REACTION TO REORGANIZATION AND DDO CUTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05T00644R000200660023-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2009
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: October 31, 1977
• Content Type: MEMO

CUNFT DF.NT T AL
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31 October 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT. Reaction to Reorganization and DDO
Cuts
1. At the conclusion of our meeting with you
on 22 September, you requested that we provide you
with reactions in the Agency to the DDI reorganiza-
tion and DDO cuts. You suggested a meeting when you
were not so pressed for time to discuss those reactions;
however, we were advised that your calendar did not al-
low for a meeting for several months. It was suggested
that a written response would be more timely, and
therefore more useful to you in judging what Agency
personnel think of your action on these decisions.
2. We went into the corridors to seek out those
reactions. The attached responses reflect very candid
feelings of Agency personnel--some directly affected
by the reorganization and cuts, and others who are on
the periphery, yet who felt strongly enough to register
an opinion.
3. We hope our efforts will be useful to you in
understanding how your actions are perceived among a
small yet diverse sampling of Agency employees.
4. We regret that we will not have the opportunity
to meet with you to discuss the reactions, but we do
wish to thank you for having received us in June and
September.
Respectfully,
Members of Midcareer Course No. 57
Attachments
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 CCINFTTIF.TITTAT. Attachment A
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Reactions to the Reorganization in the DDI
--Some twenty-five DDI employees were surveyed for their
opinions on the intelligence community's reorganization.
Most responded unfavorably to the reorganization although
only a few were strongly opposed. Most adopted a wait-and-
see attitude although a fair amount of skepticism was ex-
pressed in light of the results of last December's DDI reor
ganization. Two common threads were noted in virtually all
responses: first, employees do not understand the NFAC lines
of command and how it will work, and second they feel a strong
sense of identification with CIA that they believe is threat-
ened by the reorganization. The DDI employees were not as
concerned with the cutting of the 800 slots, largely because
most of them are coming in the DDO.
Despite your assurances that the reorganization will
have little impact on most employees' day-to-day activities,
people are not persuaded. The majority are apprehensive
about the change from DDI to NFAC, and a large number of
those surveyed are skeptical about what it will accomplish.
Opinions on the impact of the reorganization range from a
belief that it is purely cosmetic -- and therefore unneces-
sary -- to a fear that it is an attempt to reduce the power
of CIA as an organization. Only a few thought the reorgani-
zation could result in an improved intelligence product.
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Most of those surveyed said they did not have any firm opin-
ions on what the impact would be.
Several employees expressed a belief that the reorgani-
zation was driven -- and rushed to completion -- by a "top
level" need to satisfy Agency critics who were demanding re-
form. The ensuing reorganization, they reason, was poorly
conceived and NFAC may prove to be administratively unworkable.
Several of those surveyed continue to view you as the DCI with
some suspicion, and think the reorganization is being used as
a tool to bring in "outsiders" to wrest control of the intel-
ligence community from the CIA. One employee said the DDI
reorganization efforts to date appear aimed more at turning
intelligence production components into a mini-university or
a RAND Corporation than at improving on an existing intelli-
gence structure.
Employee reactions to the new NIO structure were mixed.
About a quarter of those interviewed thought the NIOs could
have a negative impact on production offices because the NIOs
would have free reign to disrupt research programs and sche-
dules, and command the use of personnel resources irrespective
of office managers own plans and programs. An equal number,
however, thought the new NIO structure could be a real boon
for the intelligence making process, providing top notch per-
sonnel occupied those positions. This group did not oppose
bringing in highly qualified "outsiders" to fill more of the
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NIO slots. The rest adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Nearly
all, however, thought the success of the NIOs -- and ultimately
of NFAC -- would depend largely on the competence and profes-
sionalism of the individual NIOs rather than on any organiza-
tional structure.
Most of those interviewed also expressed concern that
the NFAC reorganization might result in DDI analysts losing
their close ties with the DDO. DDI analysts view their day-
to-day contacts with DDO personnel as critical to the intel-
ligence making process. If we are no longer CIA, they reason,
DDO will close their doors to us for "need-to-know reasons"
as they have done with DIA and State INR. A few analysts
said the DDO, severed from its direct contacts with DDI,
might feel compelled to develop its own production component
to get out its product. They saw the DDO as already moving
in this direction.
Virtually all of those surveyed expressed strong oppo-
sition to having the intelligence production components
severed from the CIA. Despite all of the criticisms of the
Agency in recent years -- many of them justified -- employees
continue to believe the CIA is special, unique, and a highly
professional organization. DDI employees want to remain part
of CIA, and to be able to say they work for CIA -- not for an
"amorphous intelligence center" with no tradition or institu-
tional ties. Analysts fear that the professional reputation
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and influence CIA intelligence production offices currently
enjoy may well be lost in the intelligence community while
the new center attempts to build a reputation in competition
with other more established intelligence organizations.
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--The concept and basic logic in the creation of NFAC is,
sound. It appears, however from the preliminary information
available that the NFAC structure will in fact mushroom the
number of people working on the top level line and staffs.
