Proposal Writing at Atherton Jordan, Inc.

Abstract

This study analyzes the proposal-writing environment and the practices of seven engineers at Atherton Jordan, Inc. (a pseudonym), a Silicon Valley engineering firm that does government defense work. The following questions are addressed in our research: What are the characteristics of the proposal-writing environment at AJI, an organization that relies primarily on military contracts? What traits do AJI proposals exhibit? To what extent, if any, do organizational conventions influence the writing of AJI proposals? Finally, how can we characterize the proposal-writing process of AJI engineers? Using an ethnographic approach, the authors triangulated data through formal and informal interviews, a questionnaire, and company documents. Findings indicate that AJI engineers, working in a high-stress environment, write proposals collaboratively and have a highly structured composing process. Early drafts of proposals exhibit both macro- and micro-problems resulting partly from engineers' training and the nature of their jobs. Faced with an increasingly competitive environment, AJI has set up a Proposal Operations Center to help engineers write better proposals. The result has been not only a dramatic improvement in the final drafts of proposals, but a shift in engineers' attitudes toward writing, as well.