I. FMCS CHARTER

In the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act, Congress declared it to be the policy of the United States that---

Congress created FMCS "in order to prevent or minimize interruptions of the free flow of commerce growing out of labor disputes, to assist parties to labor disputes in industries affecting commerce to settle such disputes through conciliation and mediation." Historically, mediation of collective bargaining contract negotiations has been the primary work of this agency.

From the beginning, FMCS has provided arbitration services by maintaining a roster of private arbitrators. Arbitration is used almost universally to resolve disputes arising over collective bargaining contract interpretation and provisions during its term. It is favored by national labor policy, and arbitration provisions are treated as an implied "no-strike" clause. Upon request from the parties, FMCS furnishes a list of names from which they can choose an arbitrator to hear their case and make a decision. Unlike mediators who rely on their powers of persuasion to assist parties in settling disputes, arbitrators exercise the power to render binding decisions.

Since 1947, FMCS's charter has expanded. In 1974, Congress extended the FMCS jurisdiction beyond "industries affecting commerce" to non-profit health care institutions and, by 1994, health care institutions represented 10.5 percent of our business. In 1978, Congress extended the FMCS charter beyond the private sector to the federal government sector and in 1979 to the U.S. Postal Service. Most recently, our work in the federal sector was expanded by Executive Order 12871, issued by President Clinton on October 1, 1993, which directs the formation of labor-management partnerships in the federal government as a means to reform government. By 1994, 11.2 percent of our caseload was in the federal sector.

FMCS's charter was further enlarged by the 1978 Labor-Management Cooperation Act which explicitly authorizes and directs the Agency to "encourage and support" joint labor-management committees "which are established for the purpose of improving labor management relationships, job security and organizational effectiveness, enhancing economic development or involving workers in decisions affecting their jobs including improving communication with respect to subjects of mutual interest and concern." [section 205A(a)(1).]

FMCS has from its creation engaged in preventive mediation efforts designed to improve relations between management and labor. Historically, preventive mediation accounted for five to ten per cent of the total mediation caseload. Today, this work accounts for just over a third of the caseload. In recent years, as the number of strikes and work stoppages has declined, and as many in labor and management have begun to explore new ways of working together, FMCS has been able to shift some of its effort from dispute settlement to prevention.

The 1978 Act also authorized FMCS to provide grant funds to establish or expand labor-management committees. Since 1981, FMCS has awarded more than $17,653,000 million to more than 200 labor-management committee grant applicants experimenting with innovative joint approaches to workplace issues. While the statute authorizes a funding level of $10 million, actual funding has never exceeded the current level of $1.75 million.

Outside the labor-management arena, FMCS has been involved in "alternative dispute resolution" (ADR) since Congress asked former FMCS Director William Simkin to mediate a land dispute between the Navajo and Hopi Tribes in the 1970s. The Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1990 and the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990, and the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996 which reauthorized the earlier Acts, expanded FMCS's role as resource and provider of ADR services. Their intent is to expand the use of alternative dispute resolution throughout the federal government in order to reduce litigation costs and promote better government decision making. These statutes authorize FMCS to provide consultation, training, dispute resolution systems design and third party neutral services to all federal agencies (and to state and local agencies where the federal government is involved) including the facilitation of regulatory negotiations. Over the last three years, the demand and interest from other federal agencies for FMCS ADR services has increased greatly and will, if that trend continues, exert pressure on our current delivery capabilities.

The work of FMCS extends beyond the domestic border as well. FMCS plays an important role in promoting collective bargaining and providing people in other countries with information and skills in the uses of mediation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. Our work in the international arena is today a small but integral part of our services. With the end of the Cold War, proliferation of trade pacts, globalization of the marketplace, and rapid technological advance, requests for our assistance from abroad have increased significantly in the last five years.

Our international activities, including training and assistance in designing industrial relations and conflict resolution systems, are supportive of U.S. foreign assistance policy. They promote sustainable economic development, as well as peace and the expansion of democratic institutions in other nations. Negotiating skills and conflict resolution capabilities are critical for developing peaceful and constructive labor-management relationships abroad, and for promoting greater workplace democracy and solutions to human rights problems. As the nations of the world struggle to compete effectively in an increasingly integrated marketplace, many are re-examining the role and structure of their labor relations systems and exploring workplace governance issues.

FMCS shares no cross-cutting functions with other agencies. While some other agencies have parallel jurisdiction or complementary responsibilities with FMCS, these do not overlap or cross-cut in any real way.

II. FMCS MISSION STATEMENT

FMCS's original mission -- to bring about the peaceful resolution of disputes between unions and employers -- underlies the evolution of its current Mission Statement. In 1975, FMCS developed its first Mission Statement. This statement, which was reexamined by the Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS, was found to be basically sound. One modification, the incorporation of a preamble and Values Statement, was recommended by the Task Force and approved, in 1995, by a strategic planning committee. The Mission Statement was reexamined again this year, as part of the Agency's effort to prepare its first Strategic Plan under the GPRA. Inasmuch as it was found to cover the agency's major services, reflect its statutory charter, be results-oriented, and clearly set forth why the agency exists and what it does, it was found to have continuing validity and to be appropriate for the present.

Based on this Mission and Values Statement, and in keeping with Vice-President Gore's National Performance Review, FMCS articulated a public commitment to certain standards of service. Our agency's performance can be measured against them by our customers and by ourselves.

III. GENERAL (STRATEGIC) GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

FMCS strategic goals are based on our statutory authority and directly reflect our mission. They are premised on the underlying assumption that peaceful methods of resolving conflict are essential in a healthy, stable, democratic society and to a sound, competitive economy. Whether conflicts involve labor and management, government and citizens, or other organizations with competing or differing interests, society benefits from reducing tensions between organizations or groups of people, from finding ways other than strikes, litigation or violence to resolve differences, and from exploring constructive means of jointly solving problems and finding common ground.

