The Greater Good
Corporate Activism : A New Era of Corporate Social Responsibility
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Carol Madere
From opposing bathroom bills to cutting ties with the National Rifle Association, corporations are responding to pressure from customers, employees and shareholders and wielding a big stick in public policy areas. This paper examines the evolution of corporate social responsibility, focusing on the changing cultures of two companies from different sectors to answer these questions: What drove the changes? How are they being received? What are the risks?
Organizational Culture in a Small, Non-Profit Organization in Transition: The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument in Use at Tahquitz Pines Conference Center
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael Jewell
Through the development of the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), Cameron and Quinn (2011) presented a method to assess the current climate within an organization and where the members of the organization believe the organization needs to be. This paper sought to provide an overview of Tahquitz Pines Conference Center, assess the culture using the OCAI, provide an overview of the results, analyze the meaning of the results, develop an organizational profile, and provide some suggestions on what Tahquitz Pines can do to bring its culture in-line in line with where the staff believe it needs to be. It was found that the culture leaned towards a clan-based culture with strong hierarchical leanings. Suggestions included acknowledging the apparent discrepancies between the two culture types, becoming more market-oriented, and the empowerment of employees.
Sifting through Organizational Noise to Serve the Greater Public Good
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session JoAnn Danelo Barbour
A team of organizational leadership researchers recently conducted a work culture audit focused on understanding the organizational work culture of a local police department within a national environment of turbulence. My purpose is to present lessons learned about the complex process of building a collaborative research culture while exploring the work culture of this public agency. From this environment, findings will be discussed through the lenses of collaboration, contradictions, and challenges, and the metaphor of “noise.” When nature poet William Cowper (1817) once intoned, “A life all turbulence and noise may seem to him that leads it wise and to be praised, but wisdom is a pearl with most success sought in still waters,” (p.74), he was not speaking of 21st century organizations in which working in and understanding noise is important. Organizationally, noise can be variously a “loud, confused, or senseless shouting or outcry … a sound … noticeably unpleasant … or interferes with one’s hearing of something … unwanted signal or a disturbance … irrelevant or meaningless data or output occurring along with desired information; … common talk; something that attracts attention; [or] … something spoken or uttered” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noise, 2017). In a turbulent environment, “a state of confusion, violence, or disorder” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turbulence, 2017) often characterized by unpredictability and/or uncontrolled change, a public agency has to evolve externally and internally: counter-intuitively must move toward the danger from outside forces (local community, technology, business, government, and professional challenges); and internally must develop a coherent, focused strategy (Fullan, 2000; Rumelt, 2011).
The Partnering Function in Organizations
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lisa Burley
There is much written across academic and practitioner literatures concerning the organizational challenge to adapt to an ever changing external environment. The same can be said for alliance building which is supported by a plethora of frameworks from practitioner contributions, and benefits from almost two decades of pro-partnership discourse, now fully embedded in the sustainable development goals. Only limited attention however has been given to the actual partnering function within organizations. The partnership function and its effectiveness can be seen as a fulcrum that balances on the one hand the efforts of the organization to sustain relevance within the external environment and on the other, internal organizational roles of specific individuals and task groups as well as policy, processes and sometimes simple precedence of how-did-that-work-the-last-time. This presentation will identify and discuss the challenges of the partnering function across levels as it relates to organizational strategy, climate and culture.
