Root Causes and Impacts of Issues Facing Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC)

OL500 – Milestone 4
Student’s Name
Institution
Introduction of the Organization
Addressing the root causes of the issues in an organization goes a long way in changing its performance. I work for the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) and in this paper, I examine the issues facing the organization. The organization has several facilities across the state. Its structure is basically hierarchical with the governor at the top and board of corrections, commissioner, and chief of staff below him in that order. The chief of staff oversees four divisions namely administrative and finance, facilities, health services, and inmate services.
Organizational Issues
The key challenges facing GDC include low employee morale, high turnover, and high costs. These issues impact the ability of the employees to be productive. Employee morale at the organization is low and if not addressed, the ability of GDC to live up to its mission of ensuring safe and secure facilities is going to be negatively impacted. The high turnover is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the organization. The organization has been losing employees at a high rate. As a result, it spends a significantly high amount of resources in recruiting and training new personnel. Failure to address the high turnover rates can increase further the expenditures of the organization. The organization faces high costs particularly due to the recruitment and training costs as well as the inmate healthcare costs. Addressing these challenges will help the organization perform better.
A study by Matz, Wells, Minor, and Angel (2013) reports on the strategies that address high turnover and low morale among employees in correction facilities. According to the authors, a correctional organization should find ways to promote organizational commitment and job satisfaction among employees. Specifically, improving staff perception of communication, supervision, and colleagues is associated with improved organizational commitment and job satisfaction. As informed by Newstrom (2019), effective communication in an organization helps in improving job satisfaction and performance. Therefore, a focus on the affairs of employees has helped organizations similar to GDC address low morale, high turnover, and high organizational costs.
Root Causes
Limited opportunities for growth play a role in the high turnover and low morale at my workplace. There is no clear clarity about growth opportunities and I think this causes some employees to look for other jobs. McClelland’s need achievement theory posits that personal achievement rather than rewards drives the success of some people (Badubi, 2017). In this sense, as a result of minimal growth opportunities, personal achievement is limited, driving some employees to seek employment elsewhere.
There is also little participation in decision-making and I believe it is a factor contributing the high turnover and low morale among employees. There are limited opportunities for members of the organization to voice their opinions regarding important issues that affect them. According to Appelbaum, et al. (2013), limited involvement of employees in decision making reduces their commitme...