An assessment of the department of the navy information technology progress towards research paper examples

I declare that the content of this paper is my own creation

Part 1: Introduction

Organizational context:
The US department of the Navy as an organization was established with the sole purpose of providing the US navy with government organizational structure. Initially this purpose only covered the United State Navy but was later extended to the US Marine Corps and the US Coast Guard. This organization is headed by the Secretary of the Navy who is among the top three executive officials in the department of defense. However, they are all under the direct authority of the Secretary of Defense. There are four undersecretaries who assist the secretary of the navy. In addition, there is also the commandant of the Marine Corps and the Naval Chief of Operation who are the highest ranked officers of the military within the department.
The composition of the department of the navy consists of the entire US Marine Corps and the US navy. The strategic plan of the organization is to ensure that current naval missions are accomplished with an effective unified force with the help of integrated technology. This strategic goal also aims at enabling the two forces within the department to be more deployable and agile. However, this can be achieved only by ensuring the right policies and personnel management systems are put in place for the effective delivery of the critical role of contributing to national security. Current advancement in information technology can be used to make progress towards achieving efficiency in the organization. Since the navy and the Marine Corps are directly involved in the national security of the nation, there is need to conduct performance assessment of the organization in order to enhance the essential services offered to the nation.

Purpose:

Making an organization efficient is a perfect way in which its operations can be effective and cost saving. Whenever an organization operates in ways that are efficient, the management and all the members will only be focused on finding ways of growing and improving their services. The department of the navy plays a very critical role towards national security. It is the government organizational structure overseeing the Marine Corps and the US Navy.
Information technology is one of the ways in which efficiency can be achieved in the organization. The main reason is that advancement in information technology has made it possible for up-to-date information to be easily dispensed and retrieved. Data can also be stored conveniently and with confidentiality. The machines used for the naval operations can be integrated with latest developments in information technology. Therefore, there are three main reasons why the assessment needs to be done in relation to the increasing efficiency. They include: increasing the speed of operations, getting up to date information fast, and relinquishing valuable time.
Results from the assessment will be presented as recommendations to the executive member of the department of the navy. This includes the secretary of the navy, the four assistant secretary and the military personnel heading the two uniformed forces that fall under the organization. After the presentation, it is expected that the recommendations be adopted by the department of the navy. This will help in making critical decision by the organization especially towards processing of complaints by the very many civilians. The complaints usually amount to a huge volume of data and sometimes slow down the process of resolution.
In addition to handling the complaints, there is also need for the organization to manage reporting of performances effectively by doing it on time and accurately. Unlike in other organizations, performance report in the department of the navy is submitted on annual basis. This gives an implication of inefficiency in the department. By incorporating information technology, it is possible to ensure that reporting of performance is done accurately and on quarterly basis. The operations of the department rely on finances which are allocated in the budget every year. This money has got to be accounted for effectively and this can be achieved by improving the systems used in processing and handling data.
If the assessment is not conducted, the department of the navy will still not be able to track and process the many complaints received by the civilian workforce. Consequently it will continue to waste a lot of time in trying to process and handle data.

Scope of the evaluation:

The assessment will be conducted in all the sections and subsections in the department. It will be conducted to determine how inefficient the current systems of information technology used by the department of the navy are, and as a result the amount of time and energy that could be saved by improving on the operations of the department. As stated earlier, the main strategic goal of the department at this time and moment is to ensure the effectiveness of both the US Navy and the Marine Corps in charging out their duty towards national security. In addition to this, financial assessment and reporting of the organization is also an important element in line with the strategic goal mentioned.
According to the balance scorecard for conducting organizational assessments, the assessment will identify small measure, both financial and non financial and place a target on them. The main reason behind this is that, whenever the performance of the organizations deviates from the expected results, the identified measure can be the main center of focus that would bring things back to normalcy. Therefore the elements of the balance scorecard that will serve the purpose of the assessment include: financial measures, internal operation process, learning and growth, and the civilians.
In financial measures, the main shareholders involved are the federal government and the American public responsible for paying taxes. The goal associated with this element is to determine whether the finances allocated to the department are used properly and can be accounted for accurately. With the internal operation or business process, the aim is to ensure that the department excels in measures such handling of information and resolving the volume of civilian dispute witnessed on daily basis. The third element of the balance scorecard is learning and growth. This element is supposed to help the assessment determine if the department of the navy can continue to be of great value to the people it serves. And lastly, the civilians, who are the people directly receiving services of the US Navy and the Marine Corps, will help the assessment determine the perspective they have about the department of the navy.

