Corporate Cultures 2000 Edition

Behind-the-scenes profiles of major companies illustrate this typology of corporate cultures that includes an analysis of how they function, how corporate heroes are made, and how surprisingly far their influence extends

In the early '80s, Allan Kennedy and Terry Deal launched a new field of inquiry and practice, with the publication of Corporate Cultures, in which they argued that distinct types of cultures evolve within companies and have a direct impact on strategy and performance. Fifteen years later, the authors have teamed up to assess the effects of globalization, short-termism, technology, downsizing, outsourcing, mergers, and reengineering on corporate culture. They find that despite these tremendous pressures, organizations, by their very nature, will create self-reinforcing communities; the pattern today is for mini-cultures to form within the larger corporation. The challenge for managers and leaders at all levels is to find ways to knit these cultures together to unleash learning and encourage everyone to take ownership and pride in their work. Taking examples from innovative companies around the world, the authors offer new strategies for "exercising cultural leadership," -- rebuilding the cultural fabric of the organization, energizing the workforce, enhancing corporate performance, and preparing for new challenges in the 21st century.

A reissue of the classic best-seller that coined the term 'corporate culture' In the early 1980s, Terry Deal and Allan Kennedy launched a new field of inquiry and practice with the publication of their landmark book, Corporate Cultures, in which they argued that distinct types of cultures evolve within companies, with a direct and measurable impact on strategy and performance. Despite the dramatic evolution of the business landscape over the last twenty years, the basic principles of the book remain as fresh and relevant as they did when it was first published; that organizations, by their very nature, are social enterprises, with tribal habits, well-defined cultural roles for individuals, and various strategies for determining inclusion, reinforcing identity, and adapting to change. In the new introduction, the authors reflect on the enduring lessons of their investigation into the life of organizations. Allan A. Kennedy is a Boston-based writer and management consultant whose new book, The End of Shareholder Value, will be published by Perseus in April.

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.

This work tackles the question of how to create a corporate culture that matches the new.com business strategy. It provides a practical roadmap of strategies to shift an organization's culture from a liability to a competitive advantage in the .com world.

Organizational Culture and Identity discusses the literature concerned with culture in organizations and explains why the term has been invoked with such enthusiasm. Martin Parker presents further ways of thinking about organizations and culture which suggest that organizational cultures should be seen as `fragmented unities' in which members identify themselves as collective at some times and divided at others.

The father of the corporate culture field and pioneer in organizational psychology on today's changing corporate culture This is the definitive guide to corporate culture for practitioners. Recognized expert Edgar H. Schein explains what culture is and why it's important, how to evaluate your organization's culture, and how to improve it, using straightforward, practical tools based on decades of research and real-world case studies. This new edition reflects the massive changes in the business world over the past ten years, exploring the influence of globalization, new technology, and mergers on culture and organization change. New case examples help illustrate the principals at work and bring focus to emerging issues in international, nonprofit, and government organizations as well as business. Organized around the questions that change agents most often ask, this new edition of the classic book will help anyone from line managers to CEOs assess their culture and make it more effective. Offers a new edition of a classic work with a focus on practitioners Includes new case examples and information on globalization, the effects of technology, and managerial competencies Covers the basics on changing culture and includes a wealth of practical advice