AIDS TO PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01826R000700140010-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 19, 1956
• Content Type: MEMO

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t _L
Presented to 22nd -keeting
Career Council 19 Apr 56
AIDS TO PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
?Text of memorandum to the Inspector General from a Senior Official
"I. This memorandum has been written in order to put on
paper some of the ideas we discussed on 10 February. Though fully
aware that the Agency?s personnel policies, procedures, and organi-
sation present extremely complex problems, in this memorandum I
limit myself to one aspect of the problem of personnel management=
the deficiencies in the quality and organization of information
about our personnel now available to management,, (I am using "man-
agement" to include the individual supervisor who handles people
and who makes decisions about them, also the various boards and
echelons of command which make or review personnel decisions.)
9R2. It is axiomatic that our personnel are our most valuable,
in fact, practically our only assets We pride ourselves on the
high caliber of our personnel, comparing them favorably with those
in other government agencies and business. Nevertheless, disillu-
sioned, often bitter, criticisms of our personnel management are
the rule rather than the exception.. From my own observation these
criticisms are prevalent throughout the "working" or "troop?, level
and Lire directed at the inertia which seems to paralyze action in
personnel matters, but even more at the personnel decisions which
u1_tiva.tely are made. As I said, the purpose of this paper is to
suggest methods of improving the information on which decisions are
made, not to attack the problem of over-complex organization and
the subsequent inertia, though I believe there would be less Inertia
If management had more effective tools.
"3. 1 have no desire to judge the accuracy or fairness of the
critics of our personnel management, but will attempt to list the
types of personnel decisions which are questioned together with a
few of the usual criticisms, put in parentheses:
a. The selection of personnel for employmment
(Since we are hiring relatively few new
people - except clericals - we can afford
the highest standards and should be seeking
the best qualified out of m.^ny candidates.
We appear to have few objective standards
for employment. If another emergency hits
us, we may again find ourselves deluged with
weak and inexperienced people, brought in
DOCUMENT NO. at relatively high levels.)
NO CHANGE FN CLASS. ^
DECLASSIFIED
SS. . CHANGED TOe TS S C
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SUBJECT: Aids to Personnel Management
b. Placement: The transfer of employees from one
position to another, often involving an increase
in responsibilities and opportunity for promotion.
Included in this category should be approvals for
P
Pl
cement often
i
i
l t
A
a
ng.
ra
n
gency or externa
requires "shopping" - the most bitterly criticized
process in personnel handling. (Why is one man
selected for a "good" job, when several others
appear to have equal or better ability? In fact,
it appears doubtful that more than one man M
considered. Favoritism is suspected. To some,
"shopping" of oneself is repugnant. Others becam
cynical hucksters. Why can't we insure that there
is at least an element of competition for Jobs by
insisting that at least three men are considered
for a position?)
(Aside from minimum time-in-grade standards, there
appear to be as many different promotion policies
as there are career boards. Furthermore, most
written promotion recommendations represent a
supervisor's opinion, not always an unbiased
summary of an employee's record. Therefore,
career boards may not have all the relevant facts
about the man under consideration nor even consider
others of equal or greater merit.)
d. Termination, whether voluntary or "for the good of
the Agency."
(Too many good men are resigning because they feel
they have not had a fair deal; too few "dead-heads"
are being fired.)
"4. Whatever the validity of the criticisms, management is
blamed. Yet our "managers" are, on the average, men of genuine
ability and good will. One of the real difficulties confronting
management, however, is the fact that most personnel decisions
must be based on information in the personnel files. As I intend
to point out in more detail later9 I fear that any given file will
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SUBJECT: Aids to Personnel Management
contain only some of the relevant data. Furthermore, the data wil
be so scattered throughout the file that no busy supervisor will
bother to sort out the various bits and pieces, then evaluate and
synthesize the facts into a reasonably meaningful picture of the
person being judged.
"5., The sources for information about employees or candidates
for employment are many, and not always in the personnel files.
Obviously, personnel information, like intelligence information,
will be of more or less importance, depending upon a variety of
factors similar to those by which we judge intelligence information.
