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April 27, 2000
- TEXAS
STATE WORKERS FRUSTRATED & BURNT OUT
Environmental Agency
Flunks "Survey of Organizational Excellence"
Austin...Employees within the Texas Natural Resources Conservation
Commission (TNRCC), the state's pollution control agency, are increasingly
dissatisfied with agency management and policies, according to an
internal survey released today by Texas Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (Texas PEER). On nearly every topic surveyed, TNRCC
employees consistently registered more negative responses than employees
of other state agencies.
The "Survey of Organizational Excellence" is conducted by the University
of Texas School of Social Work to gauge state employee perceptions
of working conditions and agency environments. The survey has been
administered three times within TNRCC since 1996. Using the state
Freedom of Information Act, Texas PEER obtained the 1999-2000 results,
which show:
*nearly three in five employees feel a lack "of basic trust among
employees and management";
* more than two-thirds believe they must "always go through channels
to get their work done" while a strong majority agree that "people
who challenge the status quo" are not valued within the organization;
and
* a majority believe that information is not "shared openly in this
organization".
The survey also reflects increasing employee concern about "organizational
quality," strong doubts about whether the agency is "goal-oriented"
and a growing sense of burnout. Positive readings about the agency's
"physical environment" were countered by sharply negative scores on
the competitiveness of salaries and incentives to work harder.
"TNRCC's top-down management style combined with directives to be
business-friendly are the ingredients for a demoralized, dis-empowered
work force ," commented Texas PEER Coordinator Erin Rogers. "If the
state's environmental employees don't trust their own managers to
do the right thing, why should the public?"
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TX PEER
· P.O. Box 1522; Austin TX ·
78767-1522
Tel: (512)
441-4941 · txpeer@PEER.org
