Leader: Myra Howze Shiplett
Deputy Leader: Limor Ben-Har
The goal of the Working Group on Human Capital is to investigate the critical function human capital plays in the interagency system and to examine the importance of leadership, at multiple levels, in guiding national security organizations. The working group is devising a set of recommendations aimed at increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness, interoperability and cross-organizational understanding of personnel operating at the interagency level. These recommendations will specifically address key issues affecting personnel management in the current national security structure, the role that leaders play in overcoming or exacerbating interagency coordination problems, and the existence of known impediments to a national security personnel system that would reward rather than punish interagency collaboration.
This Human Capital Working Group looks at the U.S. Government’s staff – from civil/foreign servants through administrative staff to military personnel – to see what skills are currently being required, what on-going learning is being offered or required and how this supports interagency policy and operations at all levels. The working group also looks at the training that government staff is given both before operations and through the course of their careers. It specifically examines the government’s use of exercises to prepare for national security operations.
The Human Capital Working Group examines how the role of leadership – presidential, departmental and mid-level – facilitates or obstructs interagency work. It also looks at management in departments to understand how this contributes to, or undermines, interagency work.
Closely related to the above is the issue of institutional culture and how it is created and sustained and contributes to an interagency approach. Every organization has a distinct culture just as each individual has a different personality. The Human Capital Working Group describes the culture of the National Security Council, Homeland Security Council, and the departments and agencies that contribute to national security. It also identifies how these different cultures affect interagency performance. In addition, the working group examines whether departments and agencies that contribute to national security have the core competencies (organization skills) to be effective participants in interagency preparations and operations.
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