U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2012: A phenomenological case study of organizational change in the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

This phenomenological study examined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), a Major Army Command of over 32,000 personnel with a presence in over 90 countries worldwide and the entire United States, during its reorganization process known as USACE 2012, the intent of which was to realign the USACE for its ideal future by the year 2012. This study analyzed whether the change and decision processes ultimately utilized to develop organizational structure recommendations for approval by USACE leadership followed the precepts of USACE 2012 and identified the resultant impacts of managerial changes on the USACE internal security organization. It determined whether the processes were uniformly applied across the entire organization in accordance with USACE 2012 policy and if a systems approach in the form of in-depth process reviews were utilized as a basis for developing recommendations for leadership concerning the organizational structure. A supplementary objective examined the consequences of these recommendations and evaluated their effect on the security program. It examined whether the organizational realignment of the internal security organization, in accordance with the USACE 2012 policy, produced the intended results and enhanced the security mission. This was done by gathering data from in-depth interviews of 15 USACE senior leaders, members of various committees, and security personnel who were directly or indirectly involved in the organizational realignment of the internal security organization. The instrumentation utilized for this study was a set of semi-structured questions used by the interviewer during face-to-face interviews. The resultant study found that the purpose of the 2012 reorganization was not clear to all command personnel. Further the study demonstrated that the processes utilized to make organizational recommendations were not uniformly applied across the organization. In-depth process reviews were conducted only to a limited extent and in some cases not at all. But perhaps the most profound result was the determination that the organization placement of the various security entities within the headquarters was based virtually entirely on a lack of understanding of the security mission by those making organization recommendations to USACE leadership. This study has implications for other large military organizations considering reorganization.