iMBA_523_OD_CL
Cultural Levers: A Cultural Analysis of MWR
Artifacts
Staff are often late for meetings or just do not show up for meetings. There is no concrete dress
attire. Some departments wear uniforms, some dress casually, and some dress in business casual.
Communication within the agency as well as externally within the community is lacking
reliability and consistency. Managers will often cancel meetings, but fail to notify attendees who
sometimes are driving from an hour away to attend the meeting. Activities hosted by MWR will
be canceled or rescheduled within the community or venues changed with little or no notice to
participants. Customers will show up at a venue only to find out that it has been moved, but there
is no information as to where it has been moved to. With social networking sites as prominent as
they are, it would make sense to have a social networking site that would provide information to
our community in real time, however, this garrison has refused to peruse that avenue and has
vehemently resisted utilizing any social networking sites even though other MWRs around the
world are on Facebook.
Shared Values
The believe system within the MWR agency is represent by the global MWR Mission and Vision
which is to “support Army Force Generation by enabling all Commanders, Region Directors, and
installations to provide Family and MWR programs and services that result in a quality of life to
Soldiers and Families commensurate with their sacrifice and service” and “to be the driving force
for programs and services that provide the foundation for the Army’s home by:
Increasing Soldier and Family resiliency
Restoring balance
Enhancing recruitment, readiness and retention for Soldiers and Families”
The shared values as understood by all are that the customer is always right and that we must
actively engage in customer service “recovery” if a customer is dissatisfied with their experience
with MWR. Customer service is the pinnacle of our mission. These are the values that are
expressed in the mission statement, however, that is not always the case at our garrison. In many
instances the customers are disregarded and dismissed by MWR employees from front line to
directorate level management. We have no competition because of our location and the language
barrier. There is less of a need to satisfy the customer as there would is for an MWR that is
stateside. The customers must accept the MWR culture in Germany because there is no real
alternative to their services.
iMBA_523_OD_CL
Basic Assumptions
The basic assumptions within my agency are that top tier management is dismissive of lower
level managers and employees. Their opinions, feelings, and suggestions are dismissed
regardless of their validity. Directorate level management will stick with a decision even when it
is a transparently bad one just to save face leaving their subordinates to clean up the mess or
even worse, be forced to justify the consequences of the bad decision made that was out of their
control. My director’s refusal to restock the bar at a Korn concert put on by the USO is an
example. He knew it was a bad decision after the first complaint, however would not retract his
decision. This led to hundreds of angry concert goers who submitted negative feedback. This
negative feedback rating system fell under the ratings of the Community Club manager who had
no input into the decision. He will have to answer for the negative feedback to our Garrison
commander and the feedback will affect his performance ratings. The desire of the director to
save face directly conflicts with the mission of customer service excellence.
On the contrary however, there is little to no consequence for underperformance. MWR
employees receive annual compensation for time in service regardless of how good or bad their
performance ratings were. Because of red tape, it is almost impossible to dismiss an employee