This will have the effect of more people thinking up, dir-
recting, and levying requirements on the same limited re-
sources down at office level that has always accomplished
If implementation is planned and executed in the same
manner as the December 1976 DDI reorganization, NFAC will
start its existence with serious problems. Restraint should
be used in rushing into a quick cutover date. It is easy to
draft broad mission and function statements but difficult to
address and plan the myriad of personnel and management ques-
tions that are time consuming yet crucial to success.
As we approach the nine month mark of the DDI reorgani-
zation many mid-level officers question if it really ever got
off the ground .... the same could happen to the CIA reorga-
nization without some deliberate and detailed planning.
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 CONFIDENTIAL Attachment B
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Reactions to the Personnel Cuts in the DDO
-- Reactions at the working level of the DDO concernin-
pending personnel cuts varies considerably. Those who feel
that they may be among those selected for termination are
understandably nervous, defensive and critical They view
the cuts as another example of a management less concerned
with people than with the perpetuation of the bureaucracy.
Many of these individuals, if forced to resign, will leave
the Agency bitter and cynical. Others, who agree that the
DDO is too large and who accept the need to get rid of the
many unproductive employees within the DDO who have been
allowed to vegetate for many years, accept the pending cuts
as overdue. Many in this group, however, are concerned that
the "wrong" people may be cut. A number of DDO employees,
both professional and para-professional, are skeptical and
cynical. concerning the cuts at a time when the DDO is being
tasked with ever more operational objectives in the field.
Since officers are already working long hours in the field
they wonder who will be available to work on the new require-
ments. They also wonder who will be available to comply wit:
the constant stream of "make work" requirements levied on
country desks by the seventh floor.. Without doubt, the
pending cuts have damaged the morale of DDO personnel, who
have become increasingly cynical and disturbed about the
direction of the DDO in recent years. They realize that the
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DDO is no longer the elite corps they thought it to be in
the past. They no longer find the DDO to be the exciting,
personally satisfying and effective organization it once was.
The bureaucracy has consumed the DDO as it did State Department.
Unfortunately, many older employees now count the days to re-
tirement, while many younger employees lack the motivation,
dedication and intensity which was once the hallmark of the
DDO.
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--DDI employee reactions were mixed over the cutting of
the 800 slots. Over half of the twenty-five interviewed said
they did not know if DDO was overstaffed and they had not
heard how the cuts were being made. A vocal minority thought
the DDO was indeed overstaffed, and the cuts fully justified.
Two of those surveyed, however, said the cuts were "punishment"
for past DDO misdeeds. One questioned how personnel planners
could determine with confidence what future personnel. require-
ments would be when a major reorganization was pending. This
employee reasoned the number 800 was a "quota" that was reached
arbitrarily. The other said the Agency could have been more
humane by ordering the cuts over a period of several years,
allowing normal attrition to absorb most of the cuts. This
individual thought that an agency that hires individuals and
teaches them skills with little or no outside application has
a greater obligation to those-individuals than it does to
employees with more marketable skills. Some employees expres-
sed concern that "all" the cuts were coming from the lower and
middle grades. One employee said the majority of those being
cut were women -- reports officers, intelligence assistants,
and secetaries. A few expressed a fear that the cuts in DDO
would ultimately result in cuts in the DDI. All were bas-
ically relieved that the cuts planned thus far would not
impact heavily on the DDI.
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 CONFTDFNTT_AT,
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--In FY 78, more than.twice the cuts are to be levied
on those in grades GS-9 and below as opposed to GS-10 and
above leaving one midcareerist with the impressions that:
1. There will be a rise in the average grade of the
DDO; and
2. A situation will be created in which higher graded
employees will be forced to spend their time in lower graded
duties, primarily clerical, at a comparably greater cost to
the government.
The cuts are to be taken by the numbers without regard
to functions. Components have been advised to cut by occu-
pational category, principally those jobs noted as "para-
professional" (non-case officer) and clerical. Hence the
result outlined above. The problem with this approach is
that the clerical and "Para-professional" duties will still
have to be performed by someone--probably the operations of-
ficer. One finds it difficult to believe that this will
make the DDO more responsive and efficient.
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--One midcareerist, seeking out reactions to the cuts
in the DDO, anticipates an extremely high caseload impacting
on the Equal Employment Opportunity Office and the Inspector
General's Office when individuals in,the DDO, who are noti-
fied that they have been selected out, immediately turn to
those offices with petitions asserting that their selection
out was based upon age or sex discrimination or with claims
citing a lack of objectivity in the selection out process.
There is a greater concern within the DDO regarding
the effect that the cuts will have on security within the
Directorate of Operations, and, ultimately, on the entire
Agency given the fact that there is a six-month notification
period prior to separation. The number of people who will
be separated and that six-month period, creates an extremely
high potential for a serious--or series of--security breaches
in an attempt to strike back at the establishment.
Moreover, Mr. Wells' memorandum of October 177, offers
an even greater opportunity for emotional strain once the
notifications go out. He points out that if attrition rates
don't match expectations, others may need to be notified.
Hence, the specter of a second cut and the attendant impact
on morale, emotional stabliity and security increases.
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