Transforming leadership in the FBI : a recommendation for strategic change

Abstract

The FBI has entered a critical point in its history. The new normalcy of the post-9/11 world has created seemingly insurmountable challenges that highlight the need to further examine the FBI's policies, practices, and procedures used to identify, select, professionally develop, evaluate and place leaders in its Special Agent ranks. The FBI must identify its most capable leaders, set conditions for their success, and systematically place them in positions that will maximize their impact on the future of the organization. This research examines drivers and impediments that have led to the current methodologies used by the FBI to select and place its Special Agent leaders. It also reviews the current mechanisms for training and developing FBI Special Agent mid-level and executive managers and explores an alternative strategy to identify, select, professionally develop, evaluate and place ensuing generations of FBI Special Agent leaders. Finally, this research recommends specific courses of action and a new strategic framework, moving from a system of individual career management to a system of organizational career development or a leadership pipeline, to transform the FBI's Special Agent leaders into standard setters within the larger intelligence and law enforcement communities they serve.