Workshop: The Cultures of International Organizations

This Friday, April 20, the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University will host a workshop on "The Cultures of International Organizations." The program is here. Here's the idea:

Culture matters. There is a deep well of research that demonstrates the myriad ways in which national cultures shape outcomes in world politics. Culture has come to the study of International Organizations, as well. Most of this work focuses on how International Organizations are important shapers of national and international cultures.

A new and exciting literature has sprung up around the question of how the cultural life of international organizations helps us understand a variety of puzzling outcomes: uneven patterns of norm adoption within IOs, the disappointing or even pathological performance of IOs in important cases, biases in how IOs treat member states, adjustment to changing demands and constraints in their external environments – each has been linked in some way to organizational culture.

The new insights are of obvious importance. Clearly, organizational culture matters to the leaders of IOs. James Wolfensohn, after all, put “re-engineering” the World Bank’s culture at the center of his agenda as head of the institution. The arrival of Christine Lagarde at the IMF prompted Alan Beattie of the Financial Times to devote a column to speculating about whether her reputed management style would be incongruous in an institution “which was heavily shaped by European civil servants, [and which] features more hierarchical traditions.”

This workshop is organized around the issue of IOs’ organizational cultures.