Understanding 'the Gray

By Author: emaly su
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Workload categorization in a public sector environment is often a difficult task. Organizations are dynamic, with ever-changing missions, strategic priorities, functional responsibilities, organizational structures, and political leaders.

The change dynamic is one that will ultimately affect how responsible federal managers allocate work across the multi-sector workforce.

As managers are continually asked to execute their responsibilities with fewer resources, they need to understand the flexibilities afforded them through the multi-sector workforce while ensuring that long-term mission performance is maintained or strengthened. Functions most closely aligned to mission performance and most ...
... responsible for decision making will require performance by government personnel. Those activities that are changing or are non-core to the mission, or have a lower level of authority, can be assigned to an alternative sector.

This decision is easy for roles such as an inherently governmental contracting officer or a clearly commercial in nature building maintenance service provider. However, as illustrated in Figure 3, most work performed in the federal arena will fall somewhere in between—in "the gray area."

Organizations also operate differently based on their need for speed of execution. Organizations that must respond quickly to new requirements may engage outside organizations to deliver immediate services. For example, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration needed to hire thousands of airport screeners in a short period of time.

Since that time, contractors have been replaced with federal employees. As a function matures, responsible federal managers have an opportunity to re-evaluate sourcing decisions and better align decisions to minimize risk. On a continuous basis, managers need to evaluate sourcing decisions based on changing environmental characteristics and mission needs.

In 2005, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) initiated a study that defined the multi-sector workforce as "a mixture of several distinct types of personnel working to carry out [a federal] agency's programs." The NAPA study also noted that this situation presents certain challenges.

The term "multi-sector workforce" recognizes "that federal, state, and local civil servants (whether full or part-time, temporary or permanent); uniformed personnel; and contractor personnel often work on different elements of program implementation, sometimes in the same workspace, but under substantially different governing laws; different systems for compensation, appointment, discipline and termination; and different ethical standards."

Effective operations in a multi-sector work environment require a high level of collaboration—often led by the responsible federal public manager. This collaboration hinges on a common understanding of the legitimate roles each sector plays in mission delivery and a shared vision for performance execution.

As Figure 4 illustrates, inherently governmental and core services must be performed by federal government employees. While work in the nearly inherently governmental and commercial categories may also be performed by government workers, other sectors can legitimately contribute to mission performance. The key for mission success is to instill an understanding across all sectors that each has an important role to play in performing the work.

The multi-sector workforce environment presents a new area for leadership development. Effective public management requires an ability to work across sectors and use the appropriate accountability levers to drive performance across functional areas.