The topics of leadership and organizational culture have attracted considerable interest from both academics and practitioners. Much of the interest in the two areas is based on explicit and implicit claims that both leadership and culture are linked to organizational performance. However, while the links between leadership and performance and between culture and performance have been examined independently, few studies have investigated the association between the three concepts. This paper examines the nature of this relationship and presents empirical evidence which suggests that the relationship between leadership style and performance is mediated by the form of organizational culture that is present. The paper concludes with a number of implications for theory and practice.

Leadership style, organizational culture and performance: empirical evidence from UK companies

Conflict and Conflict Management.

Praise for The Handbook of Conflict Resolution

	"This handbook is a classic. It helps connect the research of academia to the practical realities of peacemaking and peacebuilding like no other. It is both comprehensive and deeply informed on topics vital to the field like power, gender, cooperation, emotion, and trust. It now sits prominently on my bookshelf."
	—Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

	"The Handbook of Conflict Resolution offers an astonishing array of insightful articles on theory and practice by leading scholars and practitioners. Students, professors, and professionals alike can learn a great deal from studying this Handbook."
	—William Ury, Director, Global Negotiation Project, Harvard University; coauthor, Getting to Yes and author, The Third Side

	"Morton Deutsch, Peter Coleman, and Eric Marcus put together a handbook that will be helpful to many. I hope the book will reach well beyond North America to contribute to the growing worldwide interest in the constructive resolution of conflict. This book offers instructive ways to make this commitment a reality."
	—George J. Mitchell, Former majority leader of the United States Senate; former chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland and the International Fact-Finding Committee on Violence in the Middle East; chairman of the board, Walt Disney Company; senior fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

	"Let's be honest. This book is just too big to carry around in your hand. But that's because it is loaded with the most critical essays linking the theory and practice of conflict resolution. The Handbook of Conflict Resolution is heavy on content and should be a well-referenced resource on the desk of every mediator—as it is on mine."
	—Johnston Barkat, Assistant Secretary-General, Ombudsman and Mediation Services, United Nations

The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice

Smart energy and smart energy systems

This paper presents a review of three decades of implementation studies and is constructed in the form of a personal reflection. The paper begins with a reflection upon the context within which the book Policy and Action was written, a time when both governments and policy analysts were endeavouring to systematize and improve the public decision-making process and to place such decision-making within a more strategic framework. The review ends with a discussion about how public policy planning has changed in the light of public services reform strategies. It is suggested that as a result of such reforms, interest in the processes of implementation have perhaps been superseded by a focus upon change management and performance targets. It is further argued that this has resulted in the reassertion of normative, top-down processes of policy implementation. The paper raises points that are important ones and indeed are reflected throughout all four papers in the symposium issue. These are: (1) the very real analytical difficulties of understanding the role of bureaucratic discretion and motivation; (2) the problem of evaluating policy outcomes; and (3) the need to also focus upon micro political processes that occur in public services organizations. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the continued importance of implementation studies and the need for policy analysts to understand what actually happens at policy recipient level.

/pdf/implementation-studies-time-for-a-revival-personal-56gdwp8fe4.pdf

Implementation Studies: Time for a Revival? Personal Reflections on 20 Years of Implementation Studies

The effects of culture on the performance of an organization depend, not on the strength of the overall culture, but on the mix and weightings of the components of that culture. An example is the component of conflict, which may be a healthy incentive for action and competition when present in some forms and degrees, but can be damaging when it becomes the culture’s dominant feature and its existence is not acknowledged. Research theory in the management of non‐profits emphasizes the need for consonance and deplores the existence of conflict; however, research shows that some community organizations do not fit the model presented in the literature and that conflict does exist in these organizations and can cripple their ability to function in goal‐setting, staffing, the conduct of meetings, problem solving and decision making, the identification and utilization of individual skills, and writing submissions for government funding. Uses the example of a small, non‐profit organization, which works in an environment where there is a need for unity, but where conflict between the volunteers and paid workers, and among the volunteers themselves, had become the over‐riding consideration in all decision making and was paralysing the organization.

A culture of conflict

Presents the second in a series of two articles tracing the saga of the organizational culture literature from the organization development model through to the recent interest in total quality management (TQM), forming a link between the three concepts. It is argued that, while TQM has separate origins from the culture movement, the two fields have recently converged with the idea that to achieve “excellence” and “quality”, it is necessary either to change or work with the culture of an organization. Following on from the first article which dealt with literature that was mainly of academic interest, such as concepts and methods of study, diagnosis and measurement, reviews the literature that heralds and then reflects the growing interest in utilitarianism. This literature is concerned with attempts to study, implement and measure culture change, and with the emerging relationship between culture and TQM.

The organizational culture saga ‐ from OD to TQM: a critical review of the literature. Part 2 ‐ applications

Describes one aspect of a longitudinal case study conducted in an Australian college of advanced education undergoing transformation to a university and explores the relationship between the espoused and observed reaction by staff to the changes, their actual behaviour, and the performance of the organization. Findings from the research did not vindicate the assumption in the culture literature that organizational culture has a direct and predictable effect on organizational performance, as the organization performed very well according to stakeholders′ criteria, in spite of widespread opposition at both grass roots and middle management levels during a period of forced, rapid change. Qualitative evidence is given of the very negative reactions to the forced behaviour changes, while quantitative evidence is given of the level of performance achieved by the organization during the same period. The conclusion is drawn that, on an organization‐wide scale, whole patterns of staff behaviour may be changed with...

Organizational Change: Relationship between Reactions, Behaviour and Organizational Performance

The paper presents a follow‐up to the saga of organizational culture, first chronicled in two issues of the Leadership & Organization Development Journal in 1996 and tracing culture’s development from the organization development model through to the interest in total quality management (TQM), forming a link between the three concepts. Since the 1996 articles, culture as a concept has proceeded to develop in many new directions. In revisiting organizational culture after five years, this paper attempts to show how it has branched out from TQM and has since been associated with business process reengineering, organizational learning, and knowledge management; all of which claim to involve either changing a culture or working with an existing culture. Discusses also the role of culture in the emerging ideas and perspectives of strategic alliances, sustainability and future organizations. It is argued that the culture saga is far from finished. While many of its components may turn out to be no more than passing fads and fashions, culture has proven itself to be an enduring concept that, as it has travelled many paths in the past, will travel many different paths in the future.

Five years on – the organizational culture saga revisited

This paper traces the development of strategic change models and their assumptions, arguing that managers have a good deal of choice in the strategies they adopt.


It presents the idea of organizational politics as simply another tool that managers have to choose from when instigating strategic change and explains why Western managers feel uncomfortable with the notions of power and politics.


The paper outlines the assumptions upon which the political model of change is based and argues that managers engage in political action in many subtle ways, particularly during times of change.


Finally, it provides some examples of political strategies that managers use, arguing that political action is not all bad and that managers have much more choice in strategic change strategies than they are willing to acknowledge.



Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jsc.572

Dianne Lewis

Papers

A culture of conflict

The organizational culture saga ‐ from OD to TQM: a critical review of the literature. Part 2 ‐ applications

Organizational Change: Relationship between Reactions, Behaviour and Organizational Performance

Five years on – the organizational culture saga revisited

The place of organizational politics in strategic change