PC/ORD COMMENTS ON PERSONNEL ROTATION ROLE IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00693A000200010027-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: June 19, 1968
• Content Type: MEMO

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UNCLASSIFIED n IN NAL CONFIL JTIAL SECRET
USh. JNLY
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
FROM:
EO/ ORD
EXTENSION
NO.
DATE
28 June 1968
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
RECEIVED
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3-62 n UNCLASSIFIED
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SEC"-
19 June 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman, Career Service Panel
SUBJECT : PC/ORD Comments on Personnel Rotation Role
in Career Development
1. On 18 June T held. a divisional staff meeting to discuss
the personnel rotation concept as it would apply locally. Many
opinions were expressed; some thoughts are summarized.
a) Directed assignments would be highly unpopular,
unless for short duration, specific tasks.
b) General feeling that rotation was fine for
managers and chiefs but not scientists was
expressed.
c) Observation was made that growth initiative
must come from the individual; he must know
his goal; he needs an understanding, coopera-
tive supervisor. Rotation, per se, was
valuable as a policy, but harmful in the
hands of personnel managers.
d) Fears were expressed of losing divisional
status, if rotated. Compensating for this
was the observation that once started on a
rotational deal, one should hope to continue
on an upward spiral and probably not plan to
return to his originating office.
e) Rather strong, favorable attitudes were ex-
pressed. for participation in task force or
similar status efforts where a finite task
and objective limited the duration of
"detached" service. Here both status
recognition and leadership opportunities
would be products.
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SECRET
SUBJECT: PC/ORD Comments on Personnel Rotation Role in Career
Development
f) No special boundary was noted for action
within the Directorate. Agency scope was
judged to be more important; overseas in-
volvement should be available for broad-
based technical professionals, if they
are really to know the Agency.
g)
Fears were expressed at the limited growth
prospects in ORD; no interest was expressed
at movement within ORD, except, perhaps, by
being detailed to vertically established,
project teams. In the latter case, concern
over administrative attention -- fitness
reports, divisional attitudes, etc. -- were
expressed.
SECRF
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C
ORD-4027-68
25 June 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Research and Development
SUBJECT: Rotation of Personnel Between Offices
and Directorates
1. For rotation of personnel between offices and
directorates to be practical, there must be significant
personnel ceiling to permit development and training of
such personnel and sufficient commonality of qualifications
of personnel being rotated to permit reasonable exchange.
ORD would have problems in both of these areas.
2. Such rotation has always been excellent theory,
but it has been my observation that personnel in the junior
and middle management brackets tend to be less useful than
others in the position that they currently occupy and are
invariably restlessly looking toward the next assignment
and usually do not sufficiently dedicate themselves to
the job at hand.
3. Further from the individuals career development
standpoint, it has been my observation that a good man
develops better and more rapidly by remaining on a job
for a natural growth period, consequently contributing
more to the effectiveness of his organization.
CrInFT
J I
C/AP/ORD/DD/S&T
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SECRET
ORD-4058-68
2 5 ,111(Irq
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Research and Development
SUBJECT: Rotation of Professional Personnel
1. The purpose of personnel rotation is to pro-
vide a "fast track" employee with a broader view and
insight into the operations and activities of other
components of the Agency or Directorate so that he will
be better prepared to go on to bigger and better things.
Having had three people attend long term training courses,
I can say that the immediate effect at the Division level
is that there is a marked decrease in productivity and
loss of personnel
2. "Fast track" personnel are selected to attend
the S&T course. If a rotation of personnel policy is
to occur, it is suggested that these same people be con-
sidered for rotation since this possibility has been pre-
sented to them already. If this occurs, we can expect
loss of personnel or disgruntled employees who, falsely
or otherwise, believe 'they are to move into higher positions
immediately because of the preferential treatment.
3. Basically I am opposed to personnel rotation be-
cause of the adverse repercussions on the divisionallevel.
If the powers that be insist on rotation, I recommend that
each office select one DD/S&T course graduate to be rotated
among the various offices under consideration.
Optics
Office of Research and Development
SECRET
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tu
ORD-4056-68
26 June 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Officer/ORD
SUBJECT: Comments on Personnel Rotation
1. With a rational approach, a job rotation policy could provide
a continuing challenge to the individual and a stimulating effect on the
organization. There is probably no one system or technique of job
rotation to meet all the requirements of the individual and management.
A combination of the following is the most likely solution. First, a
non-managed rotation in which the individual is self-motivated and
determined to develop to full potential, meet new challenges or escape
an unhappy situation. In this case management can provide useful
assistance by advertising vacancies and/or a mandatory referral
system. Second, a more managed but temporary rotation results
from management's selection of individuals for special project or
staff assignments, committee membership or special assistant assign-
ments. In each of these cases the assignment is used to appraise as
well as perform a needed function and broaden the individual's back-
ground. I do not believe it effective to temporarily exchange jobs, or
temporarily assign an individual for an extended period to another
group and do the same level and type of work. The third is a complet.
ly managed job rotation through a prearranged sequence of progressively
more responsible, more diverse assignmerits. In this case the organi-
zation must be prepared to invest this effort in manpower, time, and
money required to define and implement such a program. This approach
is generally limited to a pre-selected group. Through continued appraisal
and selection, this group will produce personnel with the experience and
education required to fill future key management positions.
SECRET
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01.1?WiL I
2. Although the above approach is applicable to science and
engineering personnel, this group should also have available to them
a career ladder as well as the opportunity! facilities to participate
in both contract monitoring and experimental research and develop-
ment.
SECRET
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ZrfIrr7
.UW:t
Career Management
MBSD
"Rotation of (selected) employees within and between offices as
a means of improving career development."
