The Corporate Culture Survival Guide

Description

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

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 organization-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 startups, mature companies, and blended organizations.

If you re 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 cautionary as well as inspiring tales of what this insight can mean for your company, and offers useful suggestions for putting knowledge into practice. --S. Ketchum