Leading Organizational Change

This paper examines the masculinist climate at the United States Military Academy (USMA) using a problem/solution methodology. First the author presents a culture "pyramid," adapted from E.H. Schein, to demonstrate the outward behaviors and products of the institution, driven by the inward beliefs and value system. Second, the author establishes USMA's hostile climate toward women using evidence from the Defense Manpower Data Center's (DMDC) Service Academy 2005 Sexual Harassment and Assault Survey (SASA), the 2005 Department of Defense Inspector General (DOD IG) Defense Task Force's Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies survey, and the 2007 DOD Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the U.S. Military Service Academies. Next, the author challenges the surveys' conclusions that this change in the climate at West Point must come from the cadets, but asserts that the leadership of USMA is in fact responsible for transforming the institution into a more egalitarian environment.