News Release

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director, Kay Coles James, in an effort to further drive the President's Management Agenda (PMA), tasked OPM staff with a training initiative to identify alternatives to wasteful turf wars within Federal agencies. Annette Simmons, Federal Executive Institute adjunct faculty member, behavioral science consultant and author hosted and led a two day class and seminar on understanding and ending turf wars in the workplace in an ongoing effort to improve the Federal workforce.

"In order for the President's Management Agenda to create a citizen-centered, results-oriented, and accountable government managers and employees must work as a team," James stated. "OPM offers these courses to facilitate leadership and results within agencies. Understanding agency problems and involving employees in developing solutions to them is the key for managers to accomplish their missions."

"Every group in every organization will, at one time or another, find that territorial games have derailed some of their best efforts," said Simmons. "Someone feels slighted, resources seem unfairly allocated, or there is evidence of favoritism. While some focus on who started the fight, successful leaders and teams learn to stop those games before they do even more damage."

The class was attended by repersentitives the Environmental Protection Agency, Navy, Air Force, NASA, Homeland Security, Department of Defense, General Services Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation and Department of Labor. The class delivered practical approaches and solutions to recognizing and ending Territorial Games in the workplace.

"If you want cooperation across departmental, functional or international boundaries in spite of cultural differences, you need to better understand the human dynamics that will divide 'us' from 'them'-even when it is in our own best interests to work together," stated Simmons.

Some of the leadership competencies emphasized during the course were accountability, conflict management, flexibility, problem solving and team building. Other strategies covered over the two day class were designed around improving organizational effectiveness by recognizing dysfunctional organizational behavior, dismantling organizational stovepipes and working better across regional and organizational boundaries.

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OPM oversees the federal work force and provides the American public with up-to-date employment information. OPM also supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.

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