The Managerial Crisis

Abstract

A managerial problem has existed in United States foreign affairs since the early postwar years because of lack of interest in the Department of State in supervising and co-ordinating the broad range of operational programs that had sprung up. Two elite groups within the State Department—the political appointees and the career diplomats— were united in the rationale that their role was in policy, not operations. The management problem became a crisis in 1961 when President Kennedy called for the State Department to take charge. But the Department was singularly unprepared, and a diverse and imaginative program of change, sponsored by the Deputy Under Secretary for Administration, ultimately failed. The main reason was that management still remained an alien concept to the political leadership of the State Department and to the dominant conservative faction of the Foreign Service. But, subsequently, a remarkable ferment developed, resulting in a takeover of the American Foreign Service Association by a group of "Young Turks," running on a liberal reform program. This readiness of the Foreign Service for change offers some hope that the State Department will take charge in the 1970's if the political leadership to be appointed by the next administration understands the problem and executes a coherent managerial strategy.