Influence of Historical and Contemporary Discursive Formations

What influence do historical and contemporary rules, policies, and practices have on an organization’s culture? This chapter discusses how history and traditions can stagnate culture and cultural change. To provide structure to the discussion, the three propositions that evolved from the vignette case study in Chapter 3 are resolved by interviewing the same 42 military officers. This chapter talks about the tensions faced by leaders in rules-based organizations that inhibit their ability to be agentive and values-based by way of interviewing these military officers. It also addresses how adopting values-based leadership is problematic in extreme situations because of the primacy of enforceable rules, and finally how rules can undermine the ability to be values-based. Evidence is provided of the barriers, tensions, contradictions, and paradoxes the leaders face in trying to be values-based.