Workforce Planning Recommendations for Nasa’s Human Resources Department

In the past 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent out many planned space exploration missions which have lead to numerous advantages in society and culture. NASA’s technologies benefit American lives with the innumerable important breakthroughs by creating new markets that have spurred the economy and changed countless lives in many ways. NASA is a federal agency and receives its fundings from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. However, there are conflicting opinions that consider whether or not funding for NASA is a waste of government spending.

As President Eisenhower once stated, “Every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed” (qtd in DeGroot). According to Jerry DeGroot, a lecturer in the Department of Modern History at the University of St. Andrews and author of the widely acclaimed biography “Douglas Haig”, every year, the United States federal government funds the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with over $17 billion. When Keith Yost, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was asked about government funding on NASA, he replied, “NASA is not only spending money, but also the sweat of our laborers, the genius of our scientists, and the hopes of our children.” As a powerhouse in the work industry, NASA is taking away from the remainder of the country. Before venturing off into space, the US needs to realize the importance of tackling the issues that lie before the citizens here on Earth. As Richard Truly, a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, stated in agreement, “...I didn’t go to NASA for the United States to make international commitments that wouldn’t keep, to design space vehicles that will never be built (or will be then fail), or to make promises to the American people that will never be kept.” It would be in the best interest for the citizens of the United States federal government to cut NASA funding.

　　President Ronald Reagan inherited the space policy of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter and was not satisfied with its current objectives and lack of direction (Logsdon, 1995). He put together a transition team to draft a new chapter for NASA which was left in an “untenable position” by Carter’s lack of direction for the agency. The NASA transition team leader, George Low, remarked that NASA can be “the best in American accomplishment and inspiration for all citizens” (Logsdon, 1995). The team provided input to Reagan that would drive space policy during his eight year tenure.

In July of 1958, President Eisenhower passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik nine months earlier. That administration, now known worldwide as NASA, has become an icon of space exploration and mankind's accomplishments. Who would have thought that fifty years later, NASA's future would be so uncertain? Congress has recently proposed a bill that would significantly cut funding from the NASA's Constellation program. These budget cuts are unnecessary and are counterproductive to the original idea of the space program.

The Human Resource Department promotes organizational effectiveness by providing programs and services that plans, organizes, leads, and controls the company’s personnel. By hiring, qualify staff and retaining existing employees thus empowering Atha Corporation to meet its operational goals and objectives. The purpose statement promotes trust, motivation, collaboration, and support for the employees when it states that by “retaining existing employees will empower the organization to meet the operational goals and objectives. In order to be an effective manager (Robbins, 2013) states that “management is the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people” (pg. 6). This statement defines why a purpose statement is the trait of an effective manager.

Structure is the basis through which an organization seeks to create control the direction of an organization. This is completed through clear definitions of the allocation of work, differentiation, and the coordination of having those responsibilities working together towards the efforts of the organization, integration (Bolman & Deal, 1993, pp). Through these methods, the organization is able to devise a division of labor that collaborates to bring about the missions and goals of an organization. The structure that comes about from this can be varied in their rigidness and flexibility it allows, and to an extent this is a great contribution to its success.

Every type of company or organization that exists operates with a certain organizational structure. However, the organizational structure is tailored to best meet the needs and services of the company. Organizational structures are used as a means of communicating how business will take place within an organization. The structure of an organization is important to the main areas that make an organization function effectively. Organization functions and designs determine the organizational structure. Memphis City Schools has a horizontal organizational structure. Although a horizontal structure exists as the overall structure at the executive level, a vertical structure is also in place at the management/staff level.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is one of the programs that the government has decided it cannot continue to finance at its current rates, and the money being put into NASA has been cut back. This is definitely not a smart place to make spending cuts and, at least for the near future, this trend of lessened government support needs to be reversed. By using budget cuts as a possible solution to