Through our services and activities, FMCS seeks to achieve the broad goals, or outcomes, shown above. At the top of this hierarchy is the broadest goal of the agency. We have the least control over its achievement. This goal recognizes that the work FMCS performs can and does have an influence on organizations which we do not service directly. It reflects the diffusion into society as a whole of the ideas we advocate and teach. The two goals below this level focus on the impact of our work on those organizations we reach directly. The results we bring about at the lowest level of this hierarchy through the delivery of our services -- which we consider to be our organization's primary, or immediate, goal -- lead, in turn, to broader changes in the organizations with which we work. Our work sets examples which help us to reach up the hierarchy and beyond the organizations with which we are in direct contact. Factors beyond the control of FMCS affect our ability to achieve our goals at all three of these outcome levels.

Both of our intermediate goals refer specifically to "assisted organizations," namely those organizations -- labor, business and industry, and government -- with which FMCS directly works and to which we provide services. Our primary goal is to assist these organizations, our customers, in settling collective bargaining disputes or resolving conflict by providing third party neutral assistance and thereby to avoid or reduce the effects of work stoppages, litigation, violence, or other less constructive means of resolving problems. The recent Teamster strike against the United Parcel Service illustrates vividly the economic costs to society resulting from interruptions to commerce growing out of labor disputes.

Further, it is an intended result of our services that the performance of assisted organizations -- encompassing efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness -- is strengthened, through improved collective bargaining, improved relationships between management and labor or other assisted parties, and through the exploration of ways to eliminate or resolve problems which reduce competitiveness, inhibit economic development, and in the case of public entities, detract from good government. While we certainly cannot claim sole credit for the overall performance of assisted organizations, we believe that our work can be a contributing factor to improved performance, particularly at the workplace level.

Our broadest goal is that our work with our customers -- a subset of the universe of private, public and federal organizations -- will have a radiating sphere of influence which will enable our work to have wider societal impact. In other words, "best practices" of labor-management relations or conflict resolution generally will be diffused and eventually may be adopted by an increasingly wider group of organizations. Over time, organizations generally will begin to shift their approach to conflict management and resolution and "best practices" will become standard practice. That is the goal.

Many experts believe that without a greater diffusion of successful innovation in the workplace a large number of American businesses will fail, and the American economy will lose ground. As the Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS concluded in 1994, "a greater diffusion of successful innovation suggests an important public policy role for FMCS to play in providing an institutional framework or imperative to encourage the transformation of work and labor-management relations." Report of the Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS [Report], July 15, 1994, at 39. Many of the speakers who addressed the Task Force stated that FMCS has a "critical role to play as a catalytic agent for workplace innovation, in breaking down resistance to change, especially where new approaches have not yet taken hold. It can serve as a valuable source of information about successful models of change." Id. at 40. Through its work with parties all around this nation, FMCS can spread examples or stories of innovation or "best practices" and encourage others to explore them.

Likewise, FMCS can and does play a similar role outside of the collective bargaining arena in helping to diffuse best practices of alternative dispute resolution, including negotiated rulemaking by public agencies. Innovative dispute resolution procedures can help to reduce the costs of litigation as well as contribute to improving the quality of relationships and of decision making by bringing together interested parties to craft the decisions that affect their lives. This is particularly true in the case of public entities and government decision or rule making.

Measurement Efforts

These general goals and objectives are results oriented. Particularly at the level of FMCS's primary objective, they are measurable either through data which is or will be collected internally or through external data sources. At the top level of the hierarchy, we will be relying largely on external data sources or research studies. In our first Annual Performance Plan for fiscal year 1999, we have identified performance indicators for each of our three broad strategic goals or outcomes, data sources for measuring performance, baseline data if available, and fiscal year 1999 targets. Many of the intended results which we have identified have not been systematically measured in the past. Thus, the performance indicators we have selected are necessarily experimental. We have defined ways of collecting data on these measures, but at least for the first year or two, we will be learning whether these measures are valid, feasible, repeatable, and realistic. Based upon our testing and experience, we may change those performance indicators which do not work.

Because FMCS does not have baseline information on all of the performance indicators we have selected, we do not have a solid basis for estimating how rapidly we can expect to see changes in the conditions these indicators are designed to measure. Accordingly, we have not established rigid or long term targets for many of our performance indicators at the outcome level. Rather, we have established one year targets where we have baseline data, and we have established directional, but not quantitative targets, where baseline data does not yet exist. During the next several years, we anticipate that our ability to set credible performance targets, both on an annual and longer term basis, will improve dramatically. Our priority, for this coming year, will be to obtain the baseline and additional trend information that will allow us to set better targets for coming years. As we are able, we will set targets. We will share our progress with the Congress as we proceed.

Our success in meeting our strategic goals will be defined by our success in meeting the annual targets which we set for outcome level performance indicators. We expect to make incremental progress over the period of this Strategic Plan. Given the nature of our work and the outcomes to which we are committed, we do not expect dramatic, over-night change (analogous, e.g., to the discovery of a vaccine to control a disease). Because this GPRA effort at the strategic level is a new enterprise for us, we need to learn what is possible and feasible. We have defined targets for our first year, fiscal year 1999, with which we are comfortable, but at this time we can not predict, for example, a 15 percent improvement in any indicator at the end of five years. What we can say is that we intend over the course of this Strategic Plan period to improve performance, customer satisfaction, and our ability to adapt to the certain change that lies ahead.