1. I believe that this should be done on an individual basis only
according to an agreed upon program designed to mutually benefit the
individual and the Agency. Such a program would:
(a (a) broaden the individuals knowledge and abilities
(b) result in more effective inter-office communication
thereby expediting coordination when necessary.
(c) provide a "manpower pool" for the Agency of individuals
who wbuld be better equipped to serve on a variety of ad hoc
task forces and short or long term assignments
(d) act to minimize office parochialism and prevent the individual
from getting into a "rut" or out of date. (This is especially
important in ORD where a policy of sabbaticals might be
developed)
(e) provide the individual with a more realistic opportunity
for career development providing the rotation does not
result in lack of promotion because the individual "did
not contribute to this office in the last 12 or 18 months"
2. A rea1istical1y planned rotation policy should result in a better
motivated and more knowledgeable employee who would be a greater asset
to the Agency.
SECEI
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Saki
Career Management
MBSD
"Rotation of personnel within and between offices as a means of
improving career development."
A rotation program to improve career development should be governed
by the following guide lines or principles:
1. Rotation assignments should not be compulsory.
2. Rotation assignments should be made for the purpose of accomplish-
ing a definite task which would not otherwise be accomplished,
or not accomplished as readily or as well.
3. The assignee should be willing to accept the transfer and the
new task.
4. Assignees should retain their original career service designations
during rotation assignments and should be evaluated by their original
or parent career service panels.
5. Special provisions and special efforts should be made by the
original career panel to monitor performance of a rotation
assignee.
6. Recommendations for pramotion would remain the responsibility of
the assignee's original supervisor.
7. Rotation assignments should be considered only when the individual
circumstances clearly indicate that a mutual benefit to the
Agency and to the assignee would result.
C/MBSD/ORD/DD/S&T
SECRET
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SECRET
ORD-3861-68
27 June 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR: EO/ORD
SUBJECT: Rotation of Staff Personnel
1. This memo is in response to a request from
EO/ORD to provide guidance to the Career Panel in
determining the value of rotating staff personnel
both within and outside the directorate. I believe
that a flexible rotation policy can be advantageous
both to the Agency and to the individuals concerned.
In the following paragraphs I wish to show where
such a policy might be useful and to stress the need
for a flexible policy tailored to specific Agency and
individual situations. I will consider the term
"rotation" to include systematic transfers between
organizations where the individual need not cycle back
to his original organization.
2. The Agency objectives in rotating personnel
can be broadly categorized as short range and long
range. A short range objective would be to increase
task effectiveness through cross fertilization of
ideas. Appropriate to Analysis Division would be the
exchange of analysts and scientists. In a scientific
environment, the analyst or consumer of R&D might con-
tribute significantly toward the development of analytic
machine aids. The scientist, on the other hand, im-
mersed in an intelligence-producing environment might
perform the role of salesman by introducing various
machine aids to the analysts. Rotation, implemented
to achieve long term objectives such as the develop-
ment of more effective managers, could be more costly
in terms of loss of present effectiveness. The trade-
off is one of sacrificing a talented individual's
immediate productivity for the development of a skilled
manager capable of applying techniques developed by
others to a broad range of Agency problems.
SECRET
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SEC,RET
SUBJECT: Rotation of Staff Personnel
3. In considering the values of rotation it is
equally important to consider the career objectives
of the individuals involved. Is the goal of the in-
dividual one of achieving management status or one
of continued scientific exploration? The management-
aimed individual is the obvious choice for the achieve-
ment of long-range Agency objectives through rotation.
The danger of an extended rotational training period
lies in the individual involved becoming frustrated over an
extended non-productive period in his career.
4. In addition to considering the individuals'
career objectives, we should try to describe him skill-
wise as a specialist or a generalist. I feel that
this is important because of the difficulty in rotating
a specialist without a severe loss of technical com-
petence. The scientist, on the other hand, who is
trained in an interdisciplinary manner has a general
scientific knowledge and may prove to be the better
candidate for rotation.
5. In summary, I feel that a worthwhile rotation
plan would have to be carefully tailored to fit both
Agency and individual objectives. There is considerable
expense involved in such a plan. For the short term,
there cannot help but be a drastic loss of productivity.
Both the losing and gaining organizations involved in
a rotational transfer may be affected, the losing
organization through individual loss and the gaining
organization through the decreased productivity of
individuals involved in the training and guiding of the
rotated employee; whether or not these losses are offset
by the professional growth of rotated personnel is
the crucial problem facing the Career Panel.
Acting le 2 na ysis
ORD/DD/S&T
r(NRET
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SECRET
ORD 4167-68
26 June 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Officer, ORD
SUBJECT: Rotation of Personnel
1. I am very much in favor, in many cases, of rotation
of personnel among divisions in ORD, among offices in the
Directorate, and among the Directorates. If a man shows
capabilities for growth within the Agency, he should be
rotated, in my opinion, after he has been in a given job
about twice as long as it takes him to learn to do that
job well. (In some cases, three or four times.)
2. I think rotation of personnel is a good idea
after a man has been in a given job so long that he does
the work routinely and halfheartedly. A change of scenery
may increase his productivity. Few people do well in a
dead-end situation.
3. I think the people themselves should have some
voice in their rotation and that possible openings be
announced rather widely so that people can apply for them
if they are so inclined.
4. The movement of a
his background, interests,
with the man's concurrence
We made one such move last
man in his new environment
He certainly seems happier.
man to a job which better fits
and capabilities should be done,
and assistance, when necessary.
year and we understand that the
and his new job is quite productive.
5. Of course, our first concern is to get our assigned
tasks taken care of. We should not transfer people on short
notice if it seriously cripples our work. However, I believe
that a solution to our work problems should be found within
three to six months and the man transferred, if appropriate,
for the long term good of th of ?
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