ESTABLISHMENT OF STAFF OF INTERNAL ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS OR CONSULTANTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00357R000300060045-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2001
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: May 20, 1977
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 2606109128 CIA RDP82-00357R000300060 ~~~. Pe atz'y `
-000, Iftow,
1977 Execur ' _,. _......
2 0 May e a
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SUBJECT Establishment of Staff of Internal Organization
Development Specialists or Consultants
REFERENCE: Notes from the Director No. 1
Background
1. In September 1976 I submitted an Employee Suggestion
recommending the establishment of a Staff of Internal
Organization Development consultants, or specialists, to
provide management, from the Directorate level down through
the Branch or even Section level, with internal resources
for diagnostic and consultative services to any unit at
any level for those areas of management that fall within the
scope of Organization Development. Some of the areas that
typically fall within the scope of OD are: action research;
survey and feedback; organizational renewal; team building;
affirmative action; vertical and lateral communications;
conflict management; role clarification, role negotiation,
job enrichment; career planning; =interpersonal competence
acquisition; and MBO.
2. I :feel in retrospect that I chose the wrong forum,
in that my intent was to propose an idea or concept for
management to consider .for development into a dynamic manage-
ment process tool. 1 had no thoughts or desire to quantify
or try to relate the concept: to the traditional monetary
reward format with which most employee suggestions are processed.
Critic ue and Clarif:ica Lion.
3. After reviewing the evaluations of my Employee
Suggestion #77--93 I am convinced not. only of the applicability
but the need for a dynamic management tool such as an internal
staff of organization development specialists. The two
evaluations of my sugggestL:ion, one by 01' and one by DDA, were
completely at odds in their perceptions of Organization
Development. OP based their response on the premise that
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 Approved For Release 2006/09/28: CIA-RDP82-00357R000300060045-7
SUBJECT: Establishment of Staff of Internal. Organization
Development Specialists or Consultants
OD is only applicable in a centralized form of management
whereas the DDA response assumed the premise that its appli-
cability is to decentralized management. OD is in fact used
in industry and the federal government in both managerial
cultures. Organization Development is a dynamic process,
providing a mechanism to continually sense and assess an
organization's culture and ascertain if there is a need for
change and if so, what change. There arc several premises
on which OD is based, two are: that there is always room
for improvement or adjustment in an organization; and given
that the external world is constantly changing, it is better
to deal with change as an ongoing dynamic process rather than
waiting for problems to develop or a crisis to arise and
then resorting to corrective or catch-up action.
4. Warren. Bennis (president, University of Cincinnati)
and Wendell French (professor, University of Washington)
define Organization :Development as a long range effort to
improve an organi_zation.'s, problem solving and renewal pr.o-
cesses, particularly through a more effective and collaborative
management of organizational culture, with the assistance of
a change agent, or catalyst, and the use of the theory and
technology of applied behavioral science, including action
research. It is a complex educational strategy intended to
inculcate or re in.force b(eliefs, attitudes, values, and
structures of organizations to enable them to better adapt
to new technoIogies, market-s, requirements, challenges, and
the dizzying rate of change itself.
S. The DDA evaluation adequately refutes the OP evalua-
tion, and on the whole presents more supportive data to the
suggestion than it does data. to support its recommendation
to decline the suggestion. Some examples are: "systematically
apply behavioral science principles--to improve the extent to
which the organization accomplishes its goals or carries out
its mission"; "OD is a dynamic process providing a mechanism
to continually recognize and reduce deficiencies--on the
premise that however effective and organization may perform,
it could be improved"; (can't we improve?) "Although OD
concepts are applicable (~o-r large organizations, such as the
CIA, the focus of 01.) is i sua.lly toward components such as
Offices, Divisions, or Branches. (exactly what I suggested)
p FIDE 'I~t
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 Approved For Release 2006/09/28: CIA-RDP82-00357R000300060045-7
SUBJECT: Establishment of Staff of Internal Organization
Development Specialists or Consultants
"The consultant (their assumption is external, my suggestion
is internal) works with organizational members in identifying
key problem areas (e.g., group interaction, lateral communica-
tions), what changes are desired, how change should be
implemented, and how resultant change should be assessed."
"01) is consistent with a decentralized form of management
such as that within the Agency."
6. The evaluation then proceeds to identify several
individual things the Agency does, "consistent with the basic
tenets of OD" e.g., attitude sur creative leadership
seminar (under development), the seminars, the 21A
Managerial. Grid course, assessment cen ers, MBO. The closing
paragraph starts with "In conclusion, the framework for an OD
effort already exists within the Agency."
7. Many of these saline areas and problems arc identified
in the report on two seminars on Creativity and Ethics in CIA
published by the Center for the Study of Intelligence, OTR.
8. Some of the issues raised by the Seminar on Creativity
and Ethics in CIA (17-18 January 1977) are those that lend
themselves to an Organization Development effort and demon-
strate that senior level officers of the Agency recognize
the need for improvement, adjustment, and change. Some
examples are:
a. better vertical and cross-Directorate communica-
tions in CIA;
b. elimination of the bureaucratic isolation of
office-level. components across Directorates;
c. clarification of the aims, goals, and purposes
of the Agency;
d. stressing those parts of MBO perceived as lacking
in the Agency, i.e., sense of participation and better
vertical communicat i_onns;
e. clarification of expectations;
Approved For Release 20 / Aft : CIA-RDP82-00357R000300060045-7
 Approved For Release 2006/09/28: CIA-RDP82-00357R000300060045-7
SUBJECT: Establishment of Staff of Internal Organization
Development Specialists or Consultants
f. broadening of decision making process;
more interdisciplinary and team approaches;
Ii. Better recognition of creative initiatives;
^a
i. better feedback, i.e., more;
j. zero-based management review of organizational
tasks, methods, and management processes.
9. In conclusion, I would address the prevalent myth
that OD is only practiced by Organizational Psychologists.
The US Army develops its own internal OD specialists for its
current programs in MILPERCEN , DESPERS, FORSCOIvI, and 82nd
Airborne to name a few I'm personally aware of. The US Navy
does much the same thing for its Human Resource Development
centers. Most of those entering the field of Organization
Development as practioners are now coming out of graduate
programs in OD. There is a growing number of Federal employees
moving into the field of OD through the two local graduate
programs at American and George Washington Universities.
There is an informal network of practicing OD specialists
representing 9 or 10 different agencies that meet monthly
under the sponsorship of the CSC. The Bureau of Navy Personnel
is currently in the process of establishing a job description
for organization development specialists. The development of
our own sta.:fE of internal organization development specialists
would require the assis ince of an external Organization
Development Consultant with experience in helping to establish
an Internal Staff. There are many prominent OD consultants
with the capabilities and commensurate experience.
Attachments:
A - Employee Suggestion Y77-93
B - OP Evaluation
C - DDA Evaluation
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