Option 2 – What’s Behind Declining Customer Service at the IRS?
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects taxes on behalf of the federal government. In 2015, the agency faced significant cutbacks in funding from Congress. These cutbacks resulted in significant staff reductions, eliminated training for individual agents, and delayed needed technology upgrades. Some field offices were closed entirely.
The cutbacks made it difficult for taxpayers to reach the IRS either by phone or in person in order to ask questions or resolve issues during the 2015 filing season. Commissioner John Koskinen, who was appointed to lead the agency in December 2013, faced criticism in the media, as well as from taxpayers and members of Congress. Commissioner Koskinen completed the term of his appointment in November of 2017, after which David J. Kautter served as the acting Commissioner until President Trump appointed Charles P. Rettig in October of 2018.
On April 9, 2015, National Public Radio (NPR) talk show host Diane Rehm dedicated an hour-long program to the declining customer service at the IRS. Her show presents an interesting set of perspectives about the challenges facing IRS Commissioner Koskinen and his recent successors. If you decide to choose this option for your final paper, you may listen to the show at the following website:
“What’s Behind Declining Customer Service at the IRS” http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-04-09/whats-behind-declining-customer-service-at-the-irs (Audio recording of the program)
Alternatively, you may download this Word Document, which is a transcript of the show. (If you decide to use a direct quote, you may quote the page number in the Word document).
Diane Rehm Show – What’s Behind Declining Service at the IRS.docx Diane Rehm Show – What’s Behind Declining Service at the IRS.docx (I WILL ATTACH ON FILES)- Alternative Formats (Transcript of the program)
If you choose this option, write a memo to Commissioner Kautter offering guidance about how to address the problems at the IRS. Your memo should be approximately five pages in length (double-spaced).
You may use just the information in the article above for this writing assignment, or you may also do additional research if you are interested. There are a lot of details available, including reports and news articles, which may prove helpful if you decide to undertake additional research. However, try to be mindful that a complete reporting of the details is much less important than your analysis of the situation and application of course concepts. In other words, do NOT simply provide a timeline/summary of events. Remember, a brief summary is always helpful to get your reader up to speed but that is not the purpose of this paper. I want to know what you would advise Acting Commissioner Kautter to do with the challenges he faces based on course concepts you have learned over the past few weeks.
The following may offer a way of organizing your analysis:
1. What are the most significant risks and problems the Acting Commissioner faces in addressing the problems within the Internal Revenue Service? (You might find it helpful to consider the key stakeholders and sources of authority in the agency’s external environment, as well as the IRS agents and staff within the organization).
2. What changes do you believe are necessary in order to improve the operations and reputation of the organization? Again, this is a complex situation and you aren’t expected to have full knowledge of all the details. Describe generally principles or concepts from the course that can help Acting Commissioner Kautter analyze the situation, as well as specific actions he might take. (Perhaps consider concepts related to the external environment, organizational structure and design, approaches to motivating workers and creating incentives, and how changes in these areas might help shore up external support).
3. What do you see as the most important principles for successful change and transformation within the IRS? (Perhaps consider concepts related to overcoming resistance to change, resolving conflict, and attributes of effective, high performing organizations).
4. Describe at least two lessons learned from this case study that build upon concepts from this course.
