Managers in public organizations should always be prepared to conduct high-level briefings to senior level executives who are usually political appointments. Briefing work and the resulting products are vitally important in public management because senior executives are not necessarily familiar with every work project each division or section within an organization is developing. Sometimes, your team may be called upon to deliver a last-minute briefing to an organization’s senior leadership team because there is an urgent need for your program’s efforts to be briefed to members of Congress or even the President of the United States.
Since executive briefings are so important in public management, managers should implement protocols where they are briefed regularly by employees so they are kept informed of successes, challenges, risks, and problem areas within their division or section. That last thing that should happen is to find out about an issue just before briefing executive leadership. By staying ahead of emerging issues, risks, and challenges, public sector managers can avoid embarrassment to an organization. Public entities sometimes come into contact with media personnel who are unafraid to disclose to the public the problems that exist within your organization.
The media often get ahead of key policy, law, and program releases. The intelligence community is often faced with this problematic approach. Media broadcasting of a sensitive news story beforehand can sometimes lead to threats to national security. When this happens, intelligence community leadership can neither confirm nor deny the existence of certain threats to avoid telegraphing America’s secrets. Unfortunately, leaks are sometimes associated with the public sector, which explains the media’s first-hand knowledge of public releases before they occur. Other times, a news release can cause public panic. For example, broadcasting the 2015 cyberattack on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before the agency’s leadership could provide an official briefing caused hundreds of thousands of federal employees to panic over the potential hacking of personal information. These types of premature news releases can also cause further issues because public agencies like to come forward with information after formulating a risk mitigation strategy and a plan of dealing with the immediate threats.
Depending on the type of organization, different staff members will have opportunities to providing briefings. Managers should prepare their staff to conduct these types of briefings in their eventual absence. This is also an effective employee development approach. Executive briefings are important because they help prepare senior leadership to discuss key successes and address potential problems. Executive briefings should be honest and forthcoming. Not disclosing problem areas might lead to further delays in fixing the problems. Sometimes executives do not know of certain problems, which when made aware, they might be able to provide critical resources to help with mitigation and corrective actions.
For this assignment, you have been asked by appropriate federal authorities to create a new public agency. This agency could be a non-profit, new federal or state agency, or an agency at the local level. The agency should have direct contact with people and should provide key public resources. You are expected to appoint a team of five (5) professionals to help develop this agency.
Your assignment should include the name and type of organization, purpose of the agency, services provided, organization’s structure and culture, the different departments or divisions within the agency, and the types of policies that govern this agency, such as public law XXX. Be sure to include the following in your assignment:
Describe each member of your team and specify the role they play in creating the agency.
Explain the core mission and purpose of the organization within the public sector.
Determine any applicable management challenges and limitations.
Document the types of polices associated with this agency.
Specify the type of leadership within this organization.
The following should also be included:
Provide an executive summary briefing to introduce this assignment.
Indicate where this organization is located.
Identify the main consumers and stakeholders.
Interpret the theories associated with the management style(s) within this agency.
Properly use citations.
