I think therefore I am (Descart)

or am I?

So what is culture?

?

People are not cultural dopesCulture mediates all human behaviour, sociology is the study of how this works (Bourdieu 1992:10)

Objective in that there are rules. Subjective, because rules can be changed and interpreted.

For example a bureaucracy appears to reproduce, a life of its own but it is no more than the sum total of actor’s routines - their habitus which allows them to operate in the field that is bureaucracy (Bourdieu).

People who are not aware of the culture are lost – they watch for clues of how to act (Goffman).

We construct our actions based on our knowledge and experience - by our reaction to the cultures that we live in and surround us.

Practicing or Practising

Practicing culture is exactly that: more than following the rules it is understanding and interpreting the rules and getting it right by practise/ce

One difficulty is that people do not enjoy being told that they operate in such a manner

Preferring to believe • they are individuals

• who act as they wish,

• without recognising they act – Taking account of their experience off the world around them

– They either fit-in or resist

The joining of structure and action (structuration seeGiddens 1984)

Calhourn and Sennett (2007: 7)

Something one does and something one learns to do better by doing it.

– Neither Bagehot’s “hard cake of custom”

– Nor the realm of pure creativity idealized in notions of genus,

Made and remade in almost imperceptible small ways as well as occasional large bursts of innovation.

As practice, culture is an achievement, not simply an environment.

An achievement of large-scale collective participation

Culture, as E. P. Thompson famously said of class, is “happening.” It isn’t just there. It isn’t our conscious control and creative choices.

It is made, but neither under conditions of our own choosing nor by individuals alone.

Forming a society• Functionalists believe in a society formed by social structures

• Made up by norms, values and rules that formed patterns of behaviour

• Structures that in turn become real in their consequences (W I Thomas)

• Durkheim uses the term ‘social solidarity’ to describe how people achieve social order

• Social solidarity was achieved by collective standards and rules of behaviour that make the ‘social glue’ that holds society together

• Social solidarity/order flows from consensus - the existence of shared norms, values and rules – a collective conscience

• Each generation passes on these norms, values and rules to the next (tradition)

CultureA collective way of living/being

Cultures can be macro – gender, ethnicity, class

Cultures can be micro – family, work, teenagers

Each generation has the ability to change their culture

People have a choice if they comply or not

Choice is not always made under circumstances that they control (Marx) -need to belong (Maslow)

Individuals who believe they have no place in society or its structures – do not share the same norms and values – are said to be alienated - a situation that Durkheim saw as ‘anomie’

Mayo’s study at Hawthorn argued that “anomie” might be a useful concept for analysing workers who were being de-skilled by factory work

Workers did not think they belonged – The Hawthorne experiment made them think they were important They belonged and therefore they were happier and worked harder.

The phenomenon that is culture.

• Culture has no physical presence, it is not hands on and cannot be seen, touched or smelt. Culture is a phenomenon, existing only in the mind of those individuals who believe in it –

• But when believed the framework of behavioural rules that is known as culture has power

• A common form of behaviour amongst employees• Values that employees have in common (a sense of

being, of identity, of purpose) • Values that one cohort of employees pass down to the

next

ScheinArtifacts:

are at the surface, those aspects (such as dress) which can be easily discernedEspoused Values:

are conscious strategies, goals and philosophiesBasic Assumptions and Values:

the core, or essence - difficult to discern because they exist at a largely unconscious level. Yet they provide the key to understanding why things happen the way they do.

"A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, Worked well enough to be considered valid taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems" (Schein, 2004 : 36).

“The basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that a group of people share and that determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and, their overt behavior"

Incredibly difficult to change a culture once it has been established (Baigent)

Public services operate in a complicated dynamic

Key stake holders – with potentially competing interests –Government–Citizen–Chief Officers/Senior Managers –Local Politicians –Operational Managers –Workforce –Representative bodies –Audit Commission

Formal Public Service Culture

Weberian Bureaucracy – Resilient to attack (Military model)– Written rules (orders) for everything – A clear chain of command – everyone knows the job above/below– No room for entrepreneurs– An iron cage of rationality

Chief Officers and the workforce a similar view– Public service ethos – To provide an efficient service to help the public

Espoused Values:conscious strategies, goals and philosophies

Basic Assumptions and Values: the core, or essence, of culture is represented by the basic underlying assumptions and values, which are difficult to discern because they exist at a largely unconscious level. Yet they provide the key to understanding why things happen the way they do.

