RESEARCH METHODS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Assignment
November 14, 2021

Family Name                       Given Name                                                                            MI

C A N D O N E S , J O E M A R K B .

1. The Title of the Study and the Brief Introduction of the

Organization

 Title

The Impact of Retention Strategies in Minimizing the Turnover

Intention of Job Order Personnel at DPWH Davao del Sur District
Engineering Office

 History, Profile and VMM of Department of Public Works and Highways

(DPWH)

History:

Under Executive Order No. 710 dated July 27, 1981, the Ministries
of Public Works and Public Highways were merged for a more effective
and sustained implementation of infrastructure projects. Under the
restructured set-up, the agency was known as the Ministry of Public Works
and Highways (MPWH) with 14 regional offices, 94 districts and 60 city
engineering offices, 5 bureaus and 6 service offices, in addition to
corporations and councils attached to the Ministry for administrative
supervision.
By virtue of Executive Order No. 124, dated January 30, 1987, the
agency was known as the Department of Public Works and Highways
(DPWH). The DPWH is one of the largest organizations in the executive
branch in terms of size and budget. It is composed of six (6) Bureaus, nine
(9) Services, 16 Regional Offices (ROs), 183 District Engineering Offices
(DEOs)and five (5) Unified Project Management Offices (UPMO) Clusters.
The Department of Public Works and Highways works as the
engineering and development arm of the Government entrusted to
persistently build up its innovation and technology to guarantee the safety
of all infrastructure facilities and verifying for every single public work and
construction the highest proficiency and quality in development. DPWH is
presently in charge of arranging, structure, development and upkeep of
infrastructure, particularly the national highways, flood control and water
assets development system, and other public works in conformity with
national improvement objectives.

Profile:

Being one of the eight (8) District Offices, under the Department of
Public Works and Highways, Regional Office XI, Davao del Sur District
Engineering Office, which is renamed as Davao del Sur District
Engineering Office effective December 12, 2016, as per Department Order
No. 221 Series of 2016 have six (6) Operating Sections, namely:
1. Planning and Design Section (PDS)
2. Construction Section (CS)
3. Maintenance Section (MS)
4. Quality Assurance Section (QAS)
5. Administrative Section (AS)
6. Finance Section (FS)
The DPWH- Davao del Sur District Engineering Office covers the
following:
NAME OF
CITY/MUNICIPALIT No. of Land Area Population
 Y Barangays (Sq.m)
1.Magsaysay 22 1698.70 53,876
2.Bansalan 25 1577.50 60,440
3. Sta.Cruz 18 2777.20 90,984
4. Matanao 33 2024.00 56,755
5. Digos City 26 2678.70 169,393
6. Hagonoy 21 1166.40 53,309
7. Padada 17 450.30 26,587
8. Kiblawan 30 3900.70 48,897
9. Sulop 25 1552.60 33,613
10. Malalag 15 1861.20 38,731
TOTAL 232 1,968.73 632,585

The District has the following number of manpower including Job

Order Personnel in Calendar Year 2021:

Positio Financ Admi Constructi Plannin QA M OD TOTA

n e n on g S S E L
Regula 5 10 7 11 8 13 6 60
r
Job 12 29 33 51 22 84 13 244
Orders

Mission:

Quality infrastructure facilities is the main mission of the

Department, especially by providing and managing these infrastructures and
services that are responsive to the necessities of the Filipino people in quest
for an efficient and effective national development objective.

Vision:

The vision of DPWH is to become effective and efficient government

agency by developing and enriching the life every Filipino through quality
infrastructure.
Mandate:
 The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is one of
the three departments of the government undertaking major infrastructure
projects. The DPWH is mandated to undertake (a) the planning of
infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, flood control, water resources
projects and other public works, and (b) the design, construction and
maintenance of national roads and bridges, and major flood control systems.

2. The Problems that are relevant to the organization even up to

this day

Currently, the DPWH Davao del Sur Engineering Office is operated

by sixty (60) permanent employees and an average of two hundred forty-
four (244) Job Order Workers. From this data, the District relied much of its
services to the people through the help of Job Order Workers. With the
approximate 19,687.30 sqm geographical area and a total no. of 96 projects
with a corresponding amount of Php 2,618,396,000.00 allotment received in
CY 2021 by the District, the organization’s current plantilla is clearly
inadequate composing only 60 regular employees. That is why, the agency
hired much of their workforce from Contract of Service workers totaling an
average of 264 job orders for the calendar year 2021. Since, Job Order under
the definition of Joint Circular No.1, s.2017 of CSC-COA-DBM, has no
employer-employee relationship with the government agencies, this give rise
to following issues as stated in the joint circular:

 Lack of social protection for the workers and inequality in benefits; and
 Obscure accountability of JO/COS workers.

For this reason, Job Order Personnel tend to relocate to other

agencies after gaining enough knowledge, skills and experience thereby
disrupting the usual operation and workflow of the agency. Consequently,
turnovers of Job Orders imply that the agency will take time to train the
newly hired workers again.
In the case of DPWH –Davao del Sur District Engineering Office,
almost all of those Job Order workers who resigned from office were
 considered as competent and experienced staff based on feedback from
different section’s head. A lot of them were Job Orders for 2 years and
above which means that they have already obtained sufficient work
experience. Based on the situation, the district became as training ground for
some workers to gain experience and knowledge.

Hiring another person to replace the experienced staff may be

difficult at first. Adjustments and orientation should be made to welcome
and informed them of the processes and organizational culture of the agency.

Likewise, a lack of adequate manpower brings stress to the remaining

employees coping up all the workload assigned to the personnel who leave
the agency. And even the agency hires new one, still the new entrant shall
undergo adjustments and training. There are also other complexities during
the replacement of workers, to wit:

• The newly hired person may not be as efficient as the old one. He/she takes
time to adapt with the system, co-worker and new environment;
• Co-workers at the time of replacement need to allot time for coaching the
newly appointed personnel affecting his/her workflow; and
• Cultural differences may arise between the newly hired and existing
employees which may slow down job performance.

These difficulties mentioned above drastically influence impairment

on the efficiency and effectiveness of any organization or any public sector.
Retention Strategies therefore must be devised to reduce or curtail turnover
rate as much as possible. If experienced staffs thought of leaving their jobs
after years of experience, possible disorientation will occur within the
organization. Future programs and corporate’s goals will be affected and
disturbed as a result of possible loss of competent and experienced
employees.

3. The possible causes of the problem.

 The main problem that the DPWH -Davao del Sur District
Engineering Office currently experiencing is illustrated through a Cause
and Effect Diagram or mostly known as Fish Bone Analysis.

Figure 2. Root Cause Analysis on Job Order Turnover

JOB SECURITY PEOPLE

FUND ALLOCATION LACK OF MOTIVATION

SOMETIMES INADEQUATE

INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
FEWER PERMANENT
JOB ORDER AND
POSITION AVAILABLE
MANAGEMENT IS POOR
JOB ORDER
TURNOVER
INTENTION
LACK OF LACK OF TRAINING
REWARD/INCENTIVES DUE TO FUNDS
NON-AVAILABILITY

POOR LACK OF CAREER

REMUNERATION PROGRESSION
(DELAYED)

SALARY CAREER
STRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT