Changing organizational culture: The National Performance Review (NPR) experience

This dissertation examines the problem of whether the change process set in place by the National Performance Review (NPR) was partially or fully met in twenty-one U.S. federal cabinet agencies.The study examined the NPR's impact on agency culture through interviews with key NPR staff, NPR documents, and data from the 1992 and 1996 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board survey. Focus interviews were used to assess the "perceived" level of change in the federal agencies. Data were analyzed from secondary sources such as agency staffing patterns, and cost reduction reports. The study used factor analysis methods and statistics (eigenvalues, factor correlation coefficients) and the difference of means test to measure the degree of "culture" change within the federal cabinet agencies.The study shows that cultural change is evidenced only in a few agencies as measured by selected cultural questions in the Merit Board survey. In the National Atmospheric and Space Administration, the Department of Interior and the Department of Navy, the results of the factor analysis and difference of means tests suggest change on two of the supervision/leadership questions, teamwork and reward systems. Although change occurred on certain cultural questions within these agencies, there is no overall evidence to suggest that the NPR has changed the organizational culture of the federal government.The study also found that the failure to implement the NPR was attributed to the following: (1) reinventing government was characterized by conflicting goals, and an administrative language rooted in "rhetoric" and symbolism (2) despite Vice President Al Gore's highly visible role in the NPR, the management culture of the federal cabinet agencies had not changed under the NPR and (3) agency systems of rewards and accountability did not change during the NPR implementation period.This dissertation argues that successful organizational change is dependent on: (1) the ability and foresight of agency managers to communicate the objectives of reform, and (2) the development of reward systems that reinforce change. The study supports the importance of these conditions in order for reinventing government to succeed now and in the future.