Values and attitudinal change, workforce diversification, and organizational learning in the US Forest Service
(Book - Regular Print)

Thesis,MSES,Green Mountain College,2009

Part 1: The U.S. Forest Service: an agency still in transition "Manuscript submitted to Journal of Forestry" Greg Brown, Trevor Squirrell, Charles Harris. Abstract: The U.S. Forest Service has been widely viewed as the leader of the Nation's forestry profession. Using longitudinal survey research, we measured the attitudes, beliefs and preferences of agency employees on a wide range of resource management and organizational issues from 1990-2008. We observed the agency transition from a timber-dominated organization to an agency struggling to cope with its post-timber reality. While the performance gap in the agency's resource management activities - the difference between employee preferences and the perceived position of the agency that spawned an internal agency reform movement in 1989 - has narrowed, new organizational circumstances including a reduced workforce, an exodus of employee technical expertise, declining resource budgets, outsourcing, and the ascendancy of fire management has had major impacts on agency programs and employee morale.

Part 2: Gender diversification in the U.S. Forest Service: does it still matter? "Manuscript submitted to Journal of Public Personnel Administration" Greg Brown, Trevor J. Squirrell Abstract: The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has historically provided a useful model for understanding administrative behavior and organizational change. In 1990 and 1996, nationwide studies of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) employees were conducted to evaluate the emergence of a new resource management paradigm and to examine the role of workforce diversification, especially gender, in contributing to organizational change. In 2008, a new survey of Forest Service employees was conducted to measure what changes have occurred over the last decade. More than a decade later, workforce diversification continues to evoke powerful negative and positive attitudinal responses among USFS employees. Larger organizational issues, especially reduced program budgets and a reduction in workforce, have stalled agency diversification efforts, reducing opportunities for women to enter leadership roles. Our analysis suggests that the USFS is operating from a "discrimination-and-fairness" organizational diversity paradigm rather than a "valuing-and-integrating" paradigm which will ultimately limit the benefits purported to accrue from workforce diversification.

Part 3: Organizational learning in the Forest Service: the fate of adaptive management Trevor J. Squirrell Abstract: In 1990 and 1996, nationwide studies of US Forest Service (USFS) employees were conducted by Brown and Harris (1992, 2000). Both studies evaluated the development of a "new resource management paradigm" in the USFS counter to the dominant resource management paradigm. The 1990 survey determined that one specific segment of Forest Service employees, the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE), more significantly supported the new resource management paradigm over the dominant resource management paradigm which was supported by the majority of USFS employees. The 1996 survey replicated, in part, the design of the 1990 survey to allow for longitudinal analysis of changes in agency values. The 1996 survey identified a narrowing of the "performance gap" between the USFS employee survey groups but significant value differences still existed between AFSEEE and non-AFSEEE members. In 2008, a comprehensive survey of agency employees was completed that updated and expanded the longitudinal research done in 1990 and 1996. A new element of the 2008 research is a measure of the agency's capacity to learn and innovate, a pre-cursor to successful implementation of adaptive management. This paper highlights the 2008 survey results as it relates to an assessment of current conditions for organizational learning and innovation.