We will use the results of this measurement effort to improve the Agency's future operation, shifting emphasis and resources as necessary. While we have not yet established a formal schedule or process, our aim is for the leadership team to conduct quarterly reviews each year to track results, analyze data being collected, consider customer feedback, and monitor progress in achieving our goals. If we are failing to meet one or more of our goals, we will have to frankly evaluate what we are doing, how we are doing it, and what path to follow in correcting course. We plan to learn from the results of our measurement efforts and believe that our Plan and strategy is flexible enough to permit modification as we proceed in order to ensure improved future operations and success.

IV. STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE FMCS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

To achieve our strategic goals, FMCS must be a customer-driven organization continually seeking to improve performance, capable of delivering the highest quality services, equal to the best in the private sector, responsive to the collective bargaining community and others seeking our conflict resolution assistance. As our customers struggle to survive and thrive in this increasingly complex and dynamic business environment, we must be able to respond to their changing needs and interests. We have attempted over the course of the last nearly four years to instill at FMCS a vision and culture of leadership, a focus on customers, and continual innovation and reinvention. In the following paragraphs, FMCS reviews the steps we have taken to date to foster a results-oriented focus on the organization's goals as well as the steps we will take in the 1997-2002 period.

1993 to 1997 Reinventing FMCS

Since 1993, FMCS has engaged in a comprehensive and systemic organizational change, or reinvention, effort that serves as a solid foundation for the future. This began in December 1993 when we initiated a strategic planning process by assembling The Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS. After studying and assessing the environment in which we operate and the critical forces affecting our traditional customers -- labor and management in the organized sector of the economy and government-- the Task Force made extensive recommendations in its July 1994 Report, encompassing leadership, delivery and support systems, staffing, selection, training and professional development, evaluation and rewards, internal communications and external relationships, work design and FMCS union-management relations. Viewed together, these recommendations formed a roadmap leading to greater opportunities for organizational learning, continuous performance improvement and increased organizational effectiveness.

The Task Force recognized that the Agency's success will ultimately be determined by its internal capacity to meet external expectations. It concluded that FMCS should be a full-service mediation agency with "360 degree mediators" able to deliver the full array of services which our customers seek--from traditional mediation of adversarial or acrimonious labor disputes to assisting management and labor in the creation of new partnering processes for workplace improvement, from alternative dispute resolution assistance in complex regulatory negotiations to providing assistance to emerging nations seeking to create industrial relations systems and conflict resolution capabilities. To achieve this vision, the Task Force concluded that FMCS must "vigorously examine every aspect of the way its organization is structured, work is performed and services are delivered."

Core Competencies: Central to achieving our vision of the future are the attainment by the Agency of eight core competencies identified by the Task Force:

1. Expertise in Collective Bargaining and Labor Management Relations;
2. Assistance to the Parties in the Negotiation of Collective Bargaining Agreements;
3. Processes to Improve Labor Management Relationships;
4. Facilitation and Problem Solving;
5. Processes to Improve Organizational Effectiveness;
6. Design and Implementation of Conflict Resolution Systems;
7. Education, Advocacy and Outreach;
8. Knowledge, Skill and Ability in Information Systems.

As the Task Force concluded, "the collective ability of mediators, with informed support from agency leadership and national office staff, to perform professionally in the eight core competency areas will position FMCS to meet customer demands in the year 2000 and beyond with responsive, high quality services."

Strategic Steps: Our Agency Strategic Plan 1995-97 was a blueprint for attainment and mastery of these core competencies and implementation of the Task Force recommendations. Today, FMCS reinvention initiatives outlined in the 1995-97 strategic plan are substantially underway. We have:

All of these mutually reinforcing steps will lead to improved mission performance and achievement of our broad, strategic goals.

1997 to 2002 Improving FMCS Performance and Results

During the coming six years, FMCS will build on the foundation of our internal reinvention. We are committed to becoming more results-oriented and examining how well our services work, whether our customers are satisfied by their experience with us and whether we are affecting people's lives for the better.

We will continue to focus on strengthening performance, improving quality of services, and providing an expanded range of conflict resolution services to new and traditional customers, domestic and international, striving to achieve customer satisfaction and other outcomes that benefit our customers, as well as our stakeholders, the Executive Branch, the Congress, the taxpayers and the public at large. Our strategy outlines what resources (human, monetary, and information) are required to achieve our goals and objectives and is intended to logically link those goals and objectives to our day to day operations; in other words, to chart a course to get the agency from here to there.

Strategic Enterprise: The achievement of our broad goals depends upon the full range of FMCS services, as described in the following section. While we have traditionally treated our different services as separate programs with discrete objectives, through this planning process for 1997-2002, we have recognized the common objectives which these services share. We have thus shifted our approach to treat all FMCS services as constituting one "strategic enterprise" with shared goals and objectives that are furthered only if all services are delivered with the highest quality.

Each of FMCS's services plays a critical role in ensuring that the primary step in the hierarchy of our objectives -- collective bargaining, mediation and other mechanisms for strengthening relationships and resolving conflict used by assisted organizations -- is achieved. Achievement of that first objective will, in turn, lead to achievement of the next step and the broad goal at the top of the hierarchy. The processes, skills and technologies needed to achieve our broad goals are the very ones that we need to operate our strategic enterprise and deliver services.

HUMAN RESOURCES: Staff: Today, FMCS employs about 285 employees. This includes nearly 200 mediators located in 75 cities around the nation organized around five geographic regions. Mediators are expected to deliver all dispute and preventive mediation, alternative dispute resolution and education, advocacy and outreach services. By October 1997, the agency will have hired about 75 new mediators, from diverse backgrounds, since January 1994. We will continue efforts to increase the ratio of mediators to total employees.

