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FMCS STRATEGIC PLAN 1997-2002 Director's Strategic Outlook In 1997 the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) celebrates its 50th anniversary as the nation's premier body for resolution of collective bargaining disputes and the key public source of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) assistance to other governmental agencies. Created as an independent agency in 1947, in reaction to a record number of strikes which occurred at the close of the second World War, FMCS was directed to provide mediation, conciliation and arbitration services to labor and management. Since then, FMCS's charter has been expanded by a variety of subsequent statutory enactments, demonstrating the value of our services to the nation as well as our hard-earned reputation as a "neutral broker." We value highly the trust that parties to even the most rancorous disputes place in our mediators. As we face our historic 50 year landmark, FMCS is being challenged to adjust to profound and persistent change. Virtually every organization is struggling to adjust to new economic realities. In the past five decades, the American economy, and our ideas about the workplace, have undergone a radical transformation. Manufacturing grew to extraordinary levels and then faced enormous pressures from overseas competition and rapid technological innovation. We have seen our manufacturing base overtaken by a service economy that continues to expand in uncharted directions. Across this horizon, the rate at which work in America is changing is exponential, not gradual. The workplace, both private and public, is facing the pressure of relentless competition, both domestic and foreign, the challenge of new technologies, deregulation of major industries, privatization of government functions, and growing workforce diversity. The pressures these changes place on both labor and management are unparalleled. We at FMCS are responding to the same forces. To be as effective in the next fifty years as we have been since our founding, FMCS must anticipate the evolving needs of our customers and the implications of those changing needs for the services we provide. This Strategic Plan which we have developed in compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 does just that. The future, as we envision it, is one in which we will continue to promote collective bargaining, negotiated solutions to differences, and the value of third-party, neutral mediation. What has already begun to change, and will continue to change, we predict, is the variety of joint strategies that labor and management are willing to employ to enhance their working relationships, strengthen the performance of their organizations and, thereby, provide good jobs. Increasingly, the parties are looking to FMCS for assistance in transforming their relationships. Likewise, we predict that the range of customers who seek the conflict resolution assistance of FMCS will expand and diversify, beyond the collective bargaining arena, and even beyond our domestic border. The goals which FMCS has set for 1997-2002 reflect our view of the evolving nature of our work and customer base. They also reflect our understanding that our work has an impact even on organizations to which we do not directly provide services. In this age of "instant communications," FMCS has a unique opportunity to lead and teach by example. Each year there are fewer strikes, but when they do occur, and when their impact is felt throughout the economy, people expect action. The recent strike by the Teamsters against the United Parcel Service tells this story clearly. We saw the President pressed to intervene and stop the strike. His response, and FMCS's steady presence at the bargaining table, provided a national lesson, not only in the independence of the collective bargaining process from government, but, equally important, in the benefits of a structured dispute mediation process to help the parties find common ground to resolve their differences and to minimize the impact of work stoppages. The diffusion of this lesson into organizations that FMCS will never touch directly is an essential part of our mission and strategy for the 21st century. FMCS's strategic plan for 1997-2002 did not emerge from a blank sheet of paper. It evolves from our organizational change efforts of the last four years. Our "reinvention" began in December 1993 when we initiated a strategic planning process by assembling The Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS. The Task Force was empowered to make recommendations on the agency mission, goals and policies for the future. Its recommendations, issued in 1994, formed a roadmap leading to greater opportunities for organizational learning, continuous performance improvement and increased organizational effectiveness. They focused heavily on internal changes which FMCS needed to undertake, including an expansion of our conception of the role of the mediator. These became the foundation for our 1995-1997 strategic action plan outlining actions necessary to accomplish our internal reinvention. Today, the reinvention initiatives outlined in our 1995 Strategic Plan are substantially underway and have produced significant change, with a focus on customer satisfaction, mediation performance, employee education and training, technological modernization, outreach to the collective bargaining community, aggressive new hiring of a workforce reflective of our nation's people, and expansion into other arenas of conflict resolution. FMCS has experienced genuine innovation and reinvention, and feedback from our customers -- the collective bargaining community -- and from the Congress, the Administration, academics and the greater conflict resolution community indicates widespread support for this transformation. On September 2, 1997, we were presented with the Vice President's Hammer Award for our agency-wide reinvention. We are deeply gratified by this award, which recognizes the highest achievements in governmental reinvention, and proud of our progress. In the face of these changes, our workforce remains deeply committed to the work of this Agency and to strengthening our performance so that we can continue to successfully contribute to our nation in this challenging era. This Strategic Plan builds upon our accomplishments. It describes what we do and provides a blue print for achieving our future goals. In developing this plan we have consulted with the Office of Management and Budget, with Congress, with other stakeholders and with our customers. The plan itself was developed by a group representative of the Agency which met on several occasions between January and August 1997, and is based upon the solid foundation of the long-range planning and reinvention initiatives of the last four years which, we believe, well positions this federal agency to meet the challenges of the next century.
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