IRS Management: IRS Practices Contribute to its Resilience, but it Would Benefit from Additional Emergency Planning Efforts

摘要

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects the revenues that fund the federal government and issues billions of dollars in refunds. Consequently, IRS's ability to demonstrate agility and speed in restoring its functions after a disruption is vital to the government and the economy. GAO (1) identified the definition and attributes of organizational resilience; (2) examined the extent to which these attributes are exhibited within IRS; and (3) reviewed the challenges and opportunities faced by the IRS in becoming more resilient. GAO gathered and analyzed the attributes of resilience based on discussions with academic and practitioner experts in the field. GAO then reviewed IRS human capital and emergency preparedness policies and strategic plans, observed campus operations and emergency working group meetings, and interviewed officials from headquarters and each of the four business units. Organizational resilience is the quality that would enable an organization to restore itself or thrive following a disruption that substantially compromises its ability to accomplish its mission. Five categories of attributes can help an organization be more resilient: robust emergency planning, flexible organizational assets that can be accessed during times of change, leadership capacity distributed through the organization, a committed and skilled workforce, and strong relationships with internal networks and outside organizations. Although each of these categories is important, the characteristics of whatever disruption an organization faces may make some attributes more valuable than others. In its emergency planning, IRS has learned from experiences requiring organizational resilience.