Trial Courts as Organizations »

Brian J. Ostrom is Principal Research Consultant at the National Center for State Courts.
Charles W. Ostrom, Jr. is Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University.
Roger A. Hanson is Principal at Hanson and Hunter.
Matthew Kleiman is a Senior Court Research Associate at the National Center for State Courts.

Court administrators and judges have long acknowledged that culture plays an important role in the function of trial courts. Trial Courts as Organizations provides a comprehensive framework for understanding this organizational culture, along with a set of steps and tools to assess and measure the current and preferred culture.

Preface and Acknowledgments     vii
Organizational Culture in American Trial Courts     1
Introduction     1
Nature and Relevance of Culture to Courts     4
Previous Research     8
The Setting for Cultural Assessment     12
Culture and Performance     17
Organizational Roadmap     20
A Framework for Court Culture     22
Introduction     22
Two Leading Theories of Organizational Culture     26
Conceptualizing Court Culture     35
Summary     44
Measuring Court Culture     46
Introduction     46
Court Culture Assessment Instrument     47
Documenting Current Court Culture     50
Interpreting Culture Kites     57
Overall Culture Type     62
Summary     66
Elaborating the Four Cultures     68
Introduction     68
Communal Courts     69
Networked Courts     74
Autonomous Courts     79
Hierarchical Courts     84
Summary     88
Consequences of Court Culture     90
Introduction     90
PerformanceMeasures for Trial Courts     91
Time to Disposition     93
Access, Fairness, and Managerial Effectiveness     99
Summary     108
Preferences for Court Culture     110
Introduction     110
Preferred Court Culture     111
Summary     127
Conclusions and Implications     129
Introduction     129
Six Propositions     130
Management Implications     138
Connections to Larger Questions     146
Appendices
Court Culture Attributes     151
Paired Comparison Exercise     152
The Multidimensional Scaling Results     155
Court Culture Assessment Instrument     158
Assessing Variation in CCAI Responses     162
Interview List     166
Interview Protocol     168
Attorney Survey     170
Assessing Variation in CCAI Responses     173
Notes     177
References     185
Index     191