MAGID MATTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000900040019-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2005
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: February 11, 1975
• Content Type: MEMO

Approve
FoXAeasse 205/9 13L-Z A-RDP80B01T95R0
I am attachirl~ two reports by MAGID: one
on your State of th Directorate speechj.and
another on improvi
g th ality of s pdrvision.
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(Copies also sent to
When you :have had a chance -o read them,
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cuss those and *other matters. O,
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seeing the DCI (this evenin
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next week. (That being
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earlier. He would
dule the luncheon for
short week, however,
later date.)
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Approved For Release 2005/11/23: CIA-RDP80B01495R0q
 Approved For Releas*2005/t1/23 -CIA-RDPeDBO1495ROOO9, 09O40019-2
7 February 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Intelligence
SUBJECT : Evaluation of Quality in Supervision
MAGID has argued in earlier studies for improving unsatisfactory
supervision through training, as well as policies of openness and
fairness to employees by management. MAGID also feels that further
improvement could be realized in the DDI and the Agency as a whole if
there were regular and formalized means of evaluating the quality of
first-line supervision.
MAGID supports the several informal means which have already
been employed in the Directorate. FBIS, OSR, IAS, CRS and OER have
held meetings of supervisors, analysts, and clericals
Ato informally and openly discuss complaints and
sa is?ac ions. GCR, OPR and IAS either have or are considering
setting up representative organizations along the lines of MAGID to
increase communications within their offices.
MAGID feels, however, that a more rigorous, formalized approach
is also needed. While informal mechanisms are valuable for outlining
broad problem areas and, indeed, give both supervisors and their
employees a greater understanding of each other's difficulties, they
rarely identify a specific supervisory failure or, for that matter,
an outstanding success.
MAGID has discussed -- and rejected as unworkable -- methods
based on "reverse" fitness reports to be written by employees on
their supervisors, similar to those many universities use to rate
teachers. If done anonymously, evaluations of this sort run counter
to the openness and directness we are trying to promote within the
agency; but if not done anonymously, we feel few employees would
give honest answers out of fear of retaliation or to avoid the
appearance of currying favor.
Instead, MAGID favors DDI-wide adoption of the method of
employee surveys used by OER. The OER survey was designed specif-
ically to evaluate first line supervisors after an analysts' conference
suggested many problem areas needing treatment. The
survey was designed along with OMS and administered by them to
eliminate possible biases if given solely by OER. It asked some 75
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 Approved For ReIeaSp-2005/11/23 CIA- P8OB&149500OQ, 0040019-2
questions on supervision, communications, personnel matters, job
content, and office morale. Statistical data were tabulated and
first-line supervisors were given results showing how he or she
compared with the OER average in specific categories.
The survey had much merit as a management tool that suggests
it be tried on a DDI-wide basis. Most importantly, the results put
the lie to some misconceptions the office director had, identified
some previously unknown problems, and enabled him to treat them on
an individual basis. It took little time or money. OMS -- at the
time -- had excess capacity to use to plan and administer the survey;
it took relatively little of the respondent's time to answer. It
was taken seriously by analysts, and the response rate was high - 95%.
The survey method does have some shortcomings. It would have to
be individually tailored to offices considering size, mission, and
homogeniety of components. Since it need be given only once every
three years, however, the cost shouldn't be great and offices could
be staggered over the period. There were some understandable problems
in getting supervisors to go along with it, not only because poor
supervisors feared what it might reveal but also because many objected
to the principle of their roles being subject to judgment from below.
The primary limitation of the survey -- as well as of any manage-
ment tool -- is the use to which the office director puts it. There
must be some followup specifically designed to correct the difficulties
pinpointed by the survey, such as telling the supervisor that he or she
is going to be judged in the next fitness report on how well improve-
ments are made, and by recommending corrective action -- additional
training, for example -- that should be taken.
MAGID believes that a total package approach -- one that fosters
the informal, employee-management communications currently used, but
combines them with supervisor evaluation through OER's survey method
and with a training program that begins early in a career and that
contains remediation as required -- is the best approach to both
improve the quality of supervision and identify those doing it right.
Attachment: OER Analyst Survey
Approved For Release-2005M 1123: CIA IDP8OB0149?R000900040019-2