Factors Affecting Organisational Culture

525 Pages·2015·4.07 MB·English

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Derek Shaw

The Power of Commitment and the Shadow of Bureaucracy: Factors
Affecting Organisational Culture in UK Defence Equipment and
Support, 2008-2014

Cranfield Defence and Security
PhD
Academic Year: 2015

Supervisor: Dr Charles Kirke
June 2015
© Cranfield University 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the
copyright holder.

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CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Derek Shaw

The Power of Commitment and the Shadow of Bureaucracy: Factors
Affecting Organisational Culture in UK Defence Equipment and
Support, 2008-2014

Cranfield Defence and Security
PhD
Academic Year: 2015

Supervisor: Dr Charles Kirke
June 2015
© Cranfield University 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the
copyright holder.

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ABSTRACT
This research exposed some of the factors that affected organisational culture
and group behaviour in Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) from its
inception in 2007 through to 2014, when it became a Bespoke Trading Entity.
The factors that were examined included organisationally legitimised personal,
social and geographic identity, and linguistic difference and group size. Metaphor
was also used by group members to describe the relationship they had with their
groups. Group size was another factor that affected group behaviour. Finally, the
effects of socio-technical induction and socio-cultural integration were seen to be
additional factors that allowed cultural drag to occur within DE&S.
The research was an insider ethnographic study that used a qualitative, multi-
factorial approach which encompassed 6 years of observations, 124 interviews,
and included the analysis of appropriate DE&S policy documents. This thesis is
considered to be unique because no research of this nature, or at this level, has
been carried out in DE&S, the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and the
Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO). In addition, no studies have investigated
the organisational culture of DE&S, apart from Kirke (2007a unpublished), Kirke
(2010), which was a published article that was informed by that pilot study.
The factors that were identified combined to produce both an organisation that
possessed multiple organisational cultures and one single ethos which was that
of delivering equipment to troops and supporting the troops, described as ‘front-
line-first’. There was also an organisational culture that was affected by both the
socio-technical and socio-cultural interactions of its members and of unconscious
behaviours. All of those factors acted together as a system of interactions, with
different factors taking primacy depending on the organisational context, no
single factor being consistently more important than any other. The ethos of
“front-line-first” was embedded within the DE&S organisational culture as a value
which may have been used as a metaphor for the primacy of the overarching
organisational culture of supporting the front-line.
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KEYWORDS:
Group size, tribalism, para-tribes, identity, socialisation, socio-
technical, socio-cultural, cultural drag.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Behind every successful PhD candidate there stands an army of
supporters, I am no different in that. I must acknowledge, in no
particular order the following. Dr Charles Kirke, for supervision, Dr
Lynn Hallam for critical reading and thesis development. Freyja
Lockwood, Dr John Carney and Ruth Muttlebury for critical reading
and insightful personal observations. John Hallam, Tim Lockett,
Morag Reeder for being there at the beginning, encouraging me and
allowing me to test my initial ideas out on them. Their observations
and personal comments enabled me to situate the work more widely
in DE&S. I must also thank Clare Fry, Major General Alan Macklin,
Dr David Marsh, and Dr Simon Dakin, Elizabeth Wombwell, Brigadier
Ken Ferguson, Jonathan Evans, Tim Flesher and David Bush for
permission to carry out the research in the organisations that they
were responsible for. Thanks are also due to Brigadier Phil Davies
for giving his time to discuss the boundaries between the military and
civilian workforce and to Martin Neary for taking the time to discuss
the boundaries between the Commercial, SCS and below grade 7,
(B2 grade) workforce. I must also acknowledge all of the interviewees
and respondents who were open with their experiences of working in
DE&S. Additional thanks are due to Stephen Moore and the
DESIDER team for providing the photographs that are marked as
CROWN COPYRIGHT. I am also grateful to Alex Hudd for
transcription services. And finally, the most thanks go to Julia, without
whom this thesis would not have been completed.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iii
KEYWORDS: ..................................................................................................... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................ vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... ix
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................... xv
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS .............................................................................. xvi
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... xvii
LIST OF GRAPHS ......................................................................................... xvii
LIST OF CARTOONS ....................................................................................xviii
GLOSSARY OF TERMS ................................................................................... 1
DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................... 2
1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 1
1.1.1 The Research Domain ...................................................................... 2