Top Agency management, professional and support staff of about 65 Full Time Equivalents is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Arbitration and grants services are operated in Washington, D.C. Coordination of our ADR and international activities is also headquartered in Washington, D.C., but actual delivery of those services is by mediators. Budget and finance, human resource, legal and legislative, administrative support and technology functions are also located in Washington, as are our communications and education and training coordinators.

We intend to continue work redesign efforts, begun in April 1996, aimed at re-engineering certain work processes which are labor-intensive and technology dependent, particularly in our national office arbitration, mediation notice processing and finance offices. These efforts are aimed at achieving greater efficiencies, saving costs, streamlining operations, and taking advantage of modern technologies.

To carry out our goals during 1997-2002, FMCS will need to maintain a complete complement of "full service mediators" to enable us to provide a broader range of conflict resolution services which are being sought by both traditional and new customers and to explore new and innovative arenas for our services.

Leadership: Achievement of our goals is also heavily dependent on leadership. In keeping with our organizational restructuring in December 1995, each of our five regions is led by a regional director and two directors of mediation services. Together they work as a leadership team on such matters as customer feedback, delivery of services and mediator performance appraisals. The regional directors are responsible for providing overall leadership and oversight of the FMCS Strategic Plan within the region and specifically for customer outreach. The directors of mediation services each work with about twenty mediators, concentrating on mediators' professional development and human resource needs.

Top agency leadership and national office professional staff serve as the principal link between FMCS and the Administration and Congress and with top leaders of labor, management and government. To ensure success in fulfilling our future goals, both they and all FMCS field leadership will be expected to drive our strategic vision, focusing on both external outreach with customers and internal workforce skills development, encouraging and rewarding creativity, initiative, and innovation. Leadership will be responsible for communicating the goals and objectives set forth in this Strategic Plan within the agency and developing annual work plans and managing budgets consistent with this Strategic Plan. Likewise, they will be expected to encourage dialogue about our strategic goals with our customers and stakeholders around the nation. Leadership will be held accountable for achieving and tracking results under this Strategic Plan.

Education and Training: Over the past three years, education and training of our entire workforce has taken on unprecedented emphasis. We realize that our greatest asset is our people and are persuaded by the examples of leading-edge companies which find that up-front investment in human capital through education and training, as well as information technology, reaps tremendous return on investment. We have therefore invested at least three per cent of each annual budget in our education and training initiatives. To respond to our customers' needs in a dramatically changing environment, FMCS must hire, train and retain the most qualified workforce possible, because the quality of our service is totally dependent on the knowledge and skills of our personnel. A major priority has been and will continue to be the education and training of new mediators, as well as the continuing education of experienced mediators.

Our Strategic Action Plan 1995-97 made continuous improvement part of every employee's job; professional development an expectation of employment for every member of the FMCS staff. We have carried out a comprehensive and systematic education, training and professional development initiative aimed at mediators, support staff and agency leadership and designed to assure achievement of the agency core competencies.

In 1998 through 2002, education, training and continuous improvement will remain an integral part of every employee's job. We will continue to upgrade skills and knowledge to keep pace with rapid workplace changes and conflict resolution techniques, maintaining and fine tuning existing training plans. We will use customer survey data and evaluations to assess whether our training approaches have been appropriate. A major goal will be to broaden our thus far fairly traditional learning approach (geared to upgrading skills) to create a systemic learning organization environment, one in which we are constantly learning from each other. With the basic foundation in place, we will strive to progress to a more expansive level of continuous improvement and innovation. FMCS will continue to dedicate at least three percent of its annual budget to this investment. The source of this funding is described below. (See Fees for Service.)

MONETARY RESOURCES: Appropriations: Funding for FMCS activities comes largely through appropriated funds. Currently FMCS receives $33,481,000 in Congressional funding and 286 Full Time Equivalents nationwide. Payroll and related costs account for 70 per cent of the Agency's total budget, leaving only 30 percent for other critical resource needs. The strategic goals outlined in this Plan assume that at least equivalent resources will be available for the length of the Plan.

Reimbursable Income: FMCS receives no appropriations for our ADR and international activities, or for federal partnership work which increased dramatically after issuance of the Executive Order in October 1993. Accordingly, all such work is performed under interagency reimbursable agreements. In Fiscal year 1996, FMCS received $679,000 in reimbursable income, including $371,000 for ADR work, $112,000 for international activities, and $196,000 for federal partnership work. Over the last few years, these reimbursable activities have increased at a fairly steady rate, demonstrating growing interest in these forms of dispute resolution assistance. For FY 1999, we are projecting 800,000 in reimbursable income through interagency agreements.

Fees-for-Service: As authorized by Congress, FMCS will begin to provide arbitration services on October 1, 1997, on a fee-for-service basis. All revenue generated will be dedicated exclusively to the continuing education, training and professional development of the FMCS workforce.

INFORMATION RESOURCES: To support our strategic redirection, in Fiscal Years 1996 and 1997, FMCS sought and Congress appropriated funds for a nationwide survey, for education and training of our workforce, and to modernize the agency's technology. These initiatives must be maintained to enhance the organization's capacity to continuously learn, adapt, and revitalize itself in response to changing conditions.

Customer Survey: In 1997, we will be examining the results of the first-ever FMCS nationwide customer survey. Designed and analyzed by senior professors from the MIT Sloan School of Management assisted by an FMCS internal committee, the survey was administered by the University of Massachusetts Survey Research Center. It tested customer awareness, use of and satisfaction with FMCS services and inquired about the value and quality of our services. It also looked, from a customer perspective, at the state of collective bargaining relations today. About 1600 labor and management representatives, or 74 percent of the sample of customers and potential customers, responded to the survey, conducted by telephone interviews. The survey results will provide a baseline of information against which to measure the Agency's future performance, customer satisfaction, and progress over time.