NASA Headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., and is lead by the Administrator. The Administrator is the highest ranked official of NASA and is responsible for leading the whole NASA team and guiding them on how to successfully accomplish missions and achieve goals. HQ’s main purpose is to guide and direct the agency. Not including their headquarters, there are ten other centers scattered across the United States, totaling up to over 18,000 NASA employees. Although astronauts are the best known in the organization, they are only a small component of the workforce. In fact, most of the staff are engineers and scientists. The rest of the program is made up of secretaries, lawyers, writers,

My main interest in writing a research paper about space sparked from the retirement of the Space Shuttle, in which thousands of workers lost their jobs and other individuals where forced to move away to different locations across the United States to find work. I will be focusing on the obstacles that National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA) and Kennedy Space Center are presented with from the view points of many different angles. I have discovered many interesting facts and sources regarding my topic and realize that there is still so much to be learned.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government dedicated to space research and exploration. Since its launch by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, the world has come to owe a great deal to NASA for its advances in human curiosity and discovery. NASA requires research and collaboration on a global level, and employs highly-skilled people from a diverse range of backgrounds, including the military, medicine, and various science and engineering fields. It has been esteemed for decades as a leading authority on space science, making breakthroughs including exploring the geology and meteorology of planets and moons, viewing star clusters and neighboring galaxies, participating in the International Space Station, and providing compelling insight on the Earth’s climate in the face of climate change. Recently, the United States federal budget plan for 2017 has been released that significantly lowers NASA’s funding, and it is very problematic. This cut in spending will halt some of the agency’s finest efforts that will benefit the world in a remarkable way. Upon understanding the great work that NASA has achieved, not only should the government not cut spending on the space agency, but increase spending as one of the smartest investments the country has made.

Since the beginnings of our existence as a human race we have been exploring. We have sailed the globe and civilized wilderness frontiers. Now that we have completely explored the earth, we begin to look toward space. Exploring space is an enormous challenge that requires brilliant minds and leaps forward in technology. In order for space exploration to be successful we need it to be a priority. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has long been a pioneer in the field of space exploration, but due to changing political attitude it is at risk to lose much of its funding. NASA should not have its funding reduced because: NASA develops the technology that benefits the public; their missions bring countries together; they are developing technology we will need in the future; and the advance to progress of the human race. The future of humanity will depend on the technological innovations and the international cooperation that NASA facilitates.

NASA Central command is in Washington, D.C. There are 10 NASA focuses situated over the United States. There are likewise seven test and research offices. More than 18,000 individuals work for NASA! Being a space explorer is presumably the best-known employment at NASA, yet space explorers make up only a little part of the workforce. A great deal of designers and researchers work at NASA. Individuals are doing different employments, as well, for example, secretaries, authors, attorneys and even educators.

Organizational structure is a system that consists of explicit and implicit institutional rules and policies designed to outline how various work roles and responsibilities are delegated, controlled and coordinated. Organizational structure also determines how information flows from level to level within the company (investopedia.com, 2017). If one level or department does not undertake its function accurately the entire business suffers, because all the departments interrelated to each other. There are generally four types of organizational structure:

After the Civil Aeronautics Act created the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) in 1938, which was responsible for safety programs and economic regulations that included route certificates, airline tariffs, and air mail rates, and the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, where the congress believed that fares would drop based on the record of intrastate airlines, where fares were 50 to 70 percent of the Civil Aeronautics Board, (Rodrigue; Cusick), the commercial aviation industry took off in a very rapid manner. It grew up to the point where some of them starting competing internationally. But, as we look back, none of that success would have been possible without the implementation of effective human resource management, whether it was on the national or international standpoint. Human resource management (HRM) consists of numerous activities, including equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance, Job analysis, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, motivation, and retention, performance evaluation and compensation, training and development, labor relations, safety, health, and wellness. Throughout this paper, we will be talking about how some airlines apply all these human resources management activities to be more competitive, and people’s best choice today.