FBIS IG SURVEY, THREE CULTURES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89-01147R000100050031-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 31, 2011
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: May 15, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

CTOT
STAT
STAT
STAT
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Ar'"INISTRATIVE - INTERNAL USE )NLY D/FBIS Chrono
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
EXTENSION
NO
.
FBIS-0192/86
Director, Foreign ro cas
Information Service
DATE
15 May 1986
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
INITIALS
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
1 Deputy Director for
Science and Technology
Room 6F,4S Headquarters
2.
Some thoughts on the
3 cultures question.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
B.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
FOR
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FBIS-0192/86
15 May 1986
MEI{)RANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Science and Technology
erector, Foreign roadcast Information Service
SUBJECT: FBIS IG Survey, "Three Cultures"
1. I have intentionally missed your March deadline in order to
ensure the most thoughtful consideration of this question. In addition
to specific group activities, chaired a working group repre-
senting all FBIS elements. I believe that the steps we will take are
responsive to the IG report and your memorandum, are consistent with the
Modernization Program, and will be enthusiastically accepted by the
overwhelming majority of FBIS personnel.
2. I acknowledge that cultural differences are real, but feel
the picture painted in the IG report is highly colored. I'd say they
arise from the nature of the functions performed by the three broad
groups we are talking about, i.e., the editors, the media analysts,
and the language officers, and from the nature of the people who do
each type of work best.
3. Broadly speaking, the editor can be characterized as the
activist, time-sensitive operations officer and action coordinator,
the analyst as the reflective, disciplined writer and thinker, and
the language officer as the language expert, with specialized area or
substantive knowledge, who reviews foreign press material and selects
for translation the material that responds to intelligence requirements.
4. These are three different sorts of activity, or "disciplines,"
and they require three quite different sorts of people to work in them
successfully. This fact, which is easily grasped intuitively, was well
verified by a study we commissioned in the early '70s that was carried
out by the Psychological Services Staff of O. This study covering a
sample of0 employees showed a remarkable correlation between the
individual and the profile characterizing his "discipline."
5. First, there are the formal entrance requirements for each of
these three groups. Our editorial staff must be news oriented, must
write well--but above all--must be action oriented and have a bent toward
coordinating the work of others in a fast moving fashion. Their back-
grounds are "generalist" and the nature of their work pushes them into a
type of management very early in their careers. The media analysts, on
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SUBJECT: FBIS IG Survey, "Three Cultures"
the other hand, are far from generalists. They must have the temperament
for deep research in specialized areas and the advanced degrees that
attest success in this. They must be able to write well, sometimes but
not usually against tight timelines. The language officer, like the
media analyst, works in a specialized field but it is one of using
language skills on a specific data base--with two or more languages plus
a substantive background usually required before hiring. Neither of the
latter groups is "management" oriented at lower levels, but changes in
recent years provide a clear ladder to management positions for both
linguists and analysts if they are interested.
6. It is the nature of their disciplines that gives rise to
the "cultures." Some media analysts and foreign documents officers can
sniff that editors "don't know anything." Some editors look down their
noses at documents officers for being over-deliberate and delivering
a product that isn't timely; and some in both groups can rail at media
analysts for being "elitist" when they allegedly tell them how to go
about their business. While such expressions are vented, most FBIS
officers are sufficiently aware of the other groups' duties to know
that they make real contributions to the overall effort.
7. These statements decrying other "cultures" are really
expressions of pride of craft, and the feeling that one's own job is
especially useful and valuable should not be discouraged. Our task, as
you note in your memorandum, is to prevent these acknowledged differences
from resulting in inter-group hostilities which can adversely affect
morale and work.
8. The first change concerns our JPRS activity. With the move
to Reston permitting us to bring JPRS back into the main operation, we
will be able to make a major reorganization of this activity, folding
it into Production Group and eliminating many duplicative functions. We
will retain the JPRS name and make its overall supervision part of our
Production Group's front office function, but it will no longer be quite
the separate entity it once was.
9. A recommendation, which I support, is to take a watching brief
over the FBIS headquarters' editorial operations. Hitherto they have
been divided for partly functional and partly historical reasons between
the DAILY REPORT and JPRS. But, with the startup of the FBIS automated
publication system in 1987, it will be possible to amalgamate to a very
high degree all the DR and JPRS editorial processes into one component.
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SUBJECT: FBIS IG Survey, "Three Cultures"
This will provide a greater degree of uniformity between the two
products, emphasizing their identity as FBIS products, and provide
(1) a more ample base to which editorial personnel returning from
overseas field assignments can return, and (2) an exceedingly useful
interface between Production Group and Operations Group officers, where
each can learn from the other. To our computers it is all the same where
the input comes from and, to the extent we can do all our editing in a
centrally managed way, we will be ahead of the game.
10. One of the questions which must certainly be addressed is
that of transfers between the groups and the feeling that one group may
have the edge over another as regards career advancement. It may be of
interest to note that the two most senior officers in Operations Group
started their careers in Production Group and Analysis Group, that the
two most senior officers in Production Group-have spent most of their
careers in Operations Group, and that the senior Analysis Group officer
has spent much time in his career in Operations Group. Once management
ability is recognized, in my view, no distinctions are drawn among the
groups. This is a fact that is often lost sight of and must constantly
be reiterated when discussions take place in FBIS over who has the
advantage over whom when it comes to career advancement. We continue
to encourage employees with skills in more than one group's area of
expertise to explore career opportunities in other groups.
11. The same applies to non-permanent rotations from one group
to another. Each group has its own entrance requirements but we can
continue to emphasize the utility for both FBIS and the individual
employee of short-term rotations as a means to bring about greater inter-
group understanding. For this purpose I am supporting another of the
group's recommendations, that all junior professional EODs have short
rotations in the other groups in their first year or so of duty.
12. Another recommendation which I think has merit is the formation
of a standing "Focus Committee" composed of representatives of the three
groups which would meet regularly to assess field bureau performance in
meeting consumer needs in areas of coverage, responsiveness, and quality
of product. This will give all groups an active voice in field bureau
oversight and contribute to an understanding of the roles of the various
groups in keeping FBIS as a whole in step with consumer needs. The
committee could include JPRS products, as well, in its review.
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SUBJECT: FBIS IG Survey, "Three Cultures"
13. The group looked at the question of a reorganization along
geographical lines but the consensus was that staff economies, relative
ease of management, and assignment flexibility would be entirely lost if
we switched the management of our field installations to a decentralized,
geographically based system. The group's view, in which I concur, was
that the argument from function far outweighed the argument from
geography.
14. In sum, we will certainly reorganize JPRS. We will probably
reorganize our Headquarters editorial operations depending on our
experience with Automation, and we will push inter-group rotations and
joint activities to the extent that is consistent with our mission. I
think there will always be some "pride of craft" but am optimistic that
we can keep it within limits that are constructive, not destructive.
DDS$T/FBI
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
2 - DDS&T
1 - D/FBIS Chrono
1 - ESM Corres file
1 - IG file
X15 May 86)
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