We expect to periodically conduct a nationwide survey, in approximately three year intervals. We have also conducted a series of customer focus groups design to elicit qualitative data about our services and will continue to use these.

Curriculum Design and Resource Center: We will continue a major project begun last year to design and upgrade curricula used by mediators in training programs with our customers so that these materials reflect innovations and evolving best practices in mediation, conflict resolution and labor-management relations. These new curricula are now available to mediators on-line through our new FMCS Intranet system.

As recommended by the Mediator Task Force, FMCS has been developing a resource center. It is physically housed in our national office but is now accessible by mediators around the nation through our Intranet. This resource collection built on an extensive ADR library inherited from the Administrative Conference of the United States after it ceased to exist in 1995. Our resource center now contains books, articles, training materials, videos and other information on collective bargaining, labor management relations and partnerships, conflict resolution, negotiated rulemaking and resolution of employment discrimination disputes. These resources enrich and broaden the learning experience and knowledge of our workforce. We will continue to expand this resource clearinghouse.

ADR resources are currently made available to the public. We are considering providing public access to the full range of resources which would greatly expand the possibilities for diffusing information on best practices.

Information and Communications Technology Modernization: Three years ago, less than 25 percent of our mediators had access to computers, only a third of our 78 fields offices were equipped with fax machines, there was limited internal communications linkage, and there was no E-mail. Reports were being completed by hand or on typewriters, and files and reports were transmitted by mail. Following issuance of the Mediator Task Force Report, a commitment was made to upgrade the agency's information and communications technology in stages in accordance with a strategic information plan adopted in 1995.

Today, we have already transformed our information technology capabilities. Our strategic information plan encompassed system architecture, hardware and system software requirements, application software, and training. Fundamental to our IT plan is a commitment to implement no new technology without comprehensive training to assure effective usage, increase proficiency and achieve maximum productivity gains.

In 1996 our priority was to equip mediators -- located in 75 cities around the nation-- with the tools necessary to do their jobs more efficiently. Today, each mediator has a personal computer and each field office has a fax machine. On April 1, 1997, we introduced E-mail and an FMCS Intranet system which will provide a fully integrated information system throughout the Agency and its field offices. It will enhance agency communications, broaden access to educational resources, contribute to more effective and efficient operations, reduce reliance on traditional clerical support, and enable us to perform better.

Also, in April, FMCS went "on line" with an FMCS home page. We expect to continue to improve the information available to the public about FMCS, its services and "best practices." Through our home page, the public can now download some FMCS forms, such as the labor management grant application. In early 1997, we conducted an informal survey to assess our labor and management customers' technology capacities and future interests. We are planning to introduce electronic access for them to file on-line the required notices of contract expiration and requests for arbitration services. This should enhance recent work redesign efforts in our arbitration and mediation notice processing offices.

By October 1, 1997, we will complete the switch to a fully electronic case management system, covering assignment, reporting and tracking of all mediation activity. We expect to upgrade database software in fiscal year 1998 and complete full integration of agency information systems by fiscal year 2000. These steps will support improved delivery of mediation services. They will also reinforce data collection and program evaluation procedures that support the achievement of our general goals and objectives. We will need to refocus and refine our data collection procedures in order to accurately track our progress.

Overall, our information technology investment strategy has been linked to improving mission and program performance, supporting work processes that are being redesigned to reduce costs and improve effectiveness, and fulfilling agency streamlining goals. Given unceasing innovation, we are well aware that technology modernization never ends.

How These Strategies Will Achieve Our Goals

We expect that, together, the strategies described above will contribute to our efforts to achieve our general goals and objectives. Critical to our ability to succeed is our workforce, and, in particular, a full complement of "360 degree mediators" fully equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to deliver in a high quality fashion the array of conflict resolution services being sought today by traditional and new customers. People are key to our strategy. We firmly believe that our investment in people, ideas, and processes will enable our mediators to operate in this expanded, 360 degree role, and thereby to achieve our goals.

These investments will likewise enable this agency to better adapt to the certain change that lies ahead. The changing economic environment in which our mediators work creates a perception that human skills are becoming obsolete at a rate perhaps unprecedented in American history. If they cannot keep up with best practices and innovations in mediation skills and knowledge, then time will pass them by. That is why investments in continuous education and training, as well as modern information and communications technology, are vital. They hold the potential to create significant payoffs in improved performance and results over the long run. State of the art tools (e.g., technology, curriculum) will enhance our employees' ability to conduct their business and will lead to positive results in meeting our strategic goals.

To be fully effective in realizing the gains from investments in education and training and technological advance will require a considerable amount of human investment on the part of leadership and staff. They must be prepared to adapt to the ongoing change that innovations bring. Integral to our strategy is to continue to recruit employees who are prepared to continue learning. And, critical to our success is our leadership team, with an emphasis on leadership, as opposed to simple management of personnel. Our expectation of leadership is that they will motivate members of their staff to follow their direction; that they understand our vision of the future and our goals, and can help to implement our strategy to achieve them. Finally, we will need monetary resources to implement this strategy and accomplish our goals.

