Challenging Organization Culture

Yesterday we talked about organizational culture. The main pointed related to this interesting topic was that understanding organizations’ culture is crucial to navigate successfully within any institution.

I understand that grasping the meaning of rituals, values, norms, and symbols are important, especially for newcomers, to adapt to and be accepted into new work environments. However, public leaders are required to move beyond to the expectations of identifying and adapting to corporate culture. They have to challenge assumptions, create visions and convince complacent public servants that exist more effective forms for performing activities and serving the public.

Roosevelt has been considered one of the greatest American presidents in history. In the context of the Great Depression, a collapse situation prompted him to become a transformative leader and come up with innovative approaches to problems believed to be cyclical and systematic. Rather than monetary policy, Roosevelt focused on fiscal measures and created the New Deal to revive the economy. Besides being able to envision and implement a broad economic policy agenda, Roosevelt led the Allies to the victory during World War II. Had he not tapped into pragmatism and partnered with the Soviet dictator Stalin, the track of Western history would might have been quite different nowadays.

A contemporary example is the floods in Australia. Faced by large destruction and increasing costs, the Prime Minister announced that tax measures will be enforced. The opposition party rejected the creation of a national fee to increase public revenues and address Victoria and Queensland states calamity situation. Opposition claimed that more than a single charge tax it is necessary to reduce expenses and drop meaningless projects. Australian Prime Minister responded that she understands that fiscal equilibrium is vital but governments' bottom line is not guaranteeing primary surpluses and paying dividends to shareholders, but ensuring that in the short, mid, and long terms the people of Australia would be able to respond more quickly to natural disasters while also preventing new ones from happening. As the leader of the country, her mandate is to envision a nation where benefits and damages are shared so that every state is economically stable even at momentaneous tax burdens on other areas.

At national and macro levels, the examples above meant to illustrate that understanding the components of organizational culture is pivotal for public administrators routine work; however, challenging deeply rooted assumptions is what actually drives positive change in public organizations.