[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 223 (Tuesday, November 23, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66520-66521]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-25577]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Management and Organizational Practices Survey

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on July 29, 2021 during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce.
    Title: Management and Organizational Practices Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0963.
    Form Number(s): MP-10002.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Reinstatement, 
with Change, of a Previously Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 51,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 45 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 38,250.
    Needs and Uses: The 2021 Management and Organizational Practices 
Survey (MOPS) will be conducted as a joint project by the Census 
Bureau, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Stanford 
School of Humanities and Sciences, and the Stanford Institute for 
Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The MOPS will utilize the 
Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) sample and collect information on 
management and organizational practices at the establishment level. 
Data obtained from the survey will allow the Census Bureau to estimate 
a firm's stock of management and organizational assets, specifically 
the use of establishment performance data, such as production targets 
in decision-making and the prevalence of decentralized decision rights. 
The results will provide information on investments in management and 
organizational practices thus providing a better understanding of the 
benefits

[[Page 66521]]

from these investments when measured in terms of firm productivity or 
firm market value.
    The MOPS has been conducted periodically since 2010 and provides a 
linkage to the Census Bureau's data sets on plant level outcomes. Since 
every establishment in the MOPS sample is also in the ASM, the results 
of MOPS 2015 were linked with certainty to annual performance data at 
the plant level, including outcomes on sales, shipments, payroll, 
employment, inventories, capital expenditure, and more for the period 
2014-2018. There is no other source for the MOPS data collection.
    Understanding the determinants of productivity growth is essential 
to understanding the dynamics of the U.S. economy. The MOPS provides 
information to assist in determining whether the large and persistent 
differences in productivity across establishments (even within the same 
industry) are partly driven by differences in management and 
organizational practices. In addition to increasing the understanding 
of the dynamics of the economy, MOPS data can provide insight to 
policymakers interested in productivity growth or other metrics of 
business performance into the current state of management and 
organizational practices in the U.S. manufacturing sector. This insight 
could inform economic forecasts or policies.
    The MOPS provides information on differences in manufacturing 
management and organizational practices by region, industry, and firm 
size. These results can be used by U.S. manufacturing businesses to 
benchmark their own management and organizational practices relative to 
their peers and inform changes in those practices. The survey sponsors 
have used the published tables and methodology documentation to set up 
a self-scoring tool for benchmarking purposes. Similarly, interested 
businesses can use the published tables to examine how their 
implementation of specific practices compares to national rates of 
adoption or use published tables in conjunction with the methodology 
documentation to evaluate how their use of structured management 
practices compares to subsector, state, establishment size class, and 
establishment age class. Industry trade organizations may also wish to 
communicate this information to their members. For example, a printing 
industry publication communicated the results of the 2015 MOPS (https://whattheythink.com/data/85108-printing-industry-defined-managemen/), 
and economic development agencies in Wisconsin cited the state's 
ranking in the 2015 MOPS when announcing a program aimed at increasing 
manufacturing productivity in the state (https://biztimes.com/new-initiative-aimed-at-addressing-manufacturing-productivity/). Since the 
MOPS data are also connected with annual performance data, the MOPS 
results can directly aid policy discussions regarding what policymakers 
can do to assist U.S. manufacturing companies as they react to a 
changing economy.
    The 2021 MOPS includes a new purchased services module on the 
establishment's use of its own employees, contractors, temporary staff, 
or leased workers for select business expenses. These data will help 
the Census Bureau, businesses, and policymakers understand the 
relationship between an important organizational decision--what 
activities are the responsibility of the business's own employees and 
what activities are contracted to other businesses--and business 
outcomes such as growth and survivorship when linked with the ASM, 
Economic Census, and Business Register.
    For the 2021 MOPS, the Data and Decision Making module has been 
modified to remove some existing components and expanded to include 
questions focused on the frontier uses of data to inform artificial 
intelligence. As such, the module has been re-titled ``Data, Decision 
Making, and Artificial Intelligence.'' Understanding the 
characteristics of businesses that rely upon data in making decisions 
helps businesses and policymakers understand the role that data 
collection and analysis play in business outcomes. By producing 
statistics on the use of frontier technologies for decision making, the 
Census Bureau can help businesses and policymakers identify potential 
use cases for these technologies. In addition, the Census Bureau can 
better plan future collections and reduce respondent burden if it 
understands how businesses retain and analyze their own data.
    Additionally, the 2021 MOPS includes three questions added to the 
background characteristics module inquiring about an establishment's 
use of an external Certified Public Accountant. Use of an external 
Certified Public Accountant affects how businesses retain and review 
their own data, which can have implications for management practices 
and can help the Census Bureau plan future collections and reduce 
respondent burden.
    The 2021 MOPS simplified questions on the location of decision-
making in multi-location firms in the organization module by combining 
them into a single table and removing write-in responses, removed some 
forecasting questions in the uncertainty module, removed two background 
characteristic questions, and removed all questions regarding a five-
year recall period.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: One time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U/S.C. Sections 131 and 182.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-0963.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2021-25577 Filed 11-22-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P