The City of Los Angeles departments of Public Works has since its beginning taken pride of bonded constructions and operations of all the construction deals in Los Angeles. Being the city that Los Angeles is, it has always been celebrated for its organization, all of which can be traced back to its leadership structure. The Department of Public works Los Angeles chapter has bee ‘][=n applauded for some of the best maintenances that the city has ever seen. It has a lot of departments which take responsibility of all the operational successes that an organization can have. The Los Angeles County department of public works has continuously applied different organizational theory that has led to it success story. The focus of this analysis is to link the different organizational and business theories to the success of LA department of public works. This study begins by an analysis of the history of the organization and its development. After the analysis, the study focuses on linking the theories with each of their leadership structure and all the departments. Before an in depth analysis that link organization theories to the Department of public works, the study focuses on the management practices that the organization consider the most important. The paper does so by mentioning the mechanisms of coordination that and control that the organization usually applies. At some point, the paper has to focus on the Department of traffic. It is the Department of traffic that has a lot of major function which informs most of the analysis that the paper will look into.
History and Background of the organization
The LACDPW, The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works is an organization that was formed in the year 1985. The Department was first formed to consolidate the county road department. It worked as a flood control district in charge of dams, spreading grounds and channels. During the same year the county engineer was in charge of building safety, land survey and water works. The two departments were merged and twenty five years later they are both housed under the Department of public works. They are housed under a ten story Beaux arts style historic Higgins building. When it was an engineering department the organization was supposed to oversee the constructions of buildings along the modern quarters. After the organization did a good job, they were awarded full chapter to oversee not only construction but also the traffic, sewer lines and other public constructions issues within the entire city. In the recent years the major departments of the organization have since been split to different housings and institutions. Since its interceptions the organization has had six directors with different departments headed by the heads of divisions. The present director who took over in the year 2016 is Mark Pestrella. The organization has more than thirty major divisions. The divisions operate in six core services to the city. The six core services are transportation, water resource services, environmental services, public building, development services and emergency management services.
In terms of finances the company operates on the annual budget of about $2.7 billion. The operating revenue is funded by the tax collected from the LA city. It also gets funds from construction projects. For instance in the recent program, the Department manages about 232 projects, this active capital projects are managed and approximated to have a total construction value of about 847 million dollars. In terms of employment, the Department offers 5500 people employment. The 5500 employees work within more than 500 job classifications. The 500 job classifications operate within professional, technical, clerical and skilled crafts.
In terms of leadership structure, the Department is governed by a board of public works. The board is made up of five members with full time executive commitment to serve the city. Apart from the board there is a director in charge of the daily operations of the Department. The director’s heads a panel of department heads that are in charge of every division within the organization. Each division is headed by a department head where each employee falls under. The mentioned structure describes the leadership arrangement of the LA department of public works.
Illustrative management practices of the LA department of public works
The LA department of public works provides the best kind of management structure that could be preferred by any work force. The management practice is mostly based on democratic leadership style. The management practices take administrative services in planning business plans that support the work force development of the organization and small business communities that might arise within the Department. The key business management strategy used by the Department is reinvesting initiatives of all its members. The development of the strategists is achieved through recruitment, on boarding, training and succession planning for all its members. Additionally, the candidates attracted to the management have to be recruited in a manner to ensure that they are the best in the region. The Department provides for the best career paths for its members which increases employee retention and engagement.
Another management strategy that the organization successfully takes pride in is pooled revenue. Pooled revenue is a strategy where each Department is financially awarded revenues to help exploring short term department’s program and projects. The Department of finance approves structures and short term financing option for the entire project within all the divisions of the Department. Each division then receives the required allocated revenue for the short term projects and programs that they would like to accomplish. The management strategy mentioned above has seen each of the division participate exceptionally well in providing excellent services in the six core service areas.
Finally in terms of workers motivation, the LA department of Public Works is responsible for motivating their talents. The Department provide in staff regular training. The Department also provides monetary incentives annually for best performed activities in various departments. Incentives like employees of the year, innovation of the year and general workforce of the year have always ensured that employees are motivated. The Department takes pride in leadership planning and always leading in developing in house expertise.
Classical organization theory used by the LA department of public works
The classical school of organization theory dominated administration in the early 1900s but still used in many organizations till today. The theory expresses interest in the organization and no interest at all in the human resource. Within the classical organization theory there are other schools of thoughts. These other theories include scientific management theory, bureaucratic approach and administrative management theory. One of the classical theories used by the organization is administrative management approach. Administrative management approach places belief in division of labor. The LA department of public works contains more than one division of operations meaning they follow the administrative organizational classical theory of management. The Department each of them has been allocated a duty to take care of which is what administrative approach theory of leadership entails. The advantage of using this approach to the system is that it improves efficiency by reducing time wasted and increasing productivity. Another classical theory exploited by the organization is bureaucracy. Bureaucracy approach is where important decisions come from the highest office in the organization forming a pyramid like formation of information flow. The LA department of public works has the same structure where important decision come from the board and flow down all the way to the employees. The structure begins from the board to the CEO also known as the director, and then goes to the employees of the company. The Department exploits two classical theories of management.
Neo classical organization theory
Neo classical organization theory is an extended theory of classical theory. It is an extended theory of classical that within it recognizes the role of human resource. The theory recognizes that there are a lot of human contributions to an organization. The Neo Classical theory asserts that an individual can be diversely motivated to fulfill their needs and in turn they will contribute a lot to the organization. The LA department of public works recognizes the importance of neo classical theory and applies it to their management system. The administrative system applies behavioral approach and motivation when dealing with their employees. The employees are provided with training, vacations and monetary bonuses which help the employees satisfy their needs. After employee satisfaction, it is obvious that the employees perform exceptionally well for their company. Another way in which neo classical theory is employed to the organization is through the strengthening of communication and innovation channels. Any employees within the organization regardless of their position have been given the opportunity to become innovative within their departments. A financial pool is even set aside to support their ambitions for the innovation of any of the identified departments.
System theory
This theory is one of the dominant organizational theories in management today in a lot of organizations. An open system theory is one affected by external environmental factors. On other hand a closed system organization is one that is not affected by external environmental factors. The Department of public works LA chapter is an open system organization affected by environmental factors. Just like an organism affected by its environment, so does the organization. One environmental factor that affects the LA department of public work is the immediate community and politics. An example of a controversy that proves the system is affected by the environment is when the Department issued a demolition notice in 1988 which was abandoned after the mayor council woman of Los Angeles ordered the demolitions not to continue. The then council woman Edelman gathered a few crowds and blamed the Department for acting against the law and humanity. The mentioned example is just one that proves politics as an external factor that affects the operations of the system. Other external factors affecting operation of the organization include revenue availability, limited talent willing to work for the county department and state laws that regulate the city. Based on the factors mentioned above, the LA department of public works remains an organization affected by external factors. Focusing on the issues mentioned above; the organization is an open system.
How the organization achieves excellence
The organization achieves excellence through measuring the strategic plan, advances and goals in priority areas of the Department while incorporating adopted actions throughout the core service area operations. Successful implementations are measured through the management tool known as quad sheets. These quad sheets are entailed to measure vital outcomes that the customers care about especially on the programs. The organization takes pride in always receiving positive quad sheets from its customers. However, achievement of excellence from the Department of public works is limited by the intrusion of other departments. Example a failure from the LA department of public health will affect the public works department. Communicating progress as in independent Department then becomes a challenge.
In conclusion, as expressed in the above business paper, the LA department of public works is responsible for applying different organizational theories that have been linked to their excellence and success stories. The theories range from communication classical theories to modern theories like the system theories. This paper has emphasized all the important organization issues as discussed in the executive summary.