Part 2: Data Collection

Key measures:
The key measure that will serve as indicators of the organizational performance and the purpose of the assessment include: questionnaires and rating forms, the amounts of disputes resolved within a specific period, financial reporting, and the level of acceptance for change into new technological system.
The first measure involves a survey tool and a rating form. The variable measured by this indicator in the balance scorecard is the civilian or the public perception of the department of the navy. The civilians launch complaints on daily basis and this creates a bulk of data that needs to be processed by the organization in response to the complaints. As a result the organization spends a lot of time process each of the complaints before making a response. The civilian therefore have to participate in rating the feedback in which they receive from the organization. The survey tools will also be a means to collect data that will be used to measure the other indicators. Calculation and analysis of the numerical data collected will require statistical method of analysis that involves computation of the frequency, regressions, standard deviation and other measure of central tendencies and distribution.
The process of data collection for the each of the indicators will also involve observations by the evaluation team and getting information from the available database of the organization. For the second indicator, the main aim of the assessment will be to determine how effective the handling of the complaints is, the amount of time the organization uses in providing feedback to the civilians, and the volume of disputes resolved on daily basis. Data collection for this indicator will involve reviewing the database of the organization. The indicator is linked to the variable of operation process in the balance scorecard.
The other indicator is the level of acceptance for change into a new system of technology. Here the review is about ensuring that the workforce in the department of the navy is ready to adjust and embrace any new recommendations made to change their systems. The indicator relates with the variable of learning and growth. It will help measure whether the organization can continue to be of value to the people whom it serves. Data collection for this indicator will mainly include the use of questionnaires to determine the level of satisfaction that the workforce in the organization has with the system of technology used. Computations and analysis will include both numerical and descriptive methods of data analysis.

Development of Measurement Instruments:

The objectives of the organization need to be determined first before coming up with the tools of measurement. All the appropriate measures for conducting the evaluation have also got to be established. The instrument will be outlined in to include all the variables in the balance scorecard that are relevant to the organization goals and objectives. The questionnaires that will be developed to collect data relevant in measuring some of the variables will each have twenty items. Each of the items will be seeking to provide specific information with regard to the variable being measured.
In addition to the questionnaires, the rating forms will also include twenty items that specifically help to identify the performance of the organization with respect to each of the indicators. Both open ended and closed ended questions will be included. Open ended questions will be seeking opinions of the respondents while the closed, which will constitute the rating forms, will be seeking direct responses from the respondents.

Sampling Strategy:

Selecting the sample population for the civilians and members of the workforce in the organization will be done either through stratified random sampling or simply random sampling. In this way, the inferences made from the assessment would be all inclusive or it will be a reflection of the entire population of civilians. Through random sampling possibilities for biasness is eliminated and each of the members of the population has equal chance of being selected. It would be inappropriate for the selected sample to be biased since this will increase chances of making errors during the process of data analysis. The sample population size for the entire assessment will be 2000 individuals. This is already a huge number that is expected to reduce possibilities of errors in analysis, and ensure that the data collected is virtually accurate.

Part 3: Analysis and reporting

Performance management:
The results obtained aiming at measuring the state of financial accounting and reporting will be expected to measure up to the standards of current financial management. It will determine if the systems used in the organization are effective in managing the finances and providing timely feedback through financial reporting. It will also help determine the perception of the stakeholders towards the management of the organization. This will include both the public and the federal government. The results obtained that will be aimed at measuring the perception of the civilians towards the organization will be used to determine how effective the organization is in handling complaints raised by the civilians. There is need to improve efficiency in the department of the navy and one of the expected ways to do this, is adoption of improved and advanced information technology systems. Results obtained from measuring the learning and growth variable will help to organization in meeting its goal of continuing to create value towards accomplishment of national security. The organization therefore will be expected to cooperate with the process of assessment in order for the expected results to be achieved.

Reporting:

The project intends to make recommendations specifically aimed at each the stakeholders. The recommendations made will cause decisions to be made that are geared towards improving the organizational operations. The biggest consideration when reporting will be the audience. The audience expected will include the general staff of the department of the navy, the management, government representatives and the civilians. For the sake of the decision makers, the report will be made in brief with only an executive summary presented to them. For the sake of the specialist staff, the reporting will be detailed enough since this group will be interested with the details of the assessment.
The content in the executive summary will include the background information as a brief introduction, summary of the findings conveyed in a clear understandable language, and a list of the recommendations leading from the assessment.
The full report will contain more than just the executive summary. It will include detailed background information stating the reasons why the assessment was necessary. It will also try and link the strategic goals of the organization with the purpose of the survey. Other contents will include the evaluation design and methodology, selection strategy for the population sample, methods of data collection, method of analysis of the data collected, the results or findings of the survey, and recommendations and conclusion.

Appendix

Organizational boilerplate
An Assessment of the Department of the Navy, Information Technology progress towards achieving efficiencies, using a Balance Scorecard Approach
Department of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, DC 20350-1000
www. donaa. navy. mil

Contact SECNAV or DON/AA
(703) 692-6094

Thursday December 1st 2011
The US department of the Navy as an organization was established with the sole purpose of providing the US navy with government organizational structure. The strategic plan of the organization is to ensure that current naval missions are accomplished with an effective unified force with the help of integration of technology. This strategic goal also aims at enabling the two forces within the department to be more deployable and agile. However this can be achieved only by ensuring the right policies and personnel management systems are put in place for the effective delivery of the critical national service. Current advancement in information technology can be used to make progress towards achieving efficiency in the organization
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