Overview

The budget for the federal government is pretty grim these days. Words such as, sequestration and furlough recently joined our everyday lexicon along with austerity. Federal budget shortfalls, rarely heard of 10 years ago, touches every aspect of our complex federal, state and local governments. The Congressional Budget Office wrote, “[Sequestration] lowers non-defense discretionary spending by a range of 7.8% (in 2013) to 5.5% (in 2021)…”1 Sequestration caught many in government by surprise. It was designed to cut so deep into budgets as to be unthinkable and never to happen. But it did happen and it looks like the reductions will remain for the near term. As a result of these extensive budget cuts those working in the federal government will soon add this phrase to their vocabulary—“do more with less.” This is a phrase borrowed from years of belt tightening in the private sector, meaning—accomplish your mission and other tasks with less money, less personnel and less overall resources. Often, when budgets are slashed, the first programs to suffer are those dealing with leadership development and professional education programs. The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations warns “Training of supervisors in basic elements of performance management is inconsistent and often cut when budgets are tight.”2 It begs the question: why do training programs and professional development have to be cut? Can innovation, such as the use of available technology help facilitate and possibly save important leader development programs? Advances in distributed educational delivery systems and online education represent an efficient and cost effective way to deliver professional educational through distance learning (dL) to managers and executives throughout the federal government.

Project Details

Written by

Mr. Lee Lacy, U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date

May 2014

Pages

14

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