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A Case Study of Pope Francis' Organizational Culture Change Init Unfreezing the Organizational Culture of the Catholic Church: A Case Study of Pope Francis’ Organizational Culture Change Initiative Using the Transformational Leadership Theoretical Framework A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Anna Marie Verhoye IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Advisor: Mark Pedelty May 2015 © Anna Marie Verhoye May 2015 Acknowledgements Most importantly, I am grateful for the incredible love and support my family has given me throughout my life. My kind and gentle-spirited husband Jim has been a remarkable life partner; I could not be more grateful for the love, joy and supportive home we have created for each other. I am also grateful for the incredible joy our three children continue to bring into my life and for their constant love and support of my personal, emotional and professional endeavors. Thank you Alex for your imperturbability, your amazing spirit, your focus, and your editing help! Robert, I love your sagacious energy for life, your zest for art, beauty and music and your authentic and joy-filled spirit. Olivia, your sapiential free spirit and sense of commitment to being present for all who are in need or marginalized is moving. The three of you are intelligent, committed to being fully present in the world and engage life in ways that are deeply inspiring -- you all also have extraordinary sense of humors that just make living fun. I am grateful for each of you. Life is not complete without friends and I am blessed to have many. My life would seem incomplete without the love and support of my best friend, Brian Lynch. I am grateful for our friendship, your kindness and your support of my many endeavors, plans, schemes and “great ideas.” Thank you also to Dave (kitty) Forbes, Greg Ghio, Robert and Dawn Allenby, Rebecca and Steve Holand, Mather Dolph and Sari Ketter, Brenda Ross, Molly Druffner, Leah Timberlake, Cass Moe, Ruth Huwe, Brenda Bryant and our many fabulous neighbors. Thank you Lisa and Michele for your support over the years and for the joy you have brought into my life. Tippy, Bob, Carolyn, Bryan, Shelly and Molleigh- Rae, you have been constant sources of love and encouragement for many years, thank i you! Finally, thank you to my Advisor, Mark Pedelty for you encouragement and support throughout my dissertation process; you have been a beacon of hope and encouragement throughout this past year. Thank you also to my dissertation committee members, Ron Greene, Art Walzer and Jeanne Kilde, I am grateful for the time, energy and direction you gave to encourage this study along. ii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to all the poor, marginalized and suffering in the world whose voices demand to be lifted up in honor of their dignity. iii Abstract The aim of this case study was to examine Pope Francis’ organizational culture change initiative where it is argued that he is attempting to shift the organizational culture of the Catholic Church from a cleric-centric orientation to one that is Catholic social teaching- centric. One research question was posited in this study: (1) What organizational leadership competencies does Pope Francis employ to facilitate the shift in the orientation of the organizational culture of the Catholic Church from being cleric-centric to Catholic social teaching-centric? Kurt Lewin’s (1951) change model was used in conjunction with transformational leadership theory to answer the research question and give insight into Pope Francis’ change initiative. Data for this investigation included discourse, writings and reports of Pope Francis’s behaviors. It was concluded that Pope Francis is a transformational leader and his change initiative is in the unfreezing stage of Kurt Lewin’s (1951) three-stage model of planned change. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Orientation to Study ....................................................................................1 Literature Review ........................................................................................8 Organizational Leadership .............................................................8 Organizational Culture ...................................................................33 Organization of Chapters ................................................................37 Chapter 2: Method ......................................................................................................... 40 Part I – The Qualitative Method ................................................................41 Part II -- Data ...............................................................................................44 Data Sources and Analysis ..............................................................44 Part III – Operationalization of Terms ......................................................49 Cleric-Centrism ................................................................................49 Catholic Social Teaching .................................................................53 Organizational Culture ...................................................................58 Chapter 3: Orientation of the Organizational Culture of the Church: From Cleric-Centric to Catholic Social Teaching-Centric ............................................ 60 Vatican II ......................................................................................................61 Pope Francis’ Vision of Church Organizational Culture and Clericalism ............................................................................................................67 Pope’s Reorientation of Organizational Culture Toward a CST Focus..100 v Chapter Summary .......................................................................................127 Chapter 4: Model of Planned Change: Unfreezing, Moving and Refreezing 130 Field Theory .................................................................................................130 Lewin’s Three-Stage Model of Planned Change .......................................142 Summary of Leadership Qualities Needed to Advance a Change Initiative ........................................................................................................................176 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................178 Chapter 5: Transformational Leadership and Pope Francis .......................... 180 An Analysis of Pope Francis’ Leadership ..................................................184 Analysis of Data and Research Question Answered .................................195 Chapter 6: Conclusion .................................................................................................. 204 Review ...........................................................................................................204 Summary .......................................................................................................206 Future Research Directions ........................................................................207 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................... 209 Appendix A: An Overview of the Church: Orientations, Directions and Explanations ................................................................................................................... 258 Appendix B: Catholic Social Teaching .................................................................... 283 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Qualities of Spiritual Leadership ........................................................ 256 Figure 2: Three-Stage Model of Planned Change ............................................. 257 vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION “As important as such structural reform can be, church leaders and Vatican insiders say Pope Francis is really focused on a more ambitious (and perhaps more difficult) goal: overhauling and upending the institutional culture of Catholicism” (Gibson, 3/5/2014). “Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor" (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 2013, #187). Orientation to the Study What does it mean to “overhaul” an organizational culture that includes over 1.2 billion people and sports over four hundred thousand active organizational leaders? Assuredly, it mounts to nothing short of a monumental task. This study aims to explore that task - the organizational culture shift in the Catholic Church (Church) led by Pope Francis, the Church’s top official. Given the depth and breadth of the change initiative, this study focuses on the leadership competencies of Pope Francis. The shift in organizational culture that the Pope has initiated points to a shift from a cleric-centric organizational culture orientation to a Catholic social teaching-centric one. Cleric-centrism points to an orientation to Church organizational culture that emphasizes power and bureaucracy. A Catholic social teaching-centric orientation to Church organizational culture reflects a pastoral approach to leading where relationship with others, particularly the poor, marginalized and oppressed, is brought into the foreground. These two orientations toward Church organizational cultural are not opposites nor are they mutually exclusive. It is argued in 1 this study, however, that the Pope has launched
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