The Character of a Corporation: How Your Company’s Culture Can Make or Break Your Business

Description

Corporate culture is more than just a way to set the tone at work--it also affects the bottom line. That's why it's critical to understand your company's culture. Authors Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones argue that managers need to know if their business's culture helps or hurts, and how to change it, if necessary. Goffee and Jones know their stuff. As founders of the London-based consulting firm Creative Management Associates, they've helped launch programs to overhaul corporate cultures at such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Coopers and Lybrand, and Hilton Hotels. They've identified four basic cultures, each of which can be good or bad: the networked culture, the mercenary culture, the fragmented culture, and the communal culture. For example, do employees gossip and form cliques? That's the networked culture at its worst, and it's probably creating an atmosphere of distrust and cynicism that can damage the company's future. But networking can also mean open and effective communication--and constructive friendships--that can lead to the sharing of good ideas, all to the company's benefit.