Performance Assessment
Internal Factors
High camaraderie, exceptional interdepartmental communication, rapid personnel growth, and efficient employee training are some of the internal factors that positively impact the FDC’s Corrections Department. The FDC is structured such that its three subdivisions contribute to the overall objective of safeguarding the community and empowering offenders to be self-reliant. Thus, the creation of a highly interactive environment has facilitated information sharing among all subdivisions to enable the efficient realization of the objectives (Burke, Lake, & Paine, 2009). Outdated officer equipment, low employee retention rates, and inexperienced management are some of the internal factors that have negatively affected the Corrections subdivision. The performance of employees is always affected when there lacks proper equipment and when they lack motivating factors such as good remuneration and proper management. For instance, the lack of proper equipment hinders the highly trained officers from executing their duties effectively as it is impossible to carry out some activities without specialized equipment.
External Factors
The availability of advancement opportunities in training and education, and a better benefits package are among the external factors that affect the Corrections subdivision positively. The FDC liaises with professional organizations to offer training to its officers and offers benefits packages to officers who undergo the trainings thus motivating its officers in all subdivisions. Consequently, the officers feel motivated to and offer professional services at whichever level they serve thus enabling the subdivisions and the FDC, as a whole, to meet the set objectives (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017). The negative external factors affecting the department’s performance include overpopulation of inmates, budget constraints, and high attrition rates. The budgetary allocation to the department is dependent on the revenues available at the Federal, State, and County levels. Similarly, it is impossible for the department to determine the number of offenders to be arrested. Therefore, the department has had to adopt various measures to decongest its correctional facilities while guaranteeing safer communities. For example, community service and counselling have served to reduce the number of inmates in the already congested facilities.
Strengths and Minimizing Weaknesses
The organization has performed exemplary on the grounds of solidarity with other subdivisions, interdepartmental communication, personnel growth, and employee training. However, there is still room for improvement on equipment, employee retention rates, and management factors. Interdepartmental communication and employee training should facilitate further innovations such that the Corrections subdivision is able to collaborate with the other subdivisions to share resources and information. The sharing will result in the faster realization of solutions to the various challenges that face each subdivision while maximizing on the strengths (Burke, Lake, & Paine, 2009). Also, personnel growth and employee training should focus on increasing efficiency by encouraging staff members to come up with creative means of accomplishing their tasks to avoid wastage of resources.
Opportunities and Minimizing Threats
The Corrections subdivision has effectively maximized on the available opportunities, which include advancement in training and education and better benefits packages for employees. The opportunities are meant to equip the officers with the necessary skills and knowledge to identify, analyze, and respond to the security needs of the Florida community. The collaboration with other subdivisions should also improve the subdivision’s capacity to ensure that crime levels are reduced significantly. However, the existing challenges including overpopulation of inmates, budget constraints, and high attrition rates are not reflective of the opportunities that the subdivision has encountered (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017). The subdivision can curb the deterioration of security by utilizing its opportunities through ways such as using the available budgetary allocations efficiently through resource-sharing with other subdivision, and utilizing other correctional measures such as fines and community service to deter crime and decongest the correctional facilities.
References
Burke, W. W., Lake, D. G., & Paine, J. W. (Eds.), (2009). Organization change: A comprehensive reader. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.
Florida Department of Corrections. (2017). Vision, mission, value, and goals of the Florida Department of Corrections.