1.1.2 Summary and Structure of the Thesis ............................................. 13
2. Literature Review ..................................................................................... 15
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 15
2.1.1 Navigation ....................................................................................... 15
2.2 Studies Of and Within United Kingdom Defence, Support and
Acquisition of Equipment Organisations ...................................................... 16
2.2.1 Studies of Similar Organisations ..................................................... 21
2.2.2 Implications ..................................................................................... 23
2.3 An Examination of the Relevant Bodies of Literature ............................. 24
2.3.1 Culture and Organisational Culture ................................................. 24
2.3.2 Social and Technical Cultures ......................................................... 28
2.3.3 Implications ..................................................................................... 31
2.4 The Study of Groups and How They are Described ............................... 32
2.4.1 Groups and Teams in Organisations – Form, Function and Size..... 38
2.4.2 Implications of Group Size Literature to This Research .................. 43
2.5 Evolutionary Anthropology and Psychology ........................................... 45
2.5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 45
2.5.2 Evolutionary Anthropology .............................................................. 45
2.5.3 Evolutionary Psychology ................................................................. 45
2.5.4 Evolutionary Approach to Organisations ......................................... 47
2.5.5 Evolutionary Approach to Group Size ............................................. 48
2.5.6 Challenging Dunbar ........................................................................ 49
2.5.7 Implications of an Evolutionary approach to Group Size in
Organisations ........................................................................................... 51
2.6 Evolutionary Anthopology and Language ............................................... 52
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2.6.1 Implications of The Evolutionary Approach To Language ................ 55
2.7 Groups, Tribes and Neo-Tribes.............................................................. 56
2.7.1 Implications of Group Labelling ....................................................... 65
2.8 Symbols and Symbolism........................................................................ 67
2.8.1 Implications of Symbols in DE&S .................................................... 71
2.9 Social Identity ........................................................................................ 72
2.9.1 Implications of Identity For This Research ....................................... 74
2.10 Identity and Organisational Mergers .................................................... 76
2.10.1 Implications of Organisational Identity and the Merger of the DPA
and the DLO ............................................................................................ 78
2.11 Geographic Identity, Symbolic and Functional Space. ......................... 80
2.11.1 Implications of Geographic Identity in DE&S ................................. 82
2.12 Linguistic Frameworks: Metaphor and Organisational Dialects ............ 83
2.12.1 Implications of Language and Metaphor ........................................ 85
2.13 Integration, Induction and Socialisation ................................................ 87
2.13.1 Implications of Induction and Socialisation .................................... 92
2.14 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 93
3. Methodology ............................................................................................ 95
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 95
3.1.1 Research Philosophy and Methods ................................................. 95
3.1.2 The Research Philosophy ............................................................... 96
3.1.3 The Research Strategy ................................................................... 97
3.1.4 Ethical considerations ..................................................................... 99
3.2 Research Design and Evaluation of Methods .......................................100
3.2.1 A Questionnaire Based Approach - Formal Questionnaires ...........103
3.2.2 Structured Interview .......................................................................105
3.2.3 Unstructured Interviews..................................................................105
3.2.4 Focussed Interviews ......................................................................106
3.2.5 Observations and Fieldwork ...........................................................107
3.3 Research Methods Deployed In This Research ....................................109
3.3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................109
3.3.2 Observation and Field Work ...........................................................109
3.3.3 Photographs as Ethnographic Tools ..............................................111
3.3.4 The Interrogative Framework .........................................................112
3.3.5 Choosing Informants ......................................................................113
3.3.6 Application .....................................................................................118
3.3.7 Data Analysis .................................................................................118
3.3.8 Data Presentation ..........................................................................119
3.4 Testing the Research Methods .............................................................121
3.4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................121
3.4.2 A Pilot Study ..................................................................................121
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