Document created: 26 August 04
Air University Review,
July-August
1970
Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Drumm
In a recent issue of Astronautics and Aeronautics, Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., Secretary of the Air Force, stated: “Whether as simple as buying the Sunday paper or as complex as the Apollo program, action requires first deciding to allocate resources for given goals, and then applying those resources effectively.”1 At first this statement seems trite, but with a second reading comes the realization that simple and complex problems have a great deal in common, especially in the basis for solution.
In James Webb’s new book, Space Age Management: The Large-Scale Approach,† we have a rich compendium of space age management history. The text presents his own involvement in this history and voices a number of observations. Many of these observations, like Dr. Seamans’ statement, reflect a plan for down-to-earth management of large-scale endeavors. As administrator—until recently—of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Mr. Webb is no stranger to the management of massive dynamic organizations.
Mr. Webb has extensive experience in guiding large corporate structures in the private as well as public sector of our economy. He has held such diverse positions as Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Under Secretary of State, Director of Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Vice-President of Sperry Gyroscope Company, and Director of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation.
This book is the product of the thirteenth series of Columbia-McKinsey Lectures. In the Introduction to the book, Dr. Courtney C. Brown, Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, states:
The tasks of mankind are rapidly becoming more complex. Increasingly they impinge on those qualities of life that extend beyond the production task of providing abundance. New structures, new methods, and new attitudes will be required for the fulfillment of man’s requirements in the years to come. The patterns of social and economic organizations of the past are now less adequate. The ideologies of yesterday are fading fast. The magnitude, the urgency, and the complexity of the space program of this nation have demonstrated this to be so. The program has required fresh imagination and venturesome thinking.
A plea seems to be reaching out from the book for more and better research in the area of management—for better and more dependable ways to organize and administer the great enterprises in which our nation must increasingly engage. This research, according to Mr. Webb, must provide greater knowledge and deeper understanding of what successful leaders in unprecedented endeavors really do, why they do it in a prescribed manner, and what the effects of these actions are.
The author does not hold solidly to traditional management values. On the other hand he does not advocate change in tradition for change’s sake. He does encourage increased research in organization theory. In this light Mr. Webb explains how efficient administration of current large-scale ventures departs radically from traditional management doctrine. He shows how the management requirements of the space age, as practiced by NASA, often went beyond the proven capabilities of present managerial forms and methods.
He addresses a number of specific areas of large-scale management in this rather distinctive approach to administration:
· Change is increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception in the managerial arena. He quotes one student of organization theory who puts it as “adaptive, problem-solving, temporary systems of diverse specialists, linked together by coordinating executives in organic flux.”2
· Large-scale endeavors may differ widely but all have a common thread of being generated by change: interaction is often turbulent; they can be made effective by use of current managerial processes in existing forms; they have complex managerial requirements; they have a “critical mass” of support; they are concerned with the adoption of new knowledge; they have important side effects associated with the prime objectives, some of which are intangibles; and they all loom large in the public eye.
· Environmental factors affect large-scale endeavors—an environment which knows success will retain confidence in the prudent use of leadership power. Leadership that abuses power will eventually lose the trust of the populace that makes up the environment.
· The key to successful accomplishment of large-scale endeavors is real-time feedback between the endeavor and its environment.
As a behavioral scientist, I was intrigued by the use of feedback in controlling an organization the size of NASA, which at its peak had a payroll of more than 400,000 people. Mr. Webb implies that this feedback was used in the contemporary sense of a “learning situation” and not strictly as a control device.
The subject covered by the author is potentially a highly esoteric one. In spite of this hazard, Mr. Webb brought forth many basic points which show that humanism is still retained in a large-scale operation. Among these are:
(1) The real key to large-scale success is the careful selection of highly motivated men of great ability. One factor in retaining their motivation is to expand their responsibilities continually (a method of job enrichment).3
(2) Detailed follow-up by the top echelon is imperative to organizational success.
(3) Sophisticated information sciences (computers) cannot replace the Homo sapiens manager. This Mr. Webb concludes even when faced with the 300,000 tons of data generated during the Apollo program.
The author’s emphasis on the method of conducting programs of huge magnitude without destroying the basic framework of our society is one of the book’s strong points. He does a superb job of documenting the methods required to organize programs involving rapid growth, large sums of money, and management of thousands of administrative, technical, and professional people. The success of the Apollo program attests to the basic feasibility of Mr. Webb’s tenets. To the serious student of management theory, these same large-scale applications may have a like application to social problems facing man on earth. Mr. Webb supports this thesis by quoting Dr. H. W. Johnson, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “The world is changing with such a speed that only the adaptive innovator can keep the pace. We are in the process of a social, economic and political evolution in which, clearly, only the fittest of enterprises will survive.”
I recommend the book to all serious students of the managerial arts—especially those with responsibility for large-scale organizations such as the Department of Defense. Much of the text has direct application to managing change as it is currently experienced by military leaders.
†James E. Webb, Space Age Management: The Large-Scale Approach (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969, $6.95), xiv and 173 pages.
Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Notes
1. Robert C. Seamans, “Action and Reaction—Part Two: Lessons Learned,” Astronautics and Aeronautics, September 1969, Vol. 7, No.9, pp. 44-52.
2. Warren S. Bennis, “New Patterns of Leadership for Tomorrow’s Organizations,” Technology Review, April 1968, p. 37.
3. Frederick Herzberg, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Harvard Business Review, January-February 1968, pp. 53-62.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Drumm (M.S., Jackson College) is Chief, Behavioral Science in Management Division, Professional Personnel Management Course, Institute for Professional Development, Air University. Other assignments have been in Korea, 1948; Guam, 1949; Personnel Planning, Hq Air training Command, 1953-56; Hawaii, 1956-59; Aerospace Medical Division, AFSC, Brooks AFB, Texas, 1959-64; and Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, from 1965 until his current assignment. Colonel Drumm is a graduate of the Defense Management Systems Course of the Naval Postgraduate School and the Air War College Seminar Program.
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this
document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression,
academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position
of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or
the Air University.
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