Like the drivers for the United Parcel Service, our mediators are the direct link to FMCS's ability to meet our goals. If our mediators are operating on a "360 degree" basis, as we intend, our customers will be aware of and benefit from the full range of FMCS services. The FMCS customer satisfaction survey we have developed allows us to measure whether this is occurring. This information is gathered through surveys and focus groups and used as indicators of performance at the outcome level of our strategic plan. We can tell, from survey results, whether customer awareness of and satisfaction with FMCS is consistent across services and regions. In this sense we have the ability to monitor not only whether our mediators are operating in a "360 degree" mode but also whether we are providing them with adequate support for all of the services in which they are expected to excel.

In sum, through the strategy described, we expect to achieve our general goals and objectives. Our annual budget and work plans will be aligned to this Strategic Plan which gives us the flexibility to adjust and shift resources to correct course, as needed.

V. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENERAL GOALS AND ANNUAL PERFORMANCE GOALS

The achievement of our broad goals depends upon the full range of FMCS services. We treat FMCS services as constituting one "strategic enterprise." Each service has clear, related performance objectives (outputs) that are described in detail in our annual performance plan and link up, in a hierarchical manner, to the FMCS broad goals and objectives described above. Our annual performance goals are tangible, results oriented and measurable. These outputs link directly and logically to, and support achievement of, our mission and general goals and objectives in the way the GPRA intends.

Together, FMCS services directly ensure that the lowest step in the hierarchy of our objectives -- collective bargaining, mediation and other mechanisms for strengthening relationships and resolving conflicts used by assisted organizations--is achieved. Together, they contribute to the achievement of our Agency goals, from the lowest level to the highest.

FMCS Services: The Strategic Enterprise

Dispute Mediation -- This is a voluntary process which occurs when a mediator assists labor and management in reaching agreement in collective bargaining negotiations. These include initial contract negotiations which involve an employer and newly-certified union, renewal and mid-term contract negotiations, as well as some grievances that arise during the term of an agreement. Dispute mediation has been the primary focus and most visible service of this agency for 50 years, with mediators working to avert or reduce the duration of work stoppages. Today, while the number of strikes has declined sharply, those that occur are often very contentious, difficult to settle, and protracted. Strikes by the autoworkers against Caterpillar and by several unions against the Detroit newspapers are but two recent examples of this. In fiscal year 1996, FMCS was directly involved in 330 of the 409 (81%) work stoppages which ended during the fiscal year. In addition, mediators were actively involved in 4,897 collective bargaining negotiations which did not involve a work stoppage. In 1996, 57,989 notices of contract expiration were filed with FMCS.

Outputs of dispute mediation services include:

Preventive Mediation - In the changing workplace and economic environment, labor-management relations range from very antagonistic to very cooperative, with parties experimenting with new ways of working together. The role of mediators is thus evolving. They are not simply the "firefighters" who come in at the last moment to assist labor and management in resolving a contract dispute. Increasingly, they must become purveyors of best practices -- catalysts for change -- able to assist, motivate and encourage a labor-management pair to undertake a transformation of their relationship to become more participative, collaborative and creative.

Mediators can help the parties develop joint problem-solving and innovative conflict resolution methods (e.g., assistance in setting up labor-management committees, employee participation processes), more constructive ways of bargaining (e.g., training in interest based bargaining techniques), better ways to communicate and relate (e.g., supervisor and steward training), even help or encourage them to explore high-performance workplace strategies. Our preventive mediation services range from the basics to highly innovative.

These services are not as well known as our dispute mediation services, but over the last ten years have grown to about 38 percent of total caseload. The expanding interest in these services is driven by competitive pressures to improve economic performance in the workplaces of America and the standard of living of American citizens -- profits and good jobs.

In the federal sector, FMCS has provided extensive training in partnership skills and ADR techniques in accordance with the President's 1993 Executive Order directing the formation of partnerships between federal agencies and unions as a means to improve government. To illustrate, in anticipation of the 1999 transition of the Panama Canal, mediators are training managers and unions representing 8000 employees on the Canal in partnership, problem solving, and interest based grievance handling.

Preventive mediation outputs include:

Arbitration Services - Today, virtually all collective bargaining agreements contain grievance and arbitration provisions. Upon request from a party for an arbitrator, FMCS will supply a panel of names from which the parties may choose an arbitrator to hear and decide their dispute. Upon their selection, FMCS will appoint the arbitrator. In this way, FMCS contributes to the smooth functioning of the everyday collective bargaining relationship. In 1996, FMCS issued 30,066 panels of arbitrators. There are approximately 1,590 arbitrators on our roster.

FMCS arbitration rules and regulations have been revised, effective October 1, 1997, for the first time since 1979. We did so after convening a focus group of arbitrators and representatives of management and labor to elicit their views on our service and on the proposed rule changes.

Arbitration service outputs are:

Labor-Management Grants - Since 1981, as authorized by the Labor-Management Cooperation Act of 1978, FMCS has provided grant money and technical assistance for the establishment and operation of labor-management committees at the plant, industry and area level, and in the public sector. In awarding grants, FMCS looks for novel approaches to collaborative labor-management relations and problem-solving. Committees funded under this grants program have addressed a wide array of issues from health care cost containment to total quality management and industry competitiveness issues.

Since 1981, FMCS has awarded more than $17,653,000 million to more than 200 labor-management committee grant applicants experimenting with innovative joint approaches to workplace issues. While the statute authorizes a funding level of $10 million, actual funding has never exceeded the current level of $1.75 million.

Outputs of this service are:

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR )- FMCS provides a variety of dispute resolution services to government agencies outside of the collective bargaining arena. Mediators provide facilitation and mediation services as well as consultation, conflict resolution systems design, and education, training and mentoring on conflict resolution techniques. Currently, mediators are, for example, helping to reduce backlogs of employment discrimination charges for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Agriculture and working on a pilot youth mediation project.

