Trial Courts as Organizations [Hardcover]

Brian J Ostrom (Author), Charles W Ostrom (Author), Roger A Hanson (Author), Matthew Kleiman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592136303 | ISBN-13: 978-1592136308 | Publication Date: June 28, 2007

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I think that this is the most innovative study of trial courts in the past ten or fifteen years. Substantively, the authors combine trial court scholarship and in particular the conceptions of court workgroups, culture and context with business research that directs attention to private sector organization and management. This combination is truly path-breaking." Susette Talarico, Albert Berry Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law and Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science Emerita, University of Georgia "[This] study adds significantly to the scanty body of empirical research on courts. Summing Up: Recommended" Choice "Ostrom and his colleagues have produced an important contribution on the topic of state trial courts...The book is well written and argued, and it presents original empirical evidence. I think anyone who reads the book will find it an interesting and important contribution to the work on trial courts in particular, as well as to the notion that cultural variation across courts has consequences for court performance and output." Perspectives on Politics "A well laid-out and innovative book." Contemporary Sociology "Even though the book is directed at students of policy making and public administration, students of political science and law will be amazed by some of the results. The authors suggest that even they are surprised by the results of their own research. The book may lead to different approaches to and may also lead to a change in the way in which lawyers and courts interact in the future. In this field of judicial and court administration, there has never been research like this conducted so successfully. The authors describe courts as organizations rather than as simply institutions of justice within the separation of powers. In addition, the book paves the way for further research to be done in this field and opens the door for more ideas on how to improve court administration." The International Journal For Court Administration, October 2008 "Court administrators and others who are trying to make court communities more modern and efficient will find [Trial Courts as Organizations] useful. Scholars will find it timely." The Law and Politics Book Review, May 2009 "Ostrom, Ostrom, Hanson, and Kleiman have produced a remarkable book that is useful to both the pure scholar who wishes to understand how criminal trial courts work and to court executives who wish to improve management and performance. This book dramatically advances our knowledge of trial courts by applying organizational theory used predominantly to analyze private sector firms. The authors rigorously define court organizational culture for the first time, measure and contrast the culture of trial courts in three states, and demonstrate important empirical linkages between different cultures and performance. If this had been the only contribution of the book, it would still have been extremely valuable. However, the strength of the book is that it provides a roadmap for court leaders to assess their own culture, their desired culture, and how to begin to implement cultural change to improve court performance... Trial Courts as Organizations is an impressive achievement that should be taken very seriously by presiding judges, court managers, and scholars." Judicature, July-August 2009

Book Description

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.

The authors examine how courts operate, what characteristics they may display, and how they function as a unit to preserve judicial independence, strengthen organizational leadership, and influence court performance. They identify four different types of institutional cultures using a systematic analysis of alternative values on how work is done. Each culture is shown to have its own strengths and weaknesses in achieving values, such as timely case resolution, access to court services, and procedural justice. Accordingly, the authors find judges and administrators prefer a definite pattern of different cultures, called a "mosaic," to guide how their courts operate in the future.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (June 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592136303
• ISBN-13: 978-1592136308
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Court culture, January 21, 2010

By 

Enjolras (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Trial Courts as Organizations (Hardcover)

Ostrom et al try to study the organizational culture of courts applying business-school methodologies about work environments and management. He measures courts in Florida, Minnesota, and California according to two variables: sociability and solidarity. He then classifies them as 1) communal, 2) networked, 3) autonomous, or 4) hierarchical. The results show not just that different courts have different work cultures, but also that this has results for managerial effectiveness. One of the more interesting results is that judicial leadership really does matter in making courts run smoothly.

I do question the reliability of survey data for this type of study - after all, perceptions of organizational efficiency are subjective. However, this book does fill an important gap in the study of public institutions. This book can be read fairly quickly (I finished it in two hours), and it is definitely worth a read if you are interested in courts or the rule of law.