Primary problem: Poor leadership
AARP is a chaotic place to work.
Although revenue is up and the AARP foundation weathered the financial crisis well, recently AARP executives decided to undertake another reorg. I say another because in the last 4 years, the organization has reorganized 5 times. More precisely, _at least_ 5 times because there may have been a few smaller, dept-level reorgs I'm not aware of.
Corporate reorganizations are rarely productive in my experience. Their primary use is to prune 'dead-wood' from the org chart tree while shifting emphasis back and forth between client/user-oriented vs process/resource-oriented cultures. ( I think of these perspectives as outward facing and inward facing, respectively. ) Companies can't be exclusively one or the other of course -- no organization can survive by only focusing on their client's needs or internal processes -- but the best companies find a balance.
AARP lost its balance several years ago and unfortunately can't seem to find its way back. One would think that after a 2nd or 3rd reorganization, the leadership team would consider that their problems may not be due to the corporate organization. Instead, reorg after reorg after reorg have been implemented rather than management taking a hard look in the mirror and reevaluating their assumptions.
I'm upset that I can't recommend AARP at this time (Q2 2013). I've enjoyed working here but the constant upheaval and job-insecurity are unsustainable, both organizationally and for me personally. Finding out who does what is impossible; it's become a running joke among the staff -- 'what dept are you in today?' I used to know who to go to if I needed something done; I don't that know anymore. I'm often not even sure what department to look in. To add insult to injury, with new organizations come new acronyms so AARP is becoming a bit like the military in its alphabet-soup generation.
It's ironic that AARP is so small -- less than 3000 people -- and yet after each reorg the hierarchy gets deeper and the bureaucracy thicker. Some internal departments have become functionally non-functional, which the executive team eventually had to acknowledge.
Their answer to the chaos? Yep, another reorg. The current reorg is the latest attempt to solve the problems left over from past reorgs. This time, the strategy is to outsource anything not mission critical, lopping off entire departments and forcing what staff remains into fearful silence.
Of course, AARP will survive and I hope thrive. Some of the outsourcing is long overdue. However, by their actions one can only surmise that the AARP's leadership sees AARP's staff as AARP's problem. The staff naturally begs to differ. Regardless, the CEO's contempt is loud and clear.
