Morale

Despite the internal leadership efforts and the introduction of mission command, the USFS has been subject to several external issues that have caused frustration agency wide. Low morale in the last number of years has been caused by budget cuts, employee retention issues, ever increasing administrative and political pressures, and selective promotional practices. Chojnacky muses:

What happened to the USDA Forest Service?...Once heralded as among the most respected and effective government agencies, the Forest Service has become a case study of bureaucratic red tape and low morale.

Employees give it low marks for leadership, ranking it 198th out of 229 agencies in a recent survey (Partnership for Public Service 2011), and describe a stressful and demoralizing work environment.³⁴³

Fukuyama also ascribes the USFS decline to increasing bureaucracy. He notes:

…many regard the Forest Service as a highly dysfunctional bureaucracy performing an outmoded mission with the wrong tools… It operates under multiple and often contradictory mandates from Congress and the courts and costs taxpayers a substantial amount of money while achieving questionable aims. The service’s internal decision-making system is often

342 Ibid.

343 Cindy C. Chojnacky, “Leadership Impact on Forest Service Operations: Intriguing Ideas from Public Administration Theories.” Journal of Forestry 110, no. 8 (December 2012): 457, accessed January 27, 2015,

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/saf/jof/2012/00000110/00000008/art00012?crawler=true&mimety pe=application/pdf

gridlocked, and the high degree of staff morale and cohesion that Pinchot worked so hard to foster has been lost.”³⁴⁴

Retention of qualified individuals, especially in the firefighting ranks, has been an issue for the USFS. Pay disparities and better benefits cause many experienced USFS firefighters to leave and go work for state or local fire agencies. The problem has been especially acute in states like California where the cost of living is high and salaries of state and municipal departments can be almost double the amount paid by the USFS.³⁴⁵ Local and state firefighters working the same fire as their federal counterparts are paid for 24 hours in a day while the federal time clock stops at 16 hours in a day. These issues will work against the innovation, trust, and camaraderie that mission command requires to be effective.

Despite these issues, the vast majority of USFS firefighters take great pride in the work that is accomplished in managing wildland fire in the nation’s forests. There is a strong heritage in the USFS and the symbols such as Smokey the Bear and smoke jumping have attained a certain iconic status. The national forests are treasured by many as places of beauty and recreation. The latest Partnership for Public Service ranking shows the USFS making modest gains in leadership empowerment and overall ranking (moving up 2.9 points in overall rating from 2013).³⁴⁶ Hopefully, the adoption of the USFS Fire Suppression Foundational Doctrine and the emphasis on leadership development will continue this trend by preparing USFS leaders to be more effective in fighting fires and addressing organizational issues.

J. SUMMARY

The USFS experience brings perspective to the issue of how mission command principles can be implemented by a homeland security organization. Fatal fires, such as

344 Francis Fukuyama, “America in Decay: The Sources of Political Dysfunction,” Foreign Affairs (September–October 2014), accessed February 7, 2015,

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141729/francis-fukuyama/america-in-decay?nocache=1

345 Erica Werner, “Forest Service Studying Loss of U.S. Firefighters to California Force,” Santa Ynez Valley Journal, February 14, 2008, accessed January 27, 2015, http://syvjournal.com/archive/6/7/1333/

346 Partnership for Public Service, “The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government Rankings 2014,” accessed February 14, 2015, http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/detail/AG1

the South Canyon, Thirtymile and the Mann Gulch, are the catalyst for organizational self-reflection and the search for doctrinal changes by the USFS. The influence of auftragstaktik on the USFS doctrine, the bottom-up approach of how the doctrine was formulated, and the extensive leadership educational resources through the Wildland Fire Service Leadership program are positive signs that the mission command principles are being adopted. Leadership, crew cohesion, and sense making provide several lines of inquiry in which to assess the degree to which mission command principles have been adopted. The challenges to implementation were discussed with the prosecution of supervisors associated with fatality fires eroding organizational trust. The low USFS morale is another issue that works against trust and initiative; however, there are signs that these organizational issues are improving.

In the next chapter, an analysis will be conducted using the two case studies and the issue specific perspectives outlined in Chapter III. The IDF and the USFS differ in several ways, including the length of time that each has employed mission command principles and why such an ethos was adopted. Additional benefits and challenges not discussed in the case studies, such as the problems with mentorship programs and how mission command prepares subordinates for leadership responsibilities, will be examined.

This analysis will compare several organizational attributes in order to further define how these principles could be used in a homeland security response setting.

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VI. ANALYSIS OF THE IDF AND USFS EXPERIENCE WITH