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June 06, 2008
It feels like D.C. - Part II
It is now the end of week 2 of my fellowship at the Partnership for Public Service (already? Wow!). I have been spending time researching new topics for potential research projects and arranging interviews for other research projects. In our deliberately reflective fellowship program, the topic to ruminate about this week is “values of the organization”. This topic for this week of the internship is appropriate, I think. To understand how an individual’s work is valuable it needs to be viewed in the larger context of an organization and its culture.
Specifically, I have also been reading about human capital frameworks in the federal government and that one of the key strategic goals in federal human capital management is to tie individuals’ goals/performance to agency goals/performance/values. In turn, getting the employer and employee’s values in alignment provides utility for both. So, what are the values of the Partnership?
It seems that the values of the organization are also distinguished by internal values (how the organization runs itself) and external values (why the organization exists). Overall the organization seems the value authenticity. For example, my colleagues really seem to have a genuine passion for improving the federal workforce and also want to “practice what they preach” by having a really dynamic, model environment in our own office.
The organization also values what I conceptualize as “rational impact”. At the core of this concept is making waves in federal human capital management. But also, the Partnership seems to value doing things the “right way” and having its work based on evidence, hard work and thoughtfulness. In other words the Partnership doesn’t want to make waves just for the sake of making waves, but rather exists because making the right waves in the right places improves the work of the federal government and is in the public interest.
The Partnership reflects this in many ways ranging from the way our office is designed—lots of collaborative spaces—to the branding of all our materials (check out the logo), to having snacks every Friday (this week is cake, yum!). Everyone here tries to help each other and advance the work of the organization as a whole. Take the “nook” for example. I sit near two other fellows in the office, Andrew and Sarah. We collaborate, advise each other on challenges, support each other and have a good time doing it. This sort of environment is symbolic of the Partnership’s mission—creating an outstanding federal workforce. I hope public servants can have a workplace that’s as energetic, engaging and purposeful as ours.
I’m realizing that an employee understanding the values of the organization they work for is critical. If I didn’t feel like I was doing something that I really care about, I would hate working here, or anywhere. To do that, I must continue to analyze my own values and the values of the Partnership for Public service throughout the summer. Thank goodness my value for fairness, ethics and persistence really jive with the mission of the Partnership
I hope you are having an awesome time this summer. Go blue!
-nt
ntambe@umich.edu
Posted by ntambe at June 6, 2008 03:52 PM