1979 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (NAPA) REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00530R000701690003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 27
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 22, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

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Central Intelligence Agency
Washington.D.C.20505
MAR 22 1988
MEMORANDUM FOR: Donald Wortman
NAPA Project Director
FROM: Hugh E. Price
Director of Personnel
SUBJECT: 1979 National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) Report
Enclosed is a copy of the report you requested. If you have
any questions, please call
or me. STAT
Hugh E. Pr ice
STAT
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SEC T
-
THE CIA PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Prepared by
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
March 15, 1979
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UE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
1225 Connecticut Avenue, N. W. Washington, D.C. 20036
202/659-9165
March 15, 1979
Admiral Stansfield Turner
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D. C. 20505
Dear Admiral Turner:
The National Academy of Public Administration
Team charged with reviewing the CIA personnel manage-
ment system is pleased to present its final report to
you. The basic thrust of the report is to provide
a personnel management system for the Agency that will
meet its present and future needs.
The Team appreciates the opportunity it has had
to be of service. The challenges involved have been
unique, and the cooperation the Team received was
outstanding.
It is our hope that the report will serve as a
useful basis for long-term adjustments that will
enable the Agency and its people to better fulfill
the vital CIA mission.
Enclosure
Sincerely, A do e4,
4?.
Bertrand M. Harding
Zgic414?_
Carol C. Laise
-taliMlistes:Aationolsteselgaiy r?F Public Adalinistratirm Fount-halm' wad National Institute of Public Affairs
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THE CIA PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary:
Pages
Introduction I
The Present System I - IX ,
Conclusions and Recommendations IX - XVII
Introduction:
The NAPA Team's Assignment i
The Focus of the Study i - v
The Approach Taken -- Methodology v - vi
Part I -- The Present System:
Personnel Management in CIA
The Career Services
Specific Personnel Management Activities .
The Relationship of Executive Leadership
and Personnel Management to Mission
1
27
36
- 26
- 35
- 76
Accomplishment
76
- 83
Part II -- Conclusions and Recommendations:
Conclusions Concerning the Effectiveness
of the Present System
84
85
Considerations Upon Which Revisions Should
be Based
85
86
Proposals Relative to Various Aspects of the
Personnel Management System
86
- 111
Roles and Relationships in Personnel
Management
111
- 117
Cost of Administering the Personnel System
117
- 118
Implementation of This Report
118
- 119
Appendices: (Listed Separately)
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The review of the CIA Personnel Management system
undertaken by the National Academy of Public Administration
is set forth in the accompanying report. The report contains
three major sections: (1) an Introduction; (2) a description
of the Present System, highlighting problem areas; and (3)
Conclusions and Recommendations. This summary attempts to
capsulize the contents of the report.
Introduction
Reviews the original assignment given the NAPA Team,
the Team's composition, its methodology and the considerations
which guided its study.
The Team concludes that the current CIA personnel
system, characterized by rank-in-the-person and decentralized
management to Directorates, has served the Agency well.
NAPA believes that, with some adjustments, the existing
arrangements are the best available for the organization
and sufficiently flexible to accommodate to environmental
changes most likely to affect the Agency's future.
The Present System
1. Personnel Management in the CIA
Reviews the statutory base upon which the present system
is founded; examines personnel policy development, implementation
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and evaluation within the Agency; comments on the roles and
relationships of the various participants in personnel
management; and attempts to summarize the costs involved
in CIA personnel management.
A major finding in this section is that the CIA statutory
base grants an extraordinarily flexible authority on which
to develop personnel policy. This flexibility, however,
generates problems. Specifically:
II
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2. The Career Services
Describes the concepts and coverage of the CIA's five
career services and addresses the problem inherent in a
system which follows organizational lines while the interests
of some employees are more associated with occupational
categories.
Findings resulting from our review of the five career
services disclose:
IV
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3. Specific Personnel Management Activities
Discusses a broad spectrum of personnel functions
and activities, including: Performance Evaluation, Panels,
Promotions, Assignments,' Separation, Recruitment, Placement,
Vacancy Notices, Training and Equal Employment Opportunity.
The major findings set forth in this section are:
V
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The Relationship of Personnel Management to Mission
Accomplishment
Discusses the programs for executive identification
and development; indoctrinating new employees, supervisors
and managers; efforts to improve and reward teamwork; rewards
for breadth of experience; and rotational assignments.
