| Title | NASA: Balancing a Multisector Workforce to Achieve a Healthy Organization |
| ShortDescription | The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is experiencing a fundamental mission shift that greatly increases its scope. In order to respond to this mission change while remaining within its workforce and budgetary constraints, NASA has realized that it must develop a flexible, scalable workforce. To assist NASA in this significant mission expansion and workforce organization change, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) was charged with conducting an independent review of the workforce issues associated with a transformation of this magnitude. Three specific issues addressed were what is a healthy center, and how should NASA measure it, how should NASA decide whether to obtain services from a contractor or a civil service employee, and if NASA decides to hire a civil servant, how should it decide what kind of appointment to use? The report contains NAPA's findings and recommendations. |
| LongDescription | The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is experiencing a fundamental mission shift by expanding its goals to include reaching not only the moon, but also Mars and beyond. This variation in vision, along with other agency adjustments, requires significant workforce and programmatic changes. Because NASA's organizational structure and workforce are products of its previous mission, the agency is experiencing the inevitable tension between the need for change and preservation of its workforce. NASA is constrained by its budget, civil service rules, and a congressional ban on reduction-in-force. In order to respond to the changing mission objectives, program redirection, and budget imperatives, NASA recognized that it must develop a flexible, scalable workforce. To assist NASA in responding to these challenges, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) was charged with conducting an independent review of workforce issues associated with a transformation of this magnitude. This included the challenge of acquiring the right balance within NASA's large multi-sector workforce by developing a framework and metrics to help the agency assess and maintain organizational health, and defining policies, procedures, tools, and effective practices to help NASA make key management decisions. Three critical questions include how should NASA decide whether to obtain the services/deliverables of a contractor or hire a civil service employee, if NASA decides to hire a civil servant, what kind of appointment should be used (tenured permanent or multi-year term), and what is a healthy center and how should NASA measure it? The report, published in February 2007, presents the results of this review. The report defines what NASA should do to achieve a flexible, scalable workforce, identifies the major driver behind NASA's current workforce planning and management, identifies what NASA needs to do to ensure its institutional health, provides tools to assist NASA in making key management decisions, outlines the framework developed to measure NASA center health, describes how NASA must use all of its available workforce flexibilities to meet its goals, identifies new authorities for NASA and Congress to consider in workforce strategy and management, and advises NASA to adopt a more knowledge-based management decision model. A supplementary report was also published, covering the significant amount of background research and analysis not included in the report itself. |
| SourceAuthor | Laurie May, Project Director |
| Reference | |
| Organization | National Academy of Public Administration |
| ContactAddress | Washington, DC |
| ContactEmail | lmay@napawash.org |
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| Website |
http://www.napawash.org/NASA_Report_2-26-07.pdf
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| Other | http://www.napawash.org/FINAL_Supplemental_Volume2_2-22-07.pdf |
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