Disorganization: Understanding the Organizational Pathologies of the United States Department of Homeland Security

Abstract

Since its inception in 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has faced scrutiny for its inefficient bureaucracy, its undesirable workplace environment, and its problematic budgeting allocations. Formed at a time of crisis, the department’s swift formation and opening immediately made it susceptible to mismanagement and deleterious budget expenses. Within the past century, a theory called “organization theory” has become increasingly popular to describe how organizations, companies, and groups of people choose to assemble, order, and operate themselves. Organization theory considers aspects such as organizational culture, group dynamics, leadership characteristics, and communication as key indicators of organization success and/or failure. Political scientists have continually applied organization theory to several facets of politics, including government agencies/departments and militaries. This study investigates whether or not the U.S. Department of Homeland Security demonstrates many of the same organizational pathologies that impact the abilities of professional military organizations and other bureaucratic entities from performing their duties in an efficient and effective manner. This study also examines how those pathologies are manifested through the department’s activities, such as a lack of communication resulting in duplicative spending for national security resources, 3 ineffective and unfounded Transportation passenger screening policies, and a hesitancy to shift investigative focus from foreign threats to domestic threats. This study concludes with recommendations regarding the future of the Department of Homeland Security and its operations, along with an analysis of what agencies and departments may be more impactful and successful placements for the various subunits of the DHS. While this study does not examine the dissolution of the subunits within the DHS themselves, it does examine the potential impacts of the scenario in which the DHS is dissolved, and its subunits are reassigned to other components of the federal government.