Rebuilding the Virginia Department of Transportation Essay -- Leadersh

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is among the largest of state agencies and holds a national reputation as a leader in road safety and innovation dating back to the early 1920's. VDOT also has a history of being judged as the most professional state agency that is - until the 1990's, when buyouts and politics shook the department's composition and threatened its public reputation. The agency lost thousands of veteran employees who would prove to be irreplaceable assets and they began to see a decline in revenues. With the inability to deliver the quality construction and maintenance program they were once known for, it was clear that new leadership and a complete restructuring was needed. In 2002, Phillip Shucet was appointed commissioner of VDOT, bringing his private-sector business experience along for the ride. His task proved to be a difficult one and he was faced with many challenges including: management and organizational behavior, general and specific environm ental factors, and motivational problems. ("Virginia Department of Transportation: Trying to Keep Virginia Moving.") Part 1 The primary problem of VDOT is that supervisors lack the ability to complete road projects on time. Overall, VDOT suffers from a deprivation of "foresight, command, control, coordination and organization (Oke, 2011)." The classical approach of administrative principles will provide a line of unrestricted communication between VDOT field workers and executive management. The administrative principles approach will also direct leaders to deploy their resources through command principle; by giving orders to people from one source (Oke, 2011). Thereby, centralizing similar activities and tasks under one supervisor; increasing synch... ...partment of Transportation: Trying to Keep Virginia Moving." 2011. Retrieved from http://dm.darden.virginia.edu/vdot/studentWeb/content/videoList.htm 6 Steps to Insanely Successful Business Goals for 2013 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanhall/2012/12/08/6-steps-to-insanely-successful-business-goals-for-2013/ http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=22466052&site=ehost-live&scope=site © 2013. State University. All Rights Reserved. Oke, R. (Ed.). (2011). Organizational behavior and management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Custom Learning Solutions. Custom (abridged) text ISBN-13: 9780470942710 Sternberg, B., & Weitzel, S. R. (2001). Key Point Summary. Setting Your Development Goals: Start With Your Values, 29-30. Yemen. G and Clawson. J (2005), Virginia Department of Transportation: Trying To Keep Virginia Moving