Changing the "culture" of welfare offices : from vision to the front lines
By: LURIE, Irene
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Contributor(s): Riccucci, Norma M.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE, January 2003Administration & Society 34, 6, p. 653-677Abstract: This article examines whether the 1996 welfare reform hast led to the culture change in welfare offices advocate by welfare leaders and administrators. Examining a sample of state and local welfare systems, it asks whether and how welfare organizations are seeking to change their culture or, if not their culture, at least some of the structures and process of their welfare systems. After unpacking the concept of culture in the context of welfare reform, the research finds that welfare leaders and administrators interpret the concept of culture change more broadly than do scholars of organizational culture. Welfare practitioners consider changes in structure and process as culture change, whereas scholars of organizational culture see these changes as only changes in artifacts. Scholars would consider these practitioners' interpretations to be superficial and would argue that they underestimate what it actually takes to effect changes in beliefs, perceptions, and feelings that are sufficiently deep to be called cultural transformations
This article examines whether the 1996 welfare reform hast led to the culture change in welfare offices advocate by welfare leaders and administrators. Examining a sample of state and local welfare systems, it asks whether and how welfare organizations are seeking to change their culture or, if not their culture, at least some of the structures and process of their welfare systems. After unpacking the concept of culture in the context of welfare reform, the research finds that welfare leaders and administrators interpret the concept of culture change more broadly than do scholars of organizational culture. Welfare practitioners consider changes in structure and process as culture change, whereas scholars of organizational culture see these changes as only changes in artifacts. Scholars would consider these practitioners' interpretations to be superficial and would argue that they underestimate what it actually takes to effect changes in beliefs, perceptions, and feelings that are sufficiently deep to be called cultural transformations
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