We are committed to exploring new opportunities to use our conflict resolution and consensus building expertise, particularly in cases with broad public policy implications. For example, mediators convene and facilitate regulatory negotiations for a variety of agencies and have conducted other multi-party, multi-issue public policy dialogues. These range from rulemaking over Indian Self-Determination issues to environmental and public land use disputes. During 1996 FMCS conducted four regulatory negotiations and 462 cases under 47 different interagency agreements. This work is increasing. FMCS also hopes to participate in a leadership role in efforts to promote the greater use of ADR in government in accordance with the 1996 Administrative Dispute Resolution Act.

For government, the use of ADR is intended to reduce litigation costs and result in better decision making. While hard data showing the results of ADR usage in quantifiable terms is so far limited, anecdotal evidence of its returns is largely positive. We will be tracking our experience over the next few years as well as external research on the subject.

Our ADR outputs include:

Education, Advocacy and Outreach - A critical part of the strategic redirection initiated by the Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS was an enhanced effort to reach out to customers and potential customers to let them know about the full range of services available and to gather valuable feedback about how we can improve. The purpose of these services is to promote wider understanding, acceptance and proper use of the collective bargaining process and third-party assistance in the prevention and constructive resolution of labor-management and other disputes in the public arena. Customer outreach is now part of every mediator's job. They advocate sound labor-management relations, and educate about the benefits of mechanisms for managing and resolving conflict.

Mediators lecture at educational institutions, showcase our services at conferences, work with local labor-management committees and other community organizations, and meet one on one with members of the collective bargaining community, our primary customer base. Through outreach and strategic alliances with other practitioners and organizations, we can leverage our resources and thereby extend our reach. This will directly promote achievement of our top goal -- the diffusion of "best practices."

To illustrate, on September 1-2, FMCS sponsored a first-time, two-day summit of labor mediation agencies world wide. Over 75 representatives from 30 nations, including every continent, participated. They then joined about 1300 individuals in a one and a half day public symposium, held on the occasion of the FMCS 50th anniversary, devoted to exploring the past, present and future of labor-management relations in the private, public and federal sectors, as well as arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. These events provided a unique opportunity for learning and dialogue among leaders of labor, management, government, and academia, from both here and abroad.

Through the services described above, FMCS serves the international community as well as customers in the United States. As discussed (at 6, supra), increasingly, more nations are examining their industrial relations and conflict resolution systems as a means of securing economic growth and competitiveness. FMCS is receiving a growing number of requests for training and technical assistance in industrial relations practices, cooperative labor-management relations, and conflict resolution techniques. FMCS conducts briefings and training programs for labor, management, and government leaders in the United States and sends mediators to provide training overseas. So far this year, FMCS has briefed 365 representatives from 28 countries and assigned 20 mediators to overseas projects, from Bosnia to Argentina, from Hungary to El Salvador.

The Connection Between Annual Performance Goals, the Described Strategies, and The Strategic Goals

Each of our described services will contribute to achievement of our annual goals and, in turn, our strategic goals. Our output and outcome goals are directly linked in a hierarchical fashion, as are the means to achieve the goals and the goals themselves. Simply stated, the more skills and knowledge our mediators possess, the greater their mastery of the Agency core competencies, and the better their performance will be. The better their performance, the higher the level of customer satisfaction will be. Satisfied customers will lead to greater use of our services to explore better ways to relate and resolve conflict. This in turn will lead to greater public awareness of best practices of conflict resolution and their adoption by a broad range of organizations (our highest goal).

Similarly, the more we do to increase public awareness of our services (through education, outreach and advocacy activities, and through greater use of information technology), the greater the interest in and utilization of our assistance; the greater the interest and utilization, the greater the knowledge and ability of our customers - both traditional and new -- to improve their relations and resolve conflicts constructively. Success in working up through these chains depends on strong performance in all of our services. Likewise, poor performance in any one will jeopardize success both for us and for our customers.

In measuring our progress in achieving our goals, we intend to rely heavily on the results of a 1996 nationwide customer survey described more fully in Part VIII, below. Through this survey, we have already obtained extensive baseline data on customer awareness, use, and satisfaction with our services, as well as the state of labor relations today. This data has helped us to identify indicators of performance and will be used as a baseline against which to measure our progress in meeting annual performance goals. Our progress over the course of this Plan will be incremental, but as we proceed we expect to better learn how to quantify our long-term goals.

VI. EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT COULD AFFECT ACHIEVEMENT OF THE GENERAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

In developing this Strategic Plan for 1997-2002, we have identified a number of external factors which could affect our ability to achieve our goals. Significant changes in the external environment may affect our ability to implement this Plan. Some of these factors are quite general. They include:

In addition to these broad factors, FMCS has made certain critical assumptions about factors outside our control which affect the linkage between levels in the hierarchy of objectives we have presented and could affect achievement of our strategic goals. Assumptions at this level include, for example:

Some of these external factors are givens as to which FMCS has no control, but as to others - e.g., social attitudes and bias, relationships between labor and management, even workplace skill levels -- FMCS can have an influence, even if at a very micro-level. Through its work FMCS helps and teaches people to resolve differences, to better manage conflict and solve problems, and, in general, to work more skillfully, collaboratively and creatively in strengthening relationships and thereby workplace -- or government -- performance.

VII. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM EVALUATIONS USED, AND A SCHEDULE FOR FUTURE EVALUATIONS

The FMCS Strategic Plan for 1997-2002 has been informed by assessments and analyses carried out over the past few years, including the work of The Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS and our first customer survey. The primary lessons learned from these two analytic efforts are highlighted below. As we proceed, FMCS intends to continue to rely upon and expand the use of our customer survey. In addition, we will be acquiring and analyzing new types of data on the results of the services we deliver. For example, we are considering the use of both pre and post-intervention questionnaires evaluating the impact of some of our work.