Findings include:
VIII"
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Conclusions and Recommendations
This part of the report restates and expands on the
Team's judgment regarding the overall effectiveness of the
CIA personnel system; sets forth the general considerations
which should guide the Agency in making adjustments on cur-
rent practices; makes specific suggestions for improvement;
and sets forth guidelines for implementation of the report's
recommendations.
1. Conclusions Concerning Effectiveness of the Present System
While again emphasizing that the Present System does not
require radical surgery, the report concludes that:
IX
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o The most effective system for the Agency
involves policy guidance goal-setting and evaluation
of results centralized to top management, with
implementation decentralized to operating components.
o In many areas of personnel management, Agency-
wide standards have not been established and where
they have been, there is no adequate mechanism for
assuring compliance.
O The centralization of personnel management
at the Directorate level is sufficient to assure
relatively uniform treatment of Directorate employees.
o The CIA system involves a large variety of
people and organizations in personnel management --
line managers, Career Management staffs, Panels,
Offices of Personnel and Training. The roles and
relationships of these participants are not entirely
clear and the costs of operating in this mode must be
given appropriate attention.
2. Considerations Upon Which Revisions Should be Based
Suggests that:
O The DCl/DDCI should assert leadership in the
formation of Agency personnel policy, planning for
future personnel needs, the development of Executive/
Managers, and the evaluation of program accomplishments.
X
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3. Suggestions for Revising Various Aspects of the Present
Personnel Management System
Discusses the fact that the CIA, in theory has a single
system but in practice, operates under two personnel concepts:
(1) a rank-in-the-person system; and (2) the classical Civil
Service arrangement in which the position occupied determines
the employee's grade level. Considers the possibility of
openly adopting separate systems for the domestic and over-
25X1 seas components, but rejects that option for the following
reasons:
Concludes, therefore, that the Agency is best served by
XII
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retaining rank-in-the-person authority for both overseas
and domestic components even though Agency needs will result
in applications amounting to a dual system.
In addition, makes general and specific comments and
recommendations for improvement in the areas of: career
planning; executive selection and development; employee
evaluation, promotion, assignment and retention; the function
of panels; recruitment; equal employment; work force planning;
and personnel policy development, implementation and evalu-
ation.
The major recommendations contained in this section 25X1
are:
XIII
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4. Roles and Relationships in Personnel Management
This section deals with a number of roles and relation-
ships involved in Agency personnel management. Specifically':
XV
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5. Implementation of This Report
Suggests that the cumulative effect of the changes
recommended could have a disruptive effect on the organization
if not carefully evaluated and adopted in a phased fashion.
We recommend the following steps:
o Widest feasible distribution of the major
portions of this report in order to avoid employee
mistrust of management motives and to detect valid
reactions of a negative nature.
o In-depth appraisal by the EAG with appropriate
staff support from the Office of Personnel.
O Development, by the EAG/DDCI, of an imple-
mentation schedule which establishes priorities and
target dates.
XVII
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INTRODUCTION
1. The NAPA Team's Assignment
The National Academy of Public Administration was
requested to undertake a major and thorough examination of
the CIA's personnel management system. The Academy Team
assigned to conduct this study was requested to include in
its report:
- basic findings concerning the effectiveness
of the present system,
- principles upon which revisions, if necessary,
should be based,
- basic concepts for revising various aspects
of the present personnel management system and options,
if and where'appropriate,
- organizational concepts for any proposed
changes and suggestions for implementing any changes.
The National Academy of Public Administration Team
included Bertrand Harding, Carol Laise, Richard Chapman,
and George Maharay. The study started on November 20, 1973
and concluded on March 15, 1979.
2. The Focus of the Study
The present personnel management system has served the
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Agency well. The calibre of employees in the organization is
?
considered by Agency managers and NAPA Team members to be
extremely high and this is tangible proof of the effectiveness
of the system in the past. In every discussion the Team
members have had with Agency managers, managers have evidenced
their interest in the personnel management system and rec-
ognize their responsibilities for administering the system.
They also are acutely aware of the importance of balancing the
needs of the Agency and the needs of employees.
