‘I don’t want to become a rules cop’: an organizational culture and leadership discourse analysis of the NPDA as a failed organization.

On March 23, 2010 Dr. Robert Trapp, former President of the National Par-liamentary Debate Association (NPDA), posted a message to the parli listserve (parli-l) suggesting the final round of the national tournament lacked the sub-stance and nuance that the community should see in debate. Trapp’s post reflects a larger issue in the NPDA—the emergent divide and disparate organizational cultures emerging over the organization’s short lifetime. This paper investigates the often discussed, but still under-developed relationship between leadership and culture in mission-based organizations by analyzing the discourse of cultural leadership in the NPDA from 1994 to 1999. Findings suggest that the organiza-tional challenges in the NPDA today are strongly linked to failures in the organ-ization’s early leaders to codify the shared values and mission of the organiza-tion. In fact, the leaders seemed to actively create a discourse of disdain for offi-cial clarity in organizational mission and purpose during its formative years. Theoretical and future implications are discussed.