Organizational Structure Since 1871, Noaa

Organizational Structure

Since 1871, NOAA Fisheries has been the guardian of the U.S. living marine resources and their habitat in the waters 200 nautical miles offshore known as the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. On their website (http://www.nmfs.noss.gov/org_chart.htm), NOAA Fisheries identifies its' mission to be "Stewardship of living marine resources through science-based conservation and management and the promotion of health ecosystems." The 139-year-old organization is currently a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA Fishers are responsible for all ocean waters off the East, West and Southern coasts and the waterways of Alaska. The work of NOAA is to sustain, protect and rebuild the living oceans of the United States. This work is geographic dependent; employee must be located near the water in order to study the marine life and its' environment. Regulatory issues based upon state laws require that employees be located close to where the laws are created and administrated. The employees need to have the authority to make decisions for their particular circumstances. The seas in Alaska are different from the ocean of the Florida coast. It would be terribly difficult to transfer the geographic specific information to a centralized team.

NOAA Fisheries is a highly decentralized agency led by Dr. James Balsiger, Assistant Administrator. The Silver Spring, Maryland agency has six regional offices, six regional science centers, twelve laboratories and 3285 employees. Dr. Balsiger has design his organization using a divisional methodology. He has four direct reports: a Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, a Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations, a Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor and a Director International Affairs. All but the Director of International Affairs have subordinates. Each team has a different purposes and using a divisional design provides for specialization and decentralized decision-making.

The regulatory team consists of ten positions, six are managers of regional offices and the remaining four are specialize knowledge positions. This mini -- matrix organization provides has a set of resources, which serve each of the regional locations. The operations department has five positions, each requiring specific knowledge, skills and experience. The scientific programs group also appears to be a mini-matrix organization; there are six regional science centers and one position for science and technology.

The span of control for both the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs and a Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor is both wide and narrow. The width of these two positions is being responsible for the complete geography of the United States and the number of employees who are engaged with this vast geography. The narrowness is from the singular focus of each position: regulatory issues and scientific study.

The span of control for the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations and the Director International Affairs is narrow but deep. The director of international affairs must be knowledgeable of the international laws, issues and players of the countries with whom the U.S. may have disputes. The skills of the administrative team differ greatly from those of the other divisions; however, all the other divisions need these skills -- finance, accounting, and technology -.

A divisional organizational structure groups together subject matter experts and provides them with a clear scope of responsibilities. At NOAA Fisheries, two of the teams, the regulatory and scientific teams, are regionalized. Each of theses divisions have the responsible for a specific skill set which needs to be replicated in different areas within the U.S. The strength of a divisional structure is that knowledge and best practices can be shared amongst the team.

One weakness of the divisional structure is redundant resources on each team. Dr. Balsiger avoided this pitfall by creating an administrative function team, which can serve both the regulatory group and the scientific group. By centralizing these functions into one group, NOAA avoids the expense of having multiple people performing the same tasks.