Role of Agency Culture in Mainstreaming TSMO
1. Introduction
Every organization has a culture, which consists of the underlying values, assumptions, and behaviors that contribute to the social and psychological environment of the organization. It affects how the organization functions because the values and assumptions are absorbed by employees of all levels and affect the decisions made. Culture is the “organizational iceberg” that hides below the water line. (Herman 1978) It is an informal understanding of the ideals, expectations, mindsets, and norms of the people within the organization. (Cunningham and Kempling 2009)
Culture is considered one of the key elements for advancing transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) capabilities within a transportation agency. When an agency values TSMO as an important approach to accomplish its mission and clearly communicates that to staff, it builds a culture of TSMO support that helps mainstream TSMO in an agency. A culture of TSMO shows up in different ways in different organizations. In some, the planning process requires TSMO to be considered to address a mobility need before any other solutions. Other agencies with a TSMO culture have specific career paths for TSMO professionals and the inclusion of TSMO leaders among department leadership committees.
There are numerous ways to support both mainstreaming TSMO throughout transportation agencies and advancing TSMO as a way of doing business. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has developed a series of white papers focused on mainstreaming TSMO through formal policies and processes, changes in agency culture, advances in decisionmaking and information management, and development of business cases for TSMO.
This White Paper identifies ways to influence agency culture and how that could be applied to mainstreaming TSMO in a transportation agency. It presents concepts from fields such as management, industrial/organizational psychology, organizational development, and change management. In addition, there are examples of improving organizational performance using a range of well-known approaches, with emphasis on examples that are more relevant to public agencies and transportation. It also incorporates examples and lessons learned from State departments of transportation (DOTs) in using cultural change to support mainstreaming TSMO. The focus of this White Paper is the role of agency culture in mainstreaming TSMO in a State DOT, but it also acknowledges that culture change occurs in other types of organizations and many of the points made have applications across a transportation agency.
Objectives of the White Paper
This White Paper aims to increase understanding of the role that cultural change in transportation organizations can play in mainstreaming TSMO and help agencies identify ways they can influence the culture in their agencies to better facilitate mainstreaming TSMO. This is supported by findings and practices from change management and other fields and examples of cultural change impacting TSMO in State DOTs.
This paper contains six chapters and an appendix that cover a range of topics in organizational culture and mainstreaming TSMO. Chapter 1 provides the background and motivation for the paper.
Chapter 2 describes four approaches—Lean Six Sigma, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the Balanced Scorecard, and the Capability Maturity Model—to organizational improvement and culture change and how they could be applied to mainstream TSMO.
Chapter 3 defines four common ways (i.e., leadership influence, employee engagement, employee awareness of the organization’s mission, and quantifiable metrics) to influence culture in an organization and examples of how these levers are used to mainstream TSMO.
Chapter 4 briefly discusses the cognitive processes that can impede change. This chapter raises awareness of barriers to change and ways to overcome them.
Chapter 5 provides practical considerations for agencies interested in changing their culture as a way to mainstream TSMO.
Chapter 6 contains references for additional information.
The appendix contains additional information on the theory of approaches for organizational change and levers of influence.
Intended Audience
Practitioners and managers at various levels of a transportation organization and their partners with a range of specialties should use the ideas in this document as a guide to establish TSMO in their organizations. The guidance is intended for State DOTs and may also be applicable to regional and local transportation agencies.
Why Mainstream TSMO?
Transportation agencies have focused on the design, construction, and maintenance of transportation facilities. TSMO is intended to expand this focus by looking to operational improvements to existing facilities to maintain and restore system performance before adding physical capacity. Mainstreaming in the context of business processes is defined as “[P]roducts and services which are readily available to and appealing to the general public, as opposed to being of interest only to a very specific subset of the public.” (Business Dictionary 2020) TSMO mainstreaming is viewed as making management and operations strategies readily understood, considered, appealing, and available to agency leadership and staff, regardless of where they sit in the organization, as well as to the system users (public).
Typically, TSMO has been initiated in operations and maintenance business areas within transportation agencies, often evolving with intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies and functions that involve ITS deployment programs and other operations (maintaining signal systems, detecting and clearing incidents, etc.). Mainstreaming TSMO allows a broader range of strategies to be integrated throughout transportation departments and related agencies and organizations. Mainstreaming TSMO engages planners, designers, operators, and system users (public and private sector) and touches all aspects of mobility, including congestion, air quality, sustainability, safety, security, reliability, and related quality of life concerns. The goal of mainstreaming is to routinely include TSMO strategies as an “equal player” to address transportation needs within a community or region, along with other options to improve transportation system performance.
