the Department of Homeland Security and what has been, and needs to be done to correct it. As this piece was written for the 2008 Center for Homeland Defense and Security Essay Competition, which limited entries to five single-spaced pages, the examination does not include in-depth analysis of public management principles, but instead attempts to shed new light on the results of the Partnership for Public Service's "Best Places to Work in Government" survey, looking at DHS in two ways: 1) as a unique federal department in its focus on "proving a negative," i.e. its mission to prevent terrorist attacks, yet at the same time 2) as an organization not insulated from its sister departments, but instead has crucial interrelationships with the national security operations of other agencies. Both of those characteristics of the nature of DHS should be taken into account in the comprehensive strategy needed to improve workforce morale and efficiency.

Keywords: Homeland Security, DHS, national security, intelligence community, workforce morale, reorganization, human resources