Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

• Is it an old system inherited from the previous times?
• Is the number of subdivisions necessary only to improve the position/ salaries of certain
managers?
• Is there any other reason to have several subdivisions providing similar services or dealing
with the same issue?
One subdivision may provide several services, both for internal and external customers. The
auditor should examine why the subdivision has a certain set of duties and provides given
services:
• Are these duties and services interrelated?
• Were these duties and services just added to the subdivision, only because it was unclear
who should do it, or someone had refused to do them?
• Is this subdivision responsible for certain services and duties only because somebody
formally has to be responsible for tem, but nobody expects any real performance and
output?
In most cases the auditors will find that the local administration has more than one level of
administrative subdivisions (i.e. department – section – group). The auditors may use the same
forms and techniques, which were described above, to examine:
• What is the principle for defining the levels of administrative subdivisions;
• What is the mission for any higher level entity rather than providing an office and
honourable position for the boss;
• How are the functions and responsibility of the higher and lower levels defined.
To understand the principle of defining the administrative levels, the auditor might use additional
questions (see in the section “Subordination”).
After all the interviews the auditor should be able to evaluate each subdivision according to the
issues raised in this section.
Missions and objectives
The information about the mission and objectives may be collected during the interviews with the
employees and heads of subdivisions.
During the interview, it is worth to ask a direct question - “What is the mission of your subdivision?”
If the question seems confusing for the interviewee, it should be reformulated (Why is it needed,
and to whom?). It is necessary in cases when the concept of mission is not very clear for the
interviewee, or the interviewee is not sure if the mission is the same as policy, objectives or duties.
If looking at the replies skin-deep, the auditor may record that the subdivision has no mission or
that the mission is unknown for the employees. The management audit, however, aims not at
examining if the theoretical concept of mission is clear for the employees, but how missions are
defined and if the missions themselves are clear. Therefore the question about the mission should
be asked more broadly, i.e. who internal and external clients are, and which results of the activities
of the subdivision are the most important? Are the results, which the subdivision strives to achieve,
clear? How do they identify them?
It is not possible to expect that the organisation will provide quality services, if personnel do not
know where the organisation is heading and what the objectives are, what is the role of every
single officer in realisation of these objectives. The information about the objective setting and
planning system is collected during the interviews with the employees, heads of subdivisions, and
highest officials of the municipality.
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