I do not intend to go into the problem of evaluating, analyzing,
and synthesizing personnel information, except to say that few
supervisors or career boards have the time or competence to produce
personnel Intelligence. But I shall list the possible sources of
data which occur to me, not in order of importance nor with any
pretence that the list is exhaustive.
a. Personal History Statements
b, Pre-employment interviews
:
c? Pre-employment tests or "assessments"
O d. Security investigation reports
? e. Medical examinations, including psychiatric
f. Pre--training tests, including language aptitude
and reading skills
g, Tested language ability
h. Training courses taken
1. Training evaluations
J. Fitness Reports
k. Commendations or the opposite, not included in
Fitness Reports
1. Promotion Recommendations
in. Career Development Plans and conments thereon
n. Personal opinions - often oral. - of co--workers
o. "Production" - that is, the reports, memos,
cables, etc., an individual has written
p. Inspector General and Inspection and Review
Reports
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; J CT : Aids to Personnel Management
g'6 It is not my contention that all personnel decisions re-
quire information from all these sources ; however, if we applied
our own principles of intelligence productions we would at least
ermine all possible sources to make sure that we had all the
available and relevant facts. in other words, It is my belief
that our personnel decisions, including the day-to-day handling
of people - a subject I shall discuss later - are presently based
on partial, fragmentary, out-dated, possibly biased, but certainly
unorganized information. (Parenthetically, we might wonder how our
unstomers would respond if we presented our intelligence product
In similar form.) Since management is now forced to make personnel
decisions without the benefit of organized, evaluated data, I
believe we could give management a more effective tool if competent
''"valuators" put all available and pertinent data into usable and
understandable form. What might emerge would be what could be
called, for want of a better term, a "personality profile."
"7, I do not intend to prescribe either the format of a
profile or the range of information which it would include; how-
vver, I know what I, as a supervisor, have wanted to know about
my subordinates and how difficult it has been to be sure I had
all the facts. 'teat we-need to know includes the following -
,and probably more - objectively evaluated:
a. Biography, including education and career
before joining the Agency ,/
b, Agency experience - jobs held, train g
c. Su mmtary of training evaluations, Fitness
Reports, other opinions (commnendations, etc0 )
d. Measurements of intelligence, language
titude
etc
a
,
,
p
V/ e. Tested language ability and other tested skills
0 f,, Medical factors
c3 g. Special considerations (family, personal habits
and traits.)
h. Summary analysis of above data (including 'on-
sideration of any other information that may
come from study of samples of "production",,
opinion of associates, etc.)
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'48, Though I risk being repetitious, I feel that our present
system, which depends so often upon "looking at the files" before
making a decisions starts with a hodge-podge of file data and
- '~
.;nacres facts which a though vital, may not be in the file at all
for instance, a medical or psychiatric report, non-loyalty info a_-
Lion developed by a security investigation, the subject's production,
I therefore find it quite understandable that many personnel decisions
appear unjust, arbitrary, or based on favoritism. In fact, the
decision now made in favor of "good old Joe" because a "m gager" knows
him is at to be as sound as one based on "let's look at the file n "
However, evaluated, meaningful information would help management make
decisions about an individual's future development, to compare
candidates for the same assignment, and to do a better job of handling
people in day-today- work, (NOTE: I am pol suggesting that the power
of decision be taken from the "managers"; rather, that they be given
the tools
"}a If That I am proposing has enough merit to bear further
exploration, I suggest that a small tack force be set up. One
member should be a professional psychologist who could bring his
scientific approach to the problem of evaluating data. This task
force might t..ake these steps:
a,, First, a mi.ne a cross-section of personnel
files from different components of the Agency
to determine whether or not my rather unflatter-
ing comments about the utility of the files are
v-al_id
bo Second, after finding what is in the files and
how well or poorly organized the. material is
dietermine what other needed information exists
and whether or not it can be obtained for inclusion
In the file s
cn Determine the possibility and usefulness of the
profile approach, preferably by attempting to
construct several profiles, then submitting the
raw data and finished profiles to you for compari-
son.
