Creating organizational change in Departments of Transportation : applying self-assessment processes to align goals.

In the difficult economic climate of reduced budgets and fewer staff, business as usual may no longer be effective in addressing the current levels of need. Transportation agency leaders must determine how best to deploy the limited human and fiscal resources and how to effect the organizational changes necessary to direct the available resources to the highest priority and to the most critical issues. The New Jersey Department of Transportation charged its Division of Local Aid to pilot a workshop model for an organizational self-assessment to create a focus on value-added processes and programs and to initiate organizational change. The facilitated assessment workshop, completed in two sessions, adapted and applied the guidelines of the Baldrige National Quality Program.