Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, and Homeland Security (D.P.S.)

Department

Division of Criminal Justice, Legal Studies and Homeland Security

First Advisor

Keith Cozine

Second Advisor

Brian Harte

Third Advisor

James Ramsey

Abstract

The Department of Homeland (DHS) was borne of the fires of 9/11 and assigned the mission to protect America from terrorism, and what has subsequently grown into a broad range of threats. As evidenced by reports produced by governmental watchdog agencies and academic literature, DHS has been widely criticized for its response to a number of emergencies, and the morale of its workforce remains at or near the bottom of all federal government agencies. Using existing literature and theory as a baseline, this dissertation will examine organizational structure and leadership theory as applied to homeland security organizations through a comparative analysis of the views of homeland security practitioners. Existing literature on the broad concepts of organizational structure and leadership is abundant, however, there is much less work that seeks to examine the concepts through the lens of homeland security organizations. A mixed methodology will be implemented using a survey instrument that was administered to via an online platform to help enlighten the discussion and add to the existing body of literature. The goal of this research is to fill an existing gap in the application of existing works to homeland security organizations, and to inform homeland security leaders of best organizational models to achieve their missions. Admittedly, this research will be limited in scope to a small population centered around one geographic area, but it is the hope of this author that subsequent research will help fill in the gaps left by this study.

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