There are a variety of factors which we believe will
affect the Agency in the immediate future: These in-
clude: (1) the
and methods of
limitations on
present attempts to define the
Agency's
role
operation, i.e., charter legislation; (2) the
personnel and dollar resources that is af-
fecting all government agencies; (3) continuing publicity
about CIA and Freedom of Information demands; (4) changes
in methods of collecting intelligence, and (5) the changing
leadership due to the large number of persons retiring who
entered the Agency service in the late forties and early
fifties.
In the light of what we see forthcoming in the Agency's
future, the central issue we sought to address was whether
the personnel structure and management system as it has
evolved in the Agency is conceptually sound and flexible
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enough to meet both the changing needs of a highly important
and unique national security agency as well as to adjust
to societal changes and a shrinking resource base.
Other foreign affairs agencies have, in general, tried
to solve the complex task of organizing and managing a world-
wide component and a domestic component through dual person-
nel system -- Foreign Service and Civil Service -- centrally
managed. The CIA, unlike the other agencies, has had the
latitude, by virtue of being designated an excepted
service, to adapt the Civil Service system to accommodate
the distinctly different requirements of a disciplined mobile
worldwide service and a stable domestic system. At the same
time, the personnel management function has been largely de-
centralized to line managers with the prime responsibility
residing, since the 1973 reforms, with the heads of the
Directorates. The Office of Personnel is assigned an almost
entirely servicing role, some monitoring, and administration
of the classification system.
Keeping in mind top management's desire to achieve
greater coherence in the system as ,a whole, to strengthen
its own personnel management role, and to improve executive
development, the Team took a hard look at possible
alternative systems. We have concluded that the basic
concepts on which the CIA personnel system is built are
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both sound and capable of adaptation to changing needs.
The goals which top management seeks can be accomplished
within this framework.
In other words, the Team supports: (1) The concept of
a single rank-in-person personnel structure for both do-
mestically based and worldwide available personnel so long
as it is recognized that the different conditions of employ-
ment will require different application of common policies
and principles. Though more expensive to administer
than is the normal Civil Service system, it affords the
Agency a surer system of identifying and rewarding merit
and a more flexible one for assignments. (2) The principle
of decentralizing as much personnel management to the
line operators as possible with the Personnel Office playing
a servicing and monitoring role. Fixing responsibility
is the key to program results and line officers must
be held accountable for the management and performance of
their people. While this concept necessarily means that
career ladders for the bulk of the personnel will be within
their parent organization, this is, after all, in accord
with the realities. The strengthening of the executive
policy role, the necessary correctives to parochialism,
the career development of leaders with breadth and vision
as well as professional competence, and the requirements
of equal opportunity and due process can all be met through
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other measures. These are set forth in the body of the
report.
3. The Approach Taken -- Methodology
? The basic approach taken by the Team was to consider
personnel management in a broad sense -- i.e., the utilization
of human resources of CIA to accomplish the Agency's mission.
Within this broad definition, the Team attempted to look at:
(1) the personnel management system of the Agency, and (2)
how it is being administered.
Every effort was made to obtain a variety of perspectives
on the subject from many levels within the organization and
from as many as possible who are directly involved in admin-
istering the system. The Team talked with
key people in
CIA, all five MAGs, the DCI Senior Secretarial/Clerical Group,
the EEO Advisory Group, the Federal Women's Advisory Board,
25X1 the NFAC Review Staff, four former Agency executives, and
personnel at several field stations, and six employees
who dropped in on their own. A complete list, exclusive
of the last six is contained in Appendix A.
In addition, volumes of studies, regulations, reports,
and files were made available to the Team. There was complete
cooperation from everyone in the Agency in making information
available.
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4. The Report
The report of the NAPA Team has been put together with
the following considerations in mind in its organization and
presentation:
- The first is to start with a basic under-
standing of the present system and how it is being
administered.
? The second is to be concerned with sustaining
sufficient stability and continuity in the organization
while recommending changes which would help to meet
Agency needs; changes which can be dealt with in-
crementally, based upon internally established priorities.
- The third is to recognize the importance of
adhering to a systems approach which takes into
account the impact of changing any one aspect of
the system upon the total system.
The report is presented in two parts, as follows:
Part I - A description of the present
personnel management system, high-
lighting good points and problem
areag.
Part II Conclusions and Recommendations.
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