Integrating energy efficiency into Navy culture: an organizational design approach

Abstract

In response to the Secretary of the Navy's ambitious energy goals, Navy leadership seeks a shift in Navy culture to shape and sustain energy efficient policies, practices and behaviors across the enterprise. There energy goals and culture shift are expected to result in enhanced Naval combat effectiveness. Culture is a complex phenomenon that can be shaped but not controlled. Leaders use various action strategies to generate commitment to an "energy efficient culture." Overcoming organizational inertia and resistance to change can be achieved in part through an organization's design. We discuss culture change in terms of "sensemaking" and "sensegiving" and the five policy domains of organizational design: (1) strategy and goals, (2) tasks, practices and technology, (3) structure, (4) training and education, and (5) reward systems and incentives. We explore the role of leadership in creating, nurturing, and sustaining cultural changes; our recommendations are incorporated in a "Leadership Checklist for Energy Efficient Cultures" (Table2). The use of existing training methods to disseminate a new attitude toward energy is reviewed in depth (Appendix A) and in relationship to strategic communication and emergent learning resources such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Ultimately the success of a new energy perspective relies on the skills of leaders to provide sensemaking contexts and rewards that promote new behaviors and remove existing barriers to change.