Organizational Culture

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Literature Analysis Matrix

Organizational Culture Literature Analysis Matrix

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J-SAT

Why is Organizational Culture Important to Corrections?

Organizational culture can be thought of as the “character” of the organization, including an organization’s:

traditions,
norms,
structures,
patterns of behavior,
values about learning,
ideologies,
motivations,
mental models learned through observation,
communication patterns,
myths about itself,
strategies for adapting to environment,
ways of dealing with change,
views of leadership, and
approaches to performance.

In addition, the assumptions, values, and norms of individual members of the organization need to be taken into account when looking at the culture of any organization.

A thorough examination of these areas can enable corrections to develop processes, policies, structures, success measures, and other important indicators of a healthy organizational system. Organizational culture can also enhance or inhibit the ability of a system to be innovative. The question of what effect culture has on an organization’s goals, including public safety or the reduction of recidivism, is essential for corrections. NIC has several products and initiatives on organizational/institutional culture, including the guide “Building Culture Strategically: A Team Approach for Corrections.”

What is the Organizational Culture Team?

Created in the spring of 2008, this team will be charged with increasing knowledge generation on Organizational Culture (OC) and producing work products such as:

New strategies for the dissemination and application of the knowledge
Research on programs and practices
White papers, journal articles, and books
Research-based innovations in policies and programs

They will also be asked to exchange ideas about questions that are key to the future of corrections, such as:

Is one type of organizational culture better than others for encouraging innovative thinking and action?
As in hard sciences, are there laws about the rate and amount of change that people in various corrections organizations can accomplish?
Who are the “clients” of the correctional system? What are the system’s “products”? And who should pay for the products to increase the likelihood of successful outcomes?

Like the Keystone Group , the OC Team will be mostly a virtual group, meeting once in person and then through video and audio conferencing. As their work progresses, it will be published and disseminated through this website, as well as other venues.

Who Are the OC Team Members?

OC Team members will be selected from a variety of disciplines and fields. They will be known for:

Producing innovative work,
Creatively moving research into practice,
Encouraging others to be creative and inventive,
Desiring to assist corrections’ movement toward more effective evidence-based policies and practices,
Being open to new ideas,
Maintaining a wide network of colleagues in and outside of their field, and
Influencing others through their abilities to synthesize the practice and/or research in their field.

Literature Analysis

The following categories of literature and research on Organizational Culture have been meticulously culled to establish a foundation for the work of the OC Team:

Organizational behavior
Performance
Change
Assessment
Leadership
Evolution/history

Over 700 OC articles were reviewed through search engines, databases, and communication with field experts. Of these articles, the 150 most relevant were reviewed more closely, while the 50 most salient articles received a thorough review. The literature analysis will be on-going to ensure that it stays current, comprehensive, and sufficiently detailed to provide a meaningful framework for collaboration.

See the Literature Analysis page for article updates and more information about this process, or browse through summaries of seminal OC articles the literature analysis blog.

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