Managing Change Across Corporate Cultures peels away the mysteries of corporate culture to reveal why it has such a powerful influence on every aspect of the performance of a business. It shows how to shape high-performing corporate cultures in a complex international environment. As the natural successor to Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner?s landmark bestseller, Riding the Waves of Culture, Managing Change Across Corporate Cultures shows exactly how to create an environment where astonishing business breakthroughs are possible. You will also learn how to renew cultures as part of change and how to integrate cultures successfully following mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. New research shows that in cross-border business, differences in corporate culture have more far-reaching repercussions than even differences in national cultures. Never before has there been such enormous interest in shaping and changing the cultures of our businesses, whether to revitalise them after restructuring or to provide the glue that holds them together through the sea changes of globalization.
Shows how managers can use the conceptual framework of TPC theory (technical, political, and cultural dynamics) to cope with major strategic reorientation. Raises such fundamental questions about the nature of organizations. What business(es) should we be in? Who should reap what benefits from the organization? What are the values and norms of organizational members? Provides concepts and workable technologies for dealing with these questions and preparing for future change. Includes extensive examples.
"Brings together leading authorities' major approaches to understanding, managing, and changing organizational cultures. Presents methods for identifying cultural norms, strengthening positive aspects of existing cultures, and building new cultures to support organizational goals and strategies."--Sloan Management Review
The contribution of culture to organizational performance is substantial and quantifiable. In The Culture Cycle, renowned thought leader James Heskett demonstrates how an effective culture can account for 20-30% of the differential in performance compared with "culturally unremarkable" competitors. Drawing on decades of field research and dozens of case studies, Heskett introduces a powerful conceptual framework for managing culture, and shows it at work in a real-world setting. Heskett's "culture cycle" identifies cause-and-effect relationships that are crucial to shaping effective cultures, and demonstrates how to calculate culture's economic value through "Four Rs": referrals, retention, returns to labor, and relationships. This book: Explains how culture evolves, can be shaped and sustained, and serve as the organization's "internal brand." Shows how culture can promote innovation and survival in tough times. Guides leaders in linking culture to strategy and managing forces that challenge it. Shows how to credibly quantify culture's impact on performance, productivity, and profits. Clarifies culture's unique role in mission-driven organizations. A follow-up to the classic Corporate Culture and Performance (authored by Heskett and John Kotter), this is the next indispensable book on organizational culture. "Heskett (emer., Harvard Business School) provides an exhaustive examination of corporate policies, practices, and behaviors in organizations." Summing Up: Recommended. Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.
This book provides a practical plan and roadmap to start the knowledge management process. It walks the reader through all the stages - assessment, planning, deployment, and evaluation - and then puts it together to expand the reader's core competency and win competitive advantage.
Effective, sustainable cultural change requires evolution, not disruption The Corporate Culture Survival Guide is the essential primer and practical guide every organization needs. Corporate culture pioneer Edgar H. Schein breaks the concept of 'culture' down into real terms, delving into the behaviors, values, and shared assumptions that define it, and explains why culture is the central factor in an organization's success—or failure. This new third edition is designed specifically for practitioners needing to apply these practices in real-world settings, and has been updated with new coverage of globalization, technology, and managerial competencies. You'll learn how to get past subconscious bias to assess whether or not your existing culture truly serves your organization, and how to introduce change and manage the change process over time for a best-case-scenario outcome. Case studies illustrate successful change in real companies, providing models and setting the bar for dismantling dysfunctional cultures. Corporate culture begins with the founder, and evolves—or not—over time. Is your culture working for or against your organization? How can it be optimized? This book separates the truth from the nonsense to provide real-world guidance on initiating and managing cultural change. Understand when to assess your culture, and how to do it objectively Learn how cultures evolve and change over time, for better or worse Discover the reality of multiculturalism amidst the rise of globalization Evolve your culture to more effectively serve your organization Each of us is a part of many cultures—what you do, where you live, where you grew up, what you enjoy, how you live; in the workplace, many different people with many different cultures come together toward a common goal—will these cultures clash or synergize? The Corporate Culture Survival Guide shows you how to create an overarching corporate culture that gets everyone on the same page to drive your organization's success.
Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments. With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments. Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures.
Business Across Cultures is the keystone book in the Culture for Business series. It provides an overview of all subjects tackled in the other books of the series. Its particular aim is to provide executives with a cross-cultural perspective on how companies meet the diverse needs of customers, investors and employees; to introduce the main ideas in business in a multicultural context; and to show how they all fit together.
Manage the 800 pound Gorilla- your corporate culture-or it will manage you Editorial Reviews "Culture matters. What Ford calls the fourth factor is at least as important as products, customers, and cash in getting results and generating shareholder value. Any executive who wants to successfully manage culture should heed the practical advice Ford provides." -Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Ford's wonderful new book on the Gorilla of corporate culture is brilliantly practical, carefully thought out, and clearly written. To mix metaphors, the blind men (and women) can finally begin to see the sides of the elephant when it comes to culture." -Michele Bolton, Author of The Third Shift "Ford has done a great job of creating a book that allows leaders at all levels of the organization to lead more effectively by understanding and managing culture. A must read for executives " -Brian Scudamore, Founder and CEO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Book Description Corporate culture is the 800 pound Gorilla in your organization-it does whatever it wants to. You can't ignore it. If you focus only on managing products, customers, and cash, leaving the fourth factor- culture-to take care of itself, your culture may undermine your success in the first three. Managing the fourth factor is crucial to any leader's success and this book will show you how to do that. Failure to manage corporate culture can result in - Inability to change strategic directions more quickly than your competition - A failed merger or joint venture - The isolation of functional silos in the organization. Most executives hate dealing with culture because they don't know how to manage or measure it, let alone change it. So they focus on managing products, customers, and cash, leaving the fourth factor-culture-to take care of itself. All too often, the neglected fourth factor undermines success in the first three. A successful culture provides a competitive advantage that is virtually impossible to duplicate. This will be increasingly important as the global talent shortage becomes more severe. Statisticians estimate that in 2008, approximately 12 million experienced workers will leave the workforce and only 3.5 million new workers will enter the workforce. Your organization needs to be able to attract and retain talent in that market. Managing culture is vital to your ability to do that. Understanding how culture maintains and reproduces itself is the key to managing culture. Dr. Ford provides plenty of real-world examples and specific behaviors to make culture real and visible. And she deals specifically with the pragmatics of managing culture change. In this engaging, practical look at organizations, you'll learn how to take charge of your destiny by managing the fourth factor. Dr. Ford takes culture from a soft, nebulous concept that can't be managed to a strategic asset that must be managed. More Editorial Reviews "Ford has finally provided an answer to every CEOs question: "We've tried everything and the problem persists. What's wrong?" Read The Fourth Factor, and you'll pick up that missing organizational link." -George W. Kessinger, CEO, Goodwill Industries International "This is an important work on a significant subject for serious leaders who want to grow extraordinary organizations. Dr. Ford elaborates with clarity and wisdom about the power of culture in any environment." -Nido R. Qubein, Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Company, President, High Point University About the Author Maverick, entrepreneur, catalyst, leader, sage advisor, change agent. Dr. Linda Ford is all of these. Linda is committed to helping senior executives manage the fourth factor-culture. She consults and speaks on improving business performance. After twenty five years in Silicon Valley, Linda is back home in Texas. She lives in Austin with her cat, Lizzie.
