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DOD, Air Force rated positive in Gallup study
Nov 20, 2009 (DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS/ContentWorks via COMTEX) --
11/19/2009 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The Air Force with the Department of Defense has received high ratings for its professionalism, trust, accuracy and quality, according to a recent survey.
The findings were presented during a recent panel discussion following a Gallup Organization study, analyzing how Americans perceive the federal government.
"Overall the survey asked Americans to rate the federal government on a five point scale," said Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup poll. "The military was included and was the highest."
"We asked which branch of the military is most important to the United States and it historically continues to be the Air Force," Mr. Newport said. He added the military has continued to do well in spite of challenges with its nuclear enterprise and the on-going war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Following the President Barack Obama administration's call for "a high-performance government," Gallup officials conducted the study to examine public attitudes about the "overall customer experience" across all federal agencies. The study asked more than 40,000 American citizens to answer a series of questions about the level and quality of service they received from federal agencies, painting a clearer picture of the overall experience of individual's interactions with the agencies.
Although the study concluded Americans have the most governmental contact through tourism by way of the National Park Service and the Transportation Security Administration, contact with the Air Force and Navy has been fairly positive, Mr. Newport said.
The study's data illustrated how Americans feel about their interactions with the federal government, why they interact with the federal government and with which agencies they most frequently interact.
When asked to provide a wide variety of opinions on the overall performance of different sectors of government, 78 percent of Americans expressed positive views about the performance of the U.S. military, making it the highest-rated sector. When asked to identify the one agency that is most important to the future of the country, the public cited DOD and considered it the most prestigious agency. Although DOD rated high, the Central Intelligence Agency was viewed as the federal employer of choice, which was consistent with previous studies.
"The key here is that information is absolutely viable, and you can't manage what you don't measure," said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer for Partnership for Public Service and panel member. The reason government is facing critical challenges is largely due to a lack of long term goals and useful real-time health of organizations, Mr. Stier added.
Panel members agreed the federal government has been largely misunderstood of how best to serve its customer base and believed Gallup's initiative will foster growth in meeting the challenge.
"We have lost track of what the public wants and needs. We need to make sure we understand the American public, which serves as a very diversified customer base," Mr. Stier said. "But the information that this study provides us is useful information to manage public expectations effectively."
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