Scapegoating Culture in Carceral Organizations

• In Event: Roundtable: Changing Staff Culture in Corrections: Practical Realities and Evaluation Challenges

Abstract

Organizational culture is an obscure and poorly understood part of any workplace. In scholarly work, researchers use organizational culture as both a catchall term and a black box of intrigue. The former suggests its’ omnipresence and ability to take the blame for all that ills organizations. The latter denotes a mythical and misunderstood invisible cloak that covers organizations and organizational life, yet is misconstrued, complex and confusing. Within prisons, especially prisons attempting reform/change, researchers need to find ways of unpacking organizational culture using sound and rigorous qualitative methods with careful attention to sampling and researcher-subject collaboration. It is critical that today’s researchers recognize the importance of using culture as a dependent, rather than independent variable, so scholars will stop scapegoating culture as the answer to why organizational processes and outcomes fail and will instead recognize the study of culture as a problem itself.

Author

• Danielle S. Rudes, George Mason University