Air Commodore Fin Monahan will examine how RAF organisational culture emerged, highlighting some of its key features, and how this research is being brought to bear as part of the ASTRA innovation programme.

This free lecture is part of the RAF Museum's Research Lecture Programme. If you would like to support the RAF Museum, you can make a donation at: https://support.rafmuseum.org/Donate-Now

The first independent air force, the Royal Air Force, was formed on 1 April 1918 during the First World War. It was a merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. Its leaders and personnel brought cultural predispositions with them from their former services. Moreover, the RAF formed against the cultural backdrop of highly codified British class based society. The leaders of the new Service represented a fairly narrow cross-section of that society and the way they setup the RAF was indicative of that. 

 With the express aim of developing an ‘Air Force spirit’ they developed a fully functioning system of orders, regulations, doctrine, tactics and flying standards underpinned by a functional structure that laid out, for their personnel, the way to behave, fly and fight. 

 A range of artefacts was introduced including a new uniform, badges, coats of arms, memorials, an Ensign and a global network of RAF stations. Many of the artefacts, processes, practices, traditions, rituals and customs that were instituted were, like their leaders, representative of a traditional military organisation of its era. 

 However, as RAF personnel responded to the environment their leaders had established, a distinctive and new military culture rapidly emerged with its own slang, humour, sub cultures and attitudes towards life in the new service. But, as RAF culture became entrenched, some aspects of it would hinder progress and development of the Service. 

 Bringing a rich vein of new material to light, this paper will examine how RAF organisational culture emerged highlighting some of its key features. It will also underline how the author’s research is being brought to bear as part of the RAF’s ASTRA innovation programme as the Service embraces space, autonomy, artificial intelligence, and cyberspace.

Further details are available at: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/whats-going-on/events/virtual-lecture-the-power-of-raf-organisational-c/

The Power of RAF Organisational Culture