SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS
8.2 A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
I considered organizational culture with respect to three aspects: leadership, strategy and underlying basic assumptions. With regard to leadership and strategy, I looked at leadership epochs, beginning from the establishment of the former NPB to the present day. Specifically, I considered the management styles - the ways in which leadership and authority were exercised as exhibited and encouraged by different leaders over time. I also examined how those management styles were interpreted in respect to what Schein calls 'strategic' concepts: the mission, stakeholders, environment and competencies.
The results have shown a temporal variance in the mission of conservation in KZN. In other words, KZN's conservation mission has not been static. Rather, it has evolved in ways that have epitomized the changing challenges that the conservation sector in KZN
faced, and continues to face during different phases of its evolution. Previously, the mission was tight and narrowly focused and this ensured that the NPB remained cohesive because everybody in the organization, individually and collectively, identified with the mission. In this sense, the NPB had norms and values that were strongly held and shared in the organization, or simply there was a strong organizational culture (O'Reilly and Chatman 1996). Further, these norms and values were strongly reflected in the artefacts.
Prominent among artefacts were the fenced reserves68 or protected areas and around which artefacts certain norms and values were developed and shared.
One of the key consequences of such a strong culture was behavioural consistency across individuals in the organization. This is in line with the observation that organizational cultures "provide group members with a way of giving meaning to their daily lives, setting guidelines and rules for how to behave, and, most important, reducing and containing the anxiety of dealing with an unpredictable and uncertain environment"
(Schein 1991: 15). With this understanding, I can argue that organizational culture served as a source of consistent behaviour within the organization. Consistent behaviour was itself a product of widespread agreement about basic assumptions and values in the organization (Gordon and DiTomaso 1992) and thereby enhanced organizational performance. In this sense, organizational culture is a social control mechanism (O'Reilly
1989; O'Reilly and Chatman 1996).
At the same time, organizational culture influenced employees' interpretations of organizational events and basic assumptions about organizational processes. Such a culture derived from three effects of widely common and strongly held norms and values:
increased direction, enhanced goal alignment between the organization and its employees, and boosted employee effort. It is important to emphasize the aspect of increased direction. The emphasis on increased direction is important because an examination of the trends in leadership and management styles as they existed during the early days, demonstrates that the militaristic climate, and command and control structures and processes in the NPB supported this approach which was largely effected through the
The fencing was in line with the protectionist stance and this stance was further effected with other supportive artefacts like firearms, uniforms and a general militaristic climate within the NPB.
issuing of directives. As the agency grew, administrative practices became entrenched, with delegation, collaboration and other responses to increasing complexities only coming much later in the 1990s and beyond. However, bureaucratization persisted, and top management, at least in very general terms and to varying degrees, maintained control at the centre. This continued, especially in the absence of political decision- makers' prescription for a decentralized structure or participatory approach. In short, different management styles were exhibited at different times, and similarly different aspects of 'conservation effectiveness' were emphasized over time with respect to how conservation was practiced and pursued. Enhanced goal alignment and boosted employee effort, I would argue, derived from a commitment to a shared mission. This aspect supports earlier research findings, though not in conservation management, that concluded that organizations benefit from having highly motivated leaders and employees dedicated to shared goals (Peters and Waterman 1982; Deal and Kennedy 1982; Kotter and Heskett 1992).
However, the unity mentioned above started to wane as the mission expanded from focusing on species and protected areas to the present focus on people, landscapes and ecosystems. Within this transition, a number of major developments that not only shook the very foundations of the mission but also challenged the implied status quo were made explicit. During about half a century, the mission of conservation in KZN has undergone several changes. While the mission has maintained conservation as a common denominator, it has been considerably changed to provide for previously ignored aspects.
This evolution has at all times epitomized expanding values in conservation. With proliferation in values has come contestation about the fundamental purpose or mission of conservation within the conservation sector and among others within society. Within the conservation sector, from what was initially a tight and narrow mission, and what might have qualified as a 'solidary unit', there is now a broad mission reflecting many more facets of relationships with the rest of society than was previously the case. And society also has a broadened set of expectations about conservation: in addition to its concern for cultural, scientific and recreational purposes, conservation is now expected to include livelihoods and other development challenges.
Because different views have been the norm rather than the exception, the conservation sector suffered from considerable polarization around the interpretation of the mission.
For example, amidst the evolution of the mission, required competencies have undergone significant changes as well. From an explicit focus on enforcement-related competencies, based on the interpretation of the conservation mission as being largely about protecting wildlife and seeing the role of conservation as being custodial, the nature of skills and capabilities to perform the evolving role of stewardship have changed. Thus, from essentially one core competence (enforcement), there has been an expansion in core- competencies to include: scientific services and research; tourism; recreation community participation and business management skills (to meet the commercialization imperative).
Each of these core-competencies reflects a desired improvement in what are regarded as strategic performance areas of the expanding mission. Re-definition of the role to mean more about stewardship and not necessarily the previous custodial function has facilitated the recognition of the importance of partnerships in an effort to ensure sustained and functional relationships with a variety of stakeholders. Thus, we see in the current management of EKZNW that the creation and sustenance of partnerships is emphasized as being one of the mandates alongside those of conservation and eco-tourism. Based on the above findings, I now wish to revert to the stated study objectives by stating the conclusions and implications for managing change in organizations.