The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: The Mosaic of Institutional Culture and Performance: Trial Courts as Organizations Author(s): Brian J. Ostrom, Charles W. Ostrom, Roger A. Hanson, Matthew Kleiman Document No.: 212083 Date Received: November 2005 Award Number: 2000-IJ-CX-0030 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Mosaic of Institutional Culture and Performance: Trial Courts as Organizations Authored by: Brian J. Ostrom Charles W. Ostrom Roger A. Hanson Matthew Kleiman This report was produced with the support of the National Institute of Justice (2000-IJ-CX-0030). The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous support of NIJ and the encouragement of Andrew Goldberg, our project monitor. All opinions and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of the NIJ. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Table of Contents Preface........................................................................................................................................... vii Introduction............................................................................................................................... vii Placing Our Study in Context ................................................................................................... vii The Culture of American Trial Courts....................................................................................... xi Approach and Anticipated Contributions ................................................................................ xiv Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1: American Criminal Trial Courts: Examining a Cultural Mosaic .................................1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................2 Basic Notions About Court Culture.............................................................................................3 Courts and Timeliness..............................................................................................................5 Role of Culture.........................................................................................................................7 A Framework For Understanding Culture .................................................................................11 A Classification of Court Cultures.........................................................................................13 Table 1: Courts Under Study ................................................................................................15 Advancing The Field Of Court Administration .........................................................................16 Chapter 2: A Framework for Court Culture..................................................................................23 Introduction................................................................................................................................23 Framing the Study of Court Organizational Culture..................................................................24 Local Legal Culture ...............................................................................................................25 Coming to Grips with Culture................................................................................................30 Learning from the Private Sector...........................................................................................31 Table 2: Competing Values Value Matrix ............................................................................38 Table 3: Goffee and Jones Value Matrix ..............................................................................42 Conceptualizing Court Culture ..................................................................................................44 Table 4: Court Culture Value Matrix....................................................................................50 Table 5: Narrative Summary of Four Court Cultures ...........................................................53 Summary ....................................................................................................................................54 Appendix 2-1: Methodology.....................................................................................................57 Appendix 2-2: Court Culture Attributes ...................................................................................61 Appendix 2-3: Paired Comparison Exercise.............................................................................63 Appendix 2-4: The Multidimensional Scaling Results.............................................................65 Chapter 3: Measuring Court Culture.............................................................................................69 Introduction................................................................................................................................69 Court Culture Assessment Instrument .......................................................................................70 Table 6: Case Management Style .........................................................................................72 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Chapter 3: Measuring Court Culture (continued) Table 7: Judicial Staff Relations ...........................................................................................73 Table 8: Change Management ..............................................................................................73 Table 9: Courthouse Leadership ...........................................................................................74 Table 10: Internal Organization ............................................................................................74 Table 11: Relative Emphasis of Current Court Culture on Work Areas ..............................75 Court Culture Kites ....................................................................................................................76 Table 12: Case Management Style in Contra Costa .............................................................77 Table 13: Case Management Style .......................................................................................79 Table 14: Change Management ............................................................................................79 Table 15: Courthouse Leadership .........................................................................................80 Table 16: Internal Organization ............................................................................................80 Table 17: Judicial and Court Staff Relations ........................................................................81 Interpreting Cultural Profiles .................................................................................................81 Table 18: Primary Court Culture Types................................................................................82 Table 19: Strength of Primary Culture Type ........................................................................85 Overall Culture Type .................................................................................................................90 Table 20: Average Sociability and Solidarity Scores ...........................................................90 Table 21: Correlation Coefficients Between the Average Cultural Scores ..........................92 Table 22: Culture Types for the Twelve Courts ...................................................................93 Summary ....................................................................................................................................95 Appendix 3-1: Court Culture Assessment Instrument ..............................................................97