In the past, FMCS has not relied upon program evaluations as they are conventionally defined, i.e., we have not hired outside evaluators to examine our program on either a service or geographic basis, nor would we expect to focus heavily on this kind of study in the future. We have, however, benefited, and will continue to do so, from the results of our nationwide customer survey, as well as from the different focus groups we have conducted. These types of techniques seem well suited to our needs, and we will expand their use in the future.

In addition, FMCS welcomes the structured opportunity to review our own performance that the GPRA is providing. The GPRA is moving FMCS forward in a direction in which the organization was already heading. At the same time, the Act's requirements for performance measurement at the outcome, as well as the output, level, which we address in our Annual Performance Plan, presents many new challenges. We are basically an agency of "peacekeepers" whose results may not always be easy to measure in quantifiable terms, although the economic costs to society from violence, litigation, or work days lost due to strikes seems obvious. Nonetheless, the efforts we will make to acquire valid and relevant data at output and outcome levels will, we believe, give us a hands-on understanding of the possibilities, as well as the difficulties, of acquiring these types of information.

Lessons of Continuing Relevance Learned from the Mediator Task Force

A basic premise for creating The Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS was that FMCS must be mindful of the substantive factors affecting our traditional customers, the unions and firms in the organized sector of the economy, and how this, in turn, has affected the bargaining process and labor-management relationship. "A key assumption underlying the establishment of this Task Force was that if FMCS simply does what it has always done, even if it does these things very well,...then time will pass us by, and our services, while still important, will find fewer customers and we risk becoming an organization of the past." Report, at i.

In beginning its work, the Task Force first scanned trends and changes in our external environment, the economy, and workplaces to determine the nature and direction of the larger forces which will determine what the future has in store. It examined the likely effects of these trends on industrial relations and collective bargaining, translated the resulting changes into customer-supplier needs, and compared these with existing capabilities.

The Task Force studied innovations in labor management relations and made site visits to, among other places, the Saturn/UAW plan in Tennessee. It sought ideas from national leaders of labor, business, academia, and government, as well as several private practitioners who compete with various aspects of FMCS work. Many remarked that FMCS did a poor job in publicizing our services and our successes. Some urged us to play a critical role as a repository of possible solutions to difficult issues that cut across industry lines, as a catalytic agent for workplace innovation and a source of information about successful change models.

Based on this research, the Task Force determined where change and improvement were warranted, especially the need for training, the need to change the evaluation system to encourage continuous improvement in performance as well as creativity, initiative and innovation, the need to become technologically current, and the need to project a coherent agency image to better publicize our expertise and services.

The Task Force grappled with the fundamental question whether FMCS should branch out into dispute mediation or conflict resolution in a whole variety of fields; deepen involvement in labor-management relations to ensure constructive dispute resolution, cooperative efforts, work reorganization; or, should or can we do both, particularly given limited resources and staff? The Task Force concluded that, to best prepare for the future, FMCS as an agency should acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities to remain a major contributor to both the labor relations and conflict resolution systems.

Today, the Agency as a whole does not have the requisite capability to deliver in more than an isolated fashion many of the new kinds of services--both labor relations and ADR--which its customers need today and, the trends indicate, will need tomorrow.

To provide these services, FMCS will need continuous learning and improvement. Its mediators will need up-to-date skills. Substantive training and expertise will be absolutely essential for our future vision to become reality. The Agency culture, and particularly the evaluation system, will have to encourage the "full service" mediator. ...At a minimum, the Agency must have sufficient expertise about current trends to be able to advise the parties meaningfully about them, even if ultimately it can not deliver the hands-on service. [Report at 4.]

In implementing our 1995-97 strategic plan, we have progressed in making this full service mediator vision a reality. We will continue this into the next century. As we set about to fulfill the goals set out in this current Strategic Plan, we will be building on the lessons learned from the Mediator Task Force research and conclusions, striving to achieve the vision articulated in 1994.

New Lessons Learned from First FMCS Nationwide Customer Survey

In the summer of 1997, FMCS received the analysis and report on our first-ever nationwide customer survey. The survey asked union and management representatives whether or not they used FMCS services. Those that did were asked for their assessments of the services received. All respondents were asked questions about the issues and challenges facing their collective bargaining and labor management relationships. Thus, in addition to providing customer satisfaction data to FMCS, the survey provides a nationally representative portrait of contemporary collective bargaining relationships. We have used the data from this survey to develop indicators of customer satisfaction and other outcomes which we will use to monitor performance over time and gauge our improvement.

Several key lessons have been learned from the results of this survey:

These data provide some clear direction -- e.g., the need to do a better job at publicizing our services -- but also raise questions for further analysis -- e.g., are the approval ratings good enough; what do the differing perceptions of union and management indicate, and what direction or emphasis should we place in the future, particularly if resources are tight?

We intend to conduct a follow-up to this survey on a periodic basis, perhaps every three years. As an organization, we will continue to learn from our customers.

VIII. CONCLUSION

Over the course of the last four years, the men and women of FMCS have been striving to learn and to strengthen our capabilities to deliver high quality conflict resolution services which will have positive results for our customers in labor, business and industry, and government, and for the nation at large. This Plan envisions substantial, continuing change into the future. It is aligned to our charter and our mission and gives us a compass heading on which we can base our future staffing, systems, and budgets. It is flexible and positions us for even greater changes and challenges than we have seen in recent years. Continuous monitoring and adjustment will be required.

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