Public Service Formal Culture

Government set the rules/targets Policing committee

Councillors

Lay People

Chief Constable

Make a Policing Plan to fit with Government’s wishes

Set the Mission Statement

Establish the Core Values

Expect managers to implement these structures

Expect workforce to follow these structures

NPM - Modernisation

Change in formal culture• to make experts more accountable• to make public services more efficient by involving the

community/citizen– Smoking, obesity fitness– Speeding, drinking, drugs– Prevention of crime and fire

Formal culture changes

Informal culture keeps the original culture

Increasing gap between managers & workers

At least two cultures

• The official culture laid down by Chief Officers (organisational culture)

• The unofficial culture(s) operated by those who do the job (occupational cultures)

• Often get listed under a single title

• Often there are unofficial peer group leaders who believe that they know best and act conservatively to ensure their values are put into practice

• Groups look to leaders (Adair)

There can be a number of views about public service culture.

• its just out there• values that one cohort of public servants pass

down to the next• a common form of behaviour amongst public

servants• a public service ethos to serve and protect • values that officers, managers, constables,

firefighters, soldiers etc. have in common• something people sign up to because it provides

for your needs, a sense of belonging, identity, purpose

These arguments almost make as if culture has a life of its own

• As a result, it is often the culture rather than individuals that is seen as responsible for how cultural values get put into practice

• Formal police culture may appear to have strength, power and authority, but this is due to a combination of group ownership, tradition and history, not because it actually exists.

• Police culture is a structure – accepted/constructed by the

individuals who operate within it • Because the culture has to be put into action

by individuals, there is space for those individuals to act differently

Macpherson,1999, para 6.34

“The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture and ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people”

Government requirements

As a public service the fire and police service is supposed to treat people ‘equally’The government have set targets for how this may be achieved – putting particular emphasis on community action and equalityAn institutionally conservative fire and police service has been slow to take the government seriously.Despite being disciplined services there are competing interest for how they operates

It is sometimes possible to forget that:

• People in the fire and police services have minds of their own

• Frequently group behaviour acts like a snowball – almost forcing people to put their own values on hold as they to give up some free will to join in with the group

• People in the fire or police services make a choice when they join in on cultural practices

• However choice is not always made under circumstances that the individual would choose (Marx)

Is there a choice about unofficial (conservative) fire or police service

culture• Christian: Well it’s the tradition. They

need to be able to fit-in .. without being lairy and start telling you .. how to do it.

• Ian: Just keep your head down and keep your gob shut for a little while and see what happens.

Macpherson, W. (1999) The Stephen Lawrence

Inquiry, London: HMSO.

6.44 We heed this warning, but upon all the facts we assert that the conclusion that racism played its part in this case is fully justified. Mere incompetence cannot of itself account for the whole catalogue of failures, mistakes, misjudgements, and lack of direction and control which bedevilled the Stephen Lawrence investigation.

Informal culture of the public servants who provide the service

•Want to deliver their service to the public – some ways of doing this parallel the formal plan – some do not•Take ownership of service delivery - think they know best how to deliver their service•Resistance to change•They have a concept of what makes a good firefighter/police officer/soldier •Fit newcomers in•Work life balance difficult - work is pleasure – isolation from public•The construction of identity through their work (masculinity)

•The union

At least two cultures

The official culture set by the chief officer:– Transformational/transactional

• mission statement • official rules• core values

The unofficial culture – conservative – the view of people who believe they know best– operating on the watch– operated by managers

Thank you

How does the informal culture reproduce itself?

Why does the informal culture have so much power/authority?