IN -W M_ - OR -
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SUBJECT: Aids to personnel Management
"10. The conclusions and recommendations the task force
might reach should not be prec'_icted; however, I should like to
outline a few possible conclusions:
a~ That the files now contain all really
relevant information in well-organized
usable form.
b. That the information is in the files, but
is so mixed up ~,rith administrative paper
that it is difficult to sort out. In
which case, the recommendation might be
that separate files containing only the
types of information needed for managerial
decisions be set up, leaving the adminis-
trative papers in the original files.
c. That some useful facts are pg in the files
and should. therefore, be incorporated in
the present files, or in separate files as
suggested above. A system should also be
established to 'insure the prompt flow of
data to the files.
d. That the personality profile approach has
sufficient merit to justify the setting up
of a permanent board which would prepare
profiles of present employees upon request
and would also prepare profiles on new em-
ployees. whose files are still relatively
virginal. Keeping these up-to-date should
not be too difficult.
"11o In addition to positive recommendations, I imagine that
the task force would come upon some interesting and illuminating
corollaries. For example, I have been very glib about "relevant",
"useful". "objective" personnel data. Just what do we meant What
"acts" do we look for when we axamine a file0 a promotion recommenda-
tion, or a key placement sugge tion? How d a we weigh evaluate
information about our people, information that may be contradictory
and from unevaluated sources? As intelligence officers, we can do a
;6
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fairly good job of evaluating and synthesizing intelligence informa-
tion, but how adequate are we in handling information about our most
priceless assets - our personnel? If several men are being considered
for the same job, do we have standards that would ensure a decision
fair to the men and in the Agency's best interest? Do we even have
similar data to help us measure the relative fitness of men being
considered for a given job? (That is, on one man we might have a
full assessment, five training evaluations, and ten fitness reports;
on another, no assessment or intelligence tests, no training evalua-
tions - because the man has escaped training - and only two fitness
reports,) This last point suggests yet another possibility, that the
task force will come upon the need for certain standard measurements
of all our people, tests of effective intelligence, at least, in
addition to security and medical clearances.
"12o I should like to make a further suggestion concerning
profiles and standards. Could we not construct profiles of in-
telligence officers who are, by common consent, our better opera.-
tors, reporters, etc.? We might find that certain basic attributes
are common to these "successful" officers - or that there are no
common denominators pointing to success. The task force, I believe,
will have to consider this question if a meaningful set of facts is
to be sought as a basis for the preparation of a profile
11 13~ I previously stated that I would return to the problems
of day-to-day personnel management and how personality profiles
might assist a supervisor. It is obvious that the more a super-
visor knows about the strengths and weaknesses of his people, tho
beti:er he will be able to handle them from the beginning- As a
supervisor, I have had both happy and unhappy experiences. In one
instance, a complete assessment report enabled me to develop a man
to his maximum without subjecting him, to certain pressures ha pre-
sumably would have broken under. In another case, because I did
not have access to the results of a medical examination, a man
overworked and became seriously ill. If a supervisor has only
partial knowledge of his people? men will inevitably be given
responsibilities too great, or insufficient, will be urged into
operations for which they are not trained or qualified, or into
efforts at analysis or composition for which they have no talent.
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UBJ T i Aids to Personnel Marna&ament
To be sure. over a period of tire supervisors learn to know their
people; but how much better it would be if we could begin handling
a man just assigned to us with the accumulated and evaluated facts
about the roan in our possession This would be particularly help-
ful. to the overseas Station Chief, who usually gets no information,
or an, absolute minimum, about people joining his staff.
"14. In conclusion, I shuuld like simply to repeat my main
theme: that personnel manage,-it can be no better than the tools
4.1C. has to work with. It goes rr thout saying that poor or care-
less workmen can misuse good tools; however, failure to use tools
properly could be more easily corrected by higher management if
thfb upper echelons knew that good tools had been available. In
other words, reviews of decisioxas would be easier and more just
if the same organized, evaluated facts were available to both
levels of command."
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