Post-Activity Report: DHSS Organisational Culture and Performance Workshop 2012.

摘要

The Organisational Culture and Performance workshop, held during the Defence Human Science Symposium (2012), provided a forum for discussing the challenges associated with identifying an ideal organisational culture in Defence, and then measuring such a culture. This post-activity report summarises the outcomes of the workshop hosted by the DSTO Army Learning Organisation (ALO) team. Professor Karen Watkins (University of Georgia) facilitated the workshop (applying Action Learning principles) to generate critical reflection and questioning of Defence organisational culture. The workshop highlighted the complexity of defining an aspirational organisational culture (given culture has both intangible and tangible elements). The tangible elements of organisational culture can be measured directly. Developing measures for the intangible, more abstract elements would require more effort (expertise, time and resources). Both elements are needed to generate a full understanding in order to track Defence organisational culture towards its aspirational state. The stakeholders also identified the importance of collaboration and active information and knowledge sharing in order to generate a Defence wide understanding of this area. Finally, we offer some reflections on the limitations of the workshop design.