Managing for Results: 2013 Federal Managers Survey on Organizational Performance and Management Issues (GAO-13-519SP, June 2013), an E-supplement to GAO-13-518

Background

This e-publication supplements our report, Managing for Results: Executive Branch Should More Fully Implement the GPRA Modernization Act to Address Pressing Governance Challenges (GAO-13-518). The purpose of this e-publication is to provide information from our web-based survey of federal managers on their observations on and perceptions of results-oriented management topics. Such topics included the presence and use of performance measures, hindrances to measuring performance and using performance information, and agency climate. In addition, the survey also included a section on the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), as amended by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) (Public Law 111-352) asking managers about their perceptions of various provisions of GPRAMA, such as cross-agency priority goals and quarterly performance reviews. This survey updated information obtained from four previous GAO surveys of federal managers conducted in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2007. For a copy of our 2007 survey results, see GAO-08-1036SP.

The web-based survey was administered between November 2012 and February 2013. We selected a stratified random sample of 4,391 persons from a population of approximately 148,300 mid-level and upper-level civilian managers and supervisors (General Schedule levels 13 through 15 and career Senior Executive Service, or equivalent) working in the 24 executive branch agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended (CFO Act) (31 U.S.C. § 901(b)). We received useable responses from about 69 percent of the eligible sample. The response rate across the 24 agencies ranged from 57 percent to 88 percent. This e-publication presents the survey estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals based on all respondents, i.e., governmentwide, as well as for each of the 24 CFO Act agencies separately. See GAO-13-518 for a more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology, as well as a discussion of survey results.

This e-publication presents the aggregate results to survey questions as reported to GAO by the managers in our sample. We do not report open-ended narrative responses or responses to the survey's demographic questions, but we did review them. A copy of the final web survey instrument is reproduced in this e-publication. We conducted this performance audit from August 2012 to June 2013 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Click on the links below to view the questionnaire and results.

Governmentwide
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Department of Commerce (Commerce)
Department of Defense (DOD)
Department of Education (Education)
Department of Energy (Energy)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
General Services Administration (GSA)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Department of the Interior (Interior)
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Department of Labor (Labor)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Department of State (State)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Department of the Treasury (Treasury)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Governmentwide

This section of the e-supplement presents the governmentwide responses provided by mid-level and upper-level managers and supervisors at the 24 CFO Act agencies to the questions on the Federal Managers Survey. Although respondents were asked to provide written comments to open-ended questions, these responses are not provided here. We received useable responses from about 69 percent of the eligible sample.

Questionnaire Contents

(450989)

Copyright

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