The Business of Sigint: The Role of Modern Management in the Transformation of GCHQ

GCHQ is the UK’s Signals Intelligence agency. The end of the Cold War, the growth of international terrorism and the arrival and subsequent explosive growth of the Internet radically changed the environment in which it had to operate. Recognition of these pressures led GCHQ to begin a wide-ranging change programme in the late 1990s. It included not only technology but also deep change in business processes, leadership and culture. A critically important feature of these changes has been the adoption, and when necessary adaptation, of a wide range of management techniques taken from the private sector. The article examines the range of techniques in question, looking at the extent to which each had to be adapted. It concludes by considering the issues that arise in the general adoption of such techniques in the public sector, concluding that that are no insurmountable obstacles.