GENERAL COMMENTS ON SURVEY JOB-RELATED ATTITUDES OF FIVE-AND TEN-YEAR AGENCY EMPLOYEES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01048A001100120069-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 7, 2005
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: March 20, 1970
• Content Type: MF

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SUBJECT: General Comments on Survey of Job-Related
Attitudes of Five- and Ten-Year Agency Employees
1. The preliminary indications of the Survey do not reveal any quick
explanation why only 46% of those responding considered Agency manage-
ment favorably in their response to question 22. This is all the more
perplexing when the replies to all questions indicate about 65% favorable
complete their analysis of the individual written comments which accompanied
each response to the Survey. These should be ready in late April.
responses. The answer may be available when)
2. The Survey can be a useful management tool to illuminate problem
areas and possibly even correct certain management assumptions about
STAT employee attitudes. consider that the Survey
of these groups of younger employees in icates a very favorable level of
satisfaction in comparison with other agencies. It is a positive picture
without serious problems. There are areas of softness, however, and there
are some distinct differences among the Directorates.
STAT 3. believes that the concern for advancement opportunities
and the vaguely expressed disapproval of the way the Agency is run might
indicate dissatisfaction with communication from top management. In the
responses to the written question, there was surprisingly sharp criticism of
"career management. " In referring to "management" people were talking
about manpower management. The young officers included in the Survey
were generally not concerned about their immediate job environment, but
with their future career prospects.
4. The fiver to ten-year employees covered by the Survey actually
comprise a group which is less than half of the Agency. It is quite possible
that the major attitude problems are not in this group but in the larger
group of older Agency employees. It may, therefore, be desirable to
survey sample groups of older employees whose possibly more negative
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attitudes influence the younger officers. Only when the attitudes of the
entire Agency have been sampled will it be possible to determine where
the principal problem areas are.
5. Some of the negative views in the survey reflect historical cir-
cumstances. The personnel distribution pattern, which younger employees
feel blocks their prospects for advancement, is due to the bulge in hiring
in the early fifties. Advancement prospects are further delayed by the
current squeeze in slots, budget and cover. On the other hand, the
Agency recruits highly intelligent, trained, motivated and creative people.
Such persons will be unusually critical as well.
6. At the root of at least part of the problem is the fact the shape of
an organization is not a square, it is a pyramid. There are many fewer
senior positions than there areApeople starting out at the bottom. If there
is not a regular, fair and humane procedure for selection out and early
retirement of some of our officers, the glut of older employees who
cannot advance further will continue to discourage younger officers, and
limit and delay their chances for advancement.
7. The next step should be to survey the attitudes of a sample of
employees 40, 45 and 50 years old. When the results have been analysed
and compared with the attitudes of the younger employees, top management
might then review the whole picture and consider the management implications.
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