Analytic Culture in the U.S. Intelligence Community (PDF) - CIA

CHAPTER EIGHT
Organizational Culture: Anticipatory Socialization and
Intelligence Analysts
Stephen H. Konya 1
Rob Johnston
I know it sounds silly, but I had this image of James Bond before I
started working here. The truth is, I just sit in a cubicle, and I write
reports.
Every organization has a unique culture that is defined partly by its individual
members and partly by its structure, history, and policies. For that culture
to endure, it must be transmitted from current members to new members. This
process, known as organizational socialization, is especially important in
organizations with strong, insular cultures, as those with weak cultures have
less to transmit and will tend to experience culture changes as members come
and go.
Although socialization begins prior to a person’s first day on the job and is
a continuous process, it is experienced most intensely by new employees. The
cultural symbols acquired and interpreted during their initial interaction with
the institution create potent and lasting impressions. 2 For them, socialization
1
Stephen Konya is a Research Associate at the Institute for Defense Analyses, currently examining
multimodal interfaces for the dismounted for the DARPA/Army Future Combat Systems
program. He holds an MS in industrial and organizational psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute.
2
Umberto Eco, A Theory of Semiotics; Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures; Jacques
Lacan, Ecrits; Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics.
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