Product Description

Corporate culture pioneer Edgar H. Schein gets back to basics and delivers a dynamite primer on changing cultures packed with practical advice. Here, Schein separates the sense from the nonsense regarding culture change theory and practice and tells in plain terms how readers can assess their organization to determine if its current culture fits its people and products. He then examines corporate culture on three levels––behaviors, values, and shared assumptions––and shows how each factors into change initiatives. Framed around the questions managers ask most often, the book uses case studies to show what successful change looks like and to demonstrate how you can dismantle a dysfunctional culture.

A Warren Bennis Book

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48392 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Culture. We blithely use the term for just about anything--a vibrant culture, a dominant culture, a corporate culture. But do we really know what we're saying, what the notion of a "culture" really means? Or do we most often assume that the term is just a convenient way to group together those with a common purpose, goal or method of achieving that goal? Isn't a corporate culture, for example, just "the way we do things around here"?

No, it's not. In The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, Edgar Schein reveals how that's merely the tip of the iceberg, an iceberg that managers ignore at the peril of their company's future. Underneath, lies the much harder to grasp "essence" of the company, the "learned, shared, tacit assumptions on which people base their daily behavior". These assumptions are learned over time and in different internal and external environments, becoming, as Schein puts it, the "residue of success". As these assumptions influence all aspects of how a company functions, discovering their nature and cause is vital to the success of any new organisation-wide venture or strategy. In the second half of the book, Schein illustrates how, using this knowledge, a company's culture can be deliberately created or changed. Supported by numerous case study examples, his advice is pertinent to start-ups, mature companies and blended organisations.

If you are the type of manager that needs a quick fix solution, with simple catch-phrases and an easy Five Step Program to Success, this book is not for you. Nor are the benefits to be gained from acquiring the depth of knowledge and insight needed to understand, work with, and transform your corporate culture. Using intelligent, lucid prose, Schein provides this kind of insight and more; he tells both warning and inspiring tales of what this insight can mean for your company, and offers useful suggestions on how to put knowledge into practice. --S. Ketchum, Amazon.com

Review
"Ed Schein has crystallized a lifetime of etching, research, and reflection on the dynamics of corporate culture and change. Rarely does an academician speak as clearly and pragmatically to business leaders as does Schein."(Don Davis, retired CEO, The Stanley Works, and senior MIT lecturer on leadership and ethics)

"Anyone with even the slightest interest in the too–often used and abused notion of corporate culture will want this book."(John Van Maanen, Erwin Schell Professor of Organization Studies, MIT)

"Schein provides an enormously helpful set of ideas and applications that will make the manager′s tasks of working with and trying to change the cultures in their organizations much more feasible and a lot less painful."(Peter J. Frost, Edgar F. Kaiser Professor of Organizational Behavior, University of British Columbia)

From the Inside Flap
Corporate culture, once an ivory–tower topic for business scholars and sociologists, has become an issue of vital concern to managers, executives, and consultants on the front lines of change. Why? Because the increasing number of mergers, acquisitions, and reengineerings happening today have put corporate cultures on a collision course, and managers who want to integrate must first understand the complex mix of behaviors, values, and shared assumptions that underlie the way organizations operate.While most managers are familiar with the concept of corporateculture, many lack a complete understanding of what it is, how it operates, and what they can do to improve it. Edgar Schein, a pioneer in the study of corporate cultures and the field′s reigning expert, has helped thousands of scholars and change agents grasp the cultural dynamics at work in today′s companies. Now he makes his extensive experience and expert advice available to managers everywhere in this engaging guide. Framing his chapters around the questions managers most often ask—What is corporate culture? How can I assess it? How can I changeit?—Schein defines in plain terms the ingredients of corporate culture and explains how they influence the way people do their jobs. He gives readers clear guidance for evaluating their organization′s current culture and determining whether it continues to be the best fit for its people, goals, and products. He also provides practical advice for effecting culture change in companies of all kinds in a format that anyone can readily understand and follow.Although companies may understand which aspect of their operation they need to alter in order to stay competitive, their attempts often fail when they try to impose new systems onto old modus operandi. The Corporate Culture Survival Guide gives change leaders the tools they need to work with the culture they have in order to get the results they want.