Renovating Organizational Culture: Influencing Your Unit's Destiny

摘要

The conduct of war continues to change, but how we imbue organizations with a culture of effectiveness has not. In the last decade of war, the military has made numerous improvements in many aspects of training, equipping, manning, and executing military operations. Similar improvements concerning organizational culture have failed to keep pace. Renovation of our organizational culture is overdue and must occur for our military to reach its full operational potential. The Defense Department's analysis of organizational culture consistently takes a back seat to individual leadership, with few actual practical solutions or improvements having been identified and implemented. Analyzing the ideas and best practices of academics, highly effective for-profit businesses, and high performing special operations units can provide insight into alternatives and new methods that may benefit general purpose forces. A renovation of organizational culture will ensure the military retains the talented individuals who sustained our forces so well during the recent wars, will prevent a lapse into the negative organizational cultures characteristic of previous interwar periods, and will guarantee the Department of Defense is fully prepared to meet future challenges.