Covert Process, Overt Impact: The Role of Social Science

By Elissa R. Allen

Government officers need to protect the nation and retain an information advantage. Government organizations have experienced such significant change in mission, structure, leadership, and oversight that textbooks and articles written about the government for students and the public prior to 2000 are now historical descriptions of the "way it was." Managers are encouraging, and in some cases directing, their analysts, field officers, linguists, and scientists to collaborate and share information with internal and external partners. Institutionalizing these collaborative behaviors in a "need to know," compartmented work environment requires planning, facilitation, and incentives.

Those organizations that have been most successful in implementing technical solutions to promote a collaborative environment have addressed such human enterprise factors as leadership, group dynamics, organizational readiness, internal processes, relationships, and communication patterns. MITRE helps its government sponsors account for human enterprise factors by providing them with social scientists who blend technical know-how with knowledge from other disciplines such as psychology, linguistics, business management, anthropology, adult education, and political science.

Communication in Action

One sponsor's challenge to integrate distributed operations across multiple stakeholders exemplifies the importance of addressing individual and organizational concerns and equities. In an effort to increase information sharing across disciplines and functions, a MITRE sponsor decided to merge several field and headquarter organizations (composed of military and civilian personnel) into a centrally managed hub. The sponsor's secondary goal was to implement this organizational change without significant impact to the budget or quality of the collection, analysis, and dissemination systems in place. The sponsor asked MITRE to evaluate the current information management systems, identify new requirements, recommend a new dissemination system, and identify next steps for the new organization.

After several months, the MITRE team faced strong resistance, concern, and confusion from the staff about the impending changes. To address these barriers, the MITRE project leader invited one of MITRE's organizational change experts to assess the situation and provide recommendations. Using an organizational change methodology, the team developed a climate survey to structure stakeholder interviews and focus groups. Results from the survey revealed that the purpose of the organizational changes had not been communicated by leadership, and that a large number of staff feared they would lose their jobs or would be forced to transfer to new locations. The staff also expressed concern that the transformation would have a severe negative impact on the quality of their products and, thus, their national security mission.

Off-Site, On Track

MITRE recommended that the sponsor host a strategic planning off-site meeting with representatives from the functional areas to discuss the mission and goals for the new organization. Using our organizational change resources, MITRE helped design and facilitate the meeting. Participants were selected from the field, headquarters, laboratory, support, and various occupational specialties. MITRE coached the leaders in advance about the group process, communication strategy, and expected outcomes.

MITRE guided participants through the process of developing a mission statement, goals, next steps, and a schedule for collecting baseline data and implementing change. MITRE also designed, distributed, and analyzed a survey to gauge participant buy-in and collect additional feedback and recommendations for the sponsor.

Six months after the off-site meeting, despite changes in leadership and mission areas, the sponsor was operating under the new structure, and managers were successfully communicating among their teams. Attrition rates were stable and an improved information management system was under development and on schedule.

MITRE is assisting numerous government agencies through the changes necessary to keep our nation secure. Our government sponsors are seeking the help of MITRE's social scientists to transform themselves into more efficient and more responsive organizations.

Solutions that Fit

MITRE's commitment to the research and application of social science concepts springs from one certainty: a solution that doesn't address the environment from which the problem arose or to which the solution will be implemented is no solution at all.

This commitment to social science goes hand-in-hand with MITRE's reputation for knowing a sponsor's work and organization as well as the sponsor itself does. Our deep knowledge of social science combined with our deep knowledge of our sponsors enables MITRE to design solutions that fit.

For more information, please contact Elissa Allen using the employee directory.

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