Corporate Cultures on Edge: Rebuilding in the Wake of Downsizing, Mergers and Engineering - Hardcover

Deal, Terrence E.; Kennedy, Allen A.; Kenndey, Allan A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0738200697 ISBN 13: 9780738200699

Publisher: Perseus Books, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

When Terrence E. Deal and Allan A. Kennedy collaborated on Corporate Cultures in 1982, they were examining a facet of organisational life that over time would evolve from unknown, to generally misunderstood, to widely accepted. In light of the attention that corporate culture has since received-- and the continuous pressures exerted upon it by everything from the broadening dependence on outsourcing to the growing recognition of shareholder value--Deal, a professor at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and Kennedy, an international management consultant and writer, decided to revisit and update their thinking in New Corporate Cultures. The two contend that a solid corporate culture is more important today than when they wrote their first book and examine ways that business leaders can "find a balance between the management actions needed to stay competitive and the human needs of workers to belong to meaningful institutions." Deal and Kennedy discuss the reasons why today corporate cultures are "in crisis" and offer suggestions for reversing the decline. --Howard Rothman, Amazon.com

Synopsis:

The authors of the hugely influential Corporate Cultures reunite to assess the destructive effects of the last 15 years of management trends, and offer new insights for achieving corporate renewal. . 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Perseus Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0738200697
• ISBN 13: 9780738200699
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320