Week 11 Assignment 6

Evaluation of Agency’s Ethics, Cooperation, Leadership and Legal Decisions

Lauren Riley

Dr. Angela Smith

Public Administration Capstone

February 13, 2020

Veterans Affairs

The US Veterans Affairs is a federal cabinet-level agency that is charged with the responsibility of providing near-comprehensive healthcare services to qualified military veterans at outpatient clinics and VA medical centers across the country (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). The VA also provides various non-healthcare benefits such as vocational rehabilitation, disability compensation, home loans, life insurance, educational assistance, memorial and burial benefits to the eligible veterans and the members of their families. It operates a national healthcare system that comprise of more than 1,700 hospitals, clinics, community living centers and readjustment counseling facilities (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). This paper is going to perform a review of the VA’s ethics, leadership, cooperation and the legal decisions.

Current Events

In the process of reviewing administrative responsibility and ethical implications, the current events related to the Center for Public Integrity helps understand the need for accountability and administrative responsibility. In July 2017 a report was provides regarding how special interests affect political environments in the US. The report took the path of an investigative approach to understand how interests relate with political objectives.

In another case, a report by the Center for Public Integrity on November 2017, described the ruling of a judge against a cyber security lawsuit. An organization was seeking access to taxpayer funded studies on the vulnerabilities of cyber security in Federal Election Commission. The ruling of the court was unwelcomed since the agency had initially filed a lawsuit against FEC to be granted access to security studies that had been commissioned with regard to the infiltration of Chinese hackers to their computer systems. Based on the news events, it was clear that the Center for Public Integrity played a key role in improving accountability and ethical compliance in administrative activities.

Leadership Influences

The Department of Veterans Affairs is headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, appointed by the President based on the advice and consent of the Senate (Lamoreaux, 2006). In light of political contexts and leadership models, it is evident that internal leaders such as the director and senior executives have a significant influence over the process of decision making at the VA. The activities of the agency are undertaken in a more decentralized manner. The VA has a corporate culture where senior management includes the low-level employees and managers in the decision-making process and problem solving (Lamoreaux, 2006). The political leaders and the internal agency leaders have a significant influence over the failure or success of the agency in various ways. Leaders tend to share their experience and knowledge with the employees for decision making purposes. Through this, the senior leaders create a positive environment for effective decision making. It is also a good move for the managers and leaders considering the fact that VA is meant to motivate, inspire and give hope to the service men and their families.

Another way the internal leaders of VA influences decision making is through open interaction and communications with the rest of the stakeholders of the organization. When there is open communication within an organization, it becomes easier to interact and build trust with the staff. This helps improve synergy. The political leaders of the VA will need this synergy to develop decisions and actions that are acceptable by a large percentage of the stakeholders. The internal leadership of VA also influences decision making by developing a framework of decision making that aligns with the current issues facing the department (Lamoreaux, 2006). The internal leadership ensures that they assert a decision-making framework that meets the changing needs of the veterans. Such measures ensure that VA is run effectively and remains successful in the long run.

Legal Decisions

VA has the authority to enforce regulations as mandated within its responsibilities. When laws and regulations have been passed by the Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs is granted the legal mandate by the state laws and federal guidelines to ensure that health care centers and facilities associated comply with the set regulations. It can therefore be deduced that the VA possess both federal and state legal mandates to enforce regulations set within its primary objectives. It has the VA police, which are a specialized federal law enforcement agency and officers with full police powers mandated by the statutory authority to enforce all federal laws, and VA rules and regulations (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). They also have the power to make arrests on VA controlled property. The VA Police are considered as armed, federal law enforcement and protective service entity that functions in and around different Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, National Cemeteries and other VA facilities in the US (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019).

However, the department faces various challenges in its enforcement responsibility. Poor governance and corporate plays a significant role in the challenges. Additionally, there is low quality information for risk assessment as well as the complexities within the interstate regulations.

Strategies for Consideration to Administrative Processes

One of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ future plans to improve the agency’s operations and its main recipients is through the expansion of leadership and management oversight, fostering knowledge management, and enhancing performance evaluation and accountability. This would help deal with issues emanating from poor risk management, review performance outcomes and improve compliance to the federal regulations and the ethical standards (Svada, 2014). The measures will significantly impact the internal leadership of the department and management structure. The recipients will have the responsibility of improving the effectiveness of communication and evaluation patterns.

Knowledge management can also be used to effectively capture the kind of knowledge required by the department’s stakeholder participation. The Department of VA intends to manage its information and communication methods to ensure that stakeholders get access and regular updates to information. The Department of VA also intends to improve the concept of performance evaluation and accountability (Boyko et al., 2012). Through this, the department intends to improve its integrity and excellence levels for effective and fair delivery of mandate to the veterans. They will tighten their adherence to the set standards by ensuring that they do not slide off the path to achieving its mission.

Recommendations for Improvements to Administrative Processes

Based on the models that influence public policy, I would recommend regular campaigns on primary care policies and the development of advocacy capacity for the stakeholders. Holding regular campaigns on primary care would ensure that the veterans are well informed about the aspect of primary care programs and policies that the departments advocate for. Creating an advocacy capacity for the stakeholders will also ensure that they get the information they require and have the right of expressing themselves freely regarding any issue with the services provided to them by the department. Through these two strategies, the Department of VA will create awareness on some of the significant policies they advocate for and welcome public or stakeholder opinion (Byrne et al., 2010).

Looking at the three strategies aforementioned, the first one was aimed at expanding the leadership and management oversight to include the lower level employees. The success of the department and the delivery of its services should be responsibility of every employee. This means that they will be accountable and show commitment to achieving the common goal. Knowledge management can be improved by conducting employee training and development programs that further enhances career development. Finally, the Department of VA can improve accountability and performance evaluation by setting new ethical standards to guide its activities.

Appendix: Interview Form

Administrative Responsibility and Leadership Ethics Form

Contact Details

Interviewee Name: Moffat Haroun

Address: New York, BM 29424

Email: moffatharoun18gmail.com

Interview Questions (Pick Yes or No)

1. Do you think understand the administrative functions of the Department of Veterans Affairs?

Yes

No

2. Within the past five years, have you come across a news event talking about administrative responsibility and ethics?

Yes

No

3. Do you think the Department of Veterans Affairs should develop more strategies to improve their administrative activities? Are they better positioned to offer quality services to the veterans?

Yes

No

References

Boyko, E. J., Koepsell, T. D., Gaziano, J. M., Horner, R. D., & Feussner, J. R. (2012). US Department of Veterans Affairs medical care system as a resource to epidemiologists. American journal of epidemiology, 151(3), 307-314.

Byrne, C. M., Mercincavage, L. M., Pan, E. C., Vincent, A. G., Johnston, D. S., & Middleton, B. (2010). The value from investments in health information technology at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Health Affairs, 29(4), 629-638.

Lamoreaux, J. (2006). The organizational structure for medical information management in the Department of Veterans Affairs: an overview of major health care databases. Medical Care, 34(3), 31-44.

Riley, Lauren. (2019). Evaluation of Agency’s Ethics, Cooperation, Leadership and Legal Decisions. Unpublished manuscript, Strayer University.

Svara, J. H. (2014). The ethics primer for public administrators in government and nonprofit organizations. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (2019) Retrieved from https://www.va.gov/