Reference no: EM132226256
Utilizing integration of Six Sigma and Lean Management
In 1996, in response to calls to streamline federal government operations, a major organizational change was initiated in the U.S. State Department. The 1996 Department of State Appropriations Act created the International Cooperative Administrative Support System (ICASS) that changed the way that the funding of resources used by State Department posts abroad and the federal agencies affiliated with these posts (such as the U.S. Agency for International Development) would be allocated, resources distributed, and costs paid for. Prior to this change, U.S. State Department Regional Bureaus in the U.S. used the Foreign Affairs Administrative Support system (FAAS) to control funding, resource distribution, and costs. With the creation of ICASS, the Regional Bureaus lost much of their autonomy in allocating resources to ICASS Service Centers (ISCs), which were now located directly in State Department posts abroad. Reading #1 below (Kathryn Trade-Leigh, 2002, Case study. Identifying resistance in managing change) explains both the nature of this organizational change and the resistance to the change within the State Department, especially from the Regional Bureaus and U.S. State Department Administrative Officers at posts abroad, who had previously worked with the Regional Bureaus to distribute resources.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted two comprehensive studies of the new ICASS system in 2004 and 2012, explaining how the ICASS system works and revealing external resistance to the ICASS changes from federal agencies abroad that work with State Department posts in the same foreign arena
Develop innovative change management strategies through Teamwork to lessen the internal and external resistance to change and to help implement the ICASS reforms more effectively.