Customer Reviews

Organizational Culture and Leadership (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Containing a thorough background treatment of how to think about and measure culture along with a series of case studies, this book is a fairly comprehensive tome on the topic of culture. The analyses of both DEC and a major drug company really helped to drive home the depth of analysis required and the complexity of creating an action plan to change culture in a large organization.

However, what I was hoping to get out of this book was a framework not only for understanding culture, but also for affecting change within a smaller organization. This book fell short in that part, and seemed to imply that the best course of action is to:
1) Find a strong leader to take us through a crisis who makes sure that we follow their ways. Success will cause adoption.
2) Hire a consultant to study us on-site for an extended period of time, after which they will suggest major restructurings.
3) Split up groups and reform under leaders who have the attributes you want to encourage.

I was hoping for some form of prescription for bottoms-up, incremental change or something else similar as well as a more accessible set of tools for analysis, but didn't get that. Again, quite the comprehensive book on the background of culture - I feel much better educated on the subject. However, it didn't leave me with any new ideas on how to safely encourage specific cultural changes.

For novices to org. culture, this book takes you on a thorough journey into the corners of what constitutes an organization's culture. My favorite take-away is that Schein made an abstract concept much more concrete. He creates a nice framework to view org. culture, gives examples continuously and provides many nuggets of knowledge. Plenty of useful references are given as well.
Perhaps because of my specific research, I unfortunately found myself with sporadic tabs through the book to catch the aforementioned nuggets. My unfulfilled hope was to find a more meaningful figure in which to place all the various interactions and cultural process (but perhaps that's for us other researchers to do). More up-to-date examples would also be useful.
In the end, a great read and even better reference book (but you'll have to do the organizing).

I bought this book because my employer, like many large multi-national companies, is dealing with cultural change and leadership issues involving the development of a new global infrastructure to more efficiently engage and win large mega-deals requiring resources from multiple country locations. This book very clearly describes the various cultural issues and the important role of leadership in cross-cultural integration. It covers theory behind cultural behavior, but more importantly, it provides real-world insight into cultural dynamics. Moreover, it provides clear tactical advice for assessing your own company's cultural dynamics. It provides good, sound leadership advice in the context of cultural integration and change management.

Really excellent! If you are looking for a good cluture read, but have a low tolerance for business books due to the fluff and tautology - this book is for you. An enjoyable, knowledgeable (understatement) account of corporate culture. The book is dense with insightful and well thought out ideas.

This book is the text for a course in leadership I am taking in graduate school at Northeastern University. It contains excellent information for anyone interested in learning more about organizational culture and how to be an effective leader. I will definitely keep it in my library for future reference and reflection.

Excellent resource. Schein does a fantastic job of taking the business culture out of the theoretical and into reality. He explains how to best manage a culture of an organization. I bought this as a resource for a dissertation I am working on and have been pleased. This should be required reading for all leaders.

This book is very informative when it relates to organizational, group, and individual culture and leadership. Schein takes you through the chapters in a sequence that not only informs you about the topics but explains to you solutions to having the ability to be able to be flexible in managing change in different cultures. This is more and more becoming a topic for the new economic climate that we are experiencing. Possessing good business ethics result from the values and assumptions that management and employees consider to be their culture. This book lets you know how to become an organization, group, or individual with high quality ethics and be a leader in your industry.

Bought this book for Ph.D. program and have found the book to be a fascinating study on the right methods for any firm to examine when assessing its culture and in realizing the importance of culture within an organization. Schein is one of the foremost authors in this field and this book combines his research over several years to formulate a great recipe for success in this arena. I recommend this book for any organization as part of a strategy for increased performance!

A must read for every serious manager. If I had a better understanding of culture when I started my career, some 35 years ago, it would have made a significnt difference in my assumptions about the careers of the people I had responsible for.

Author feels obligated to justify everyone of his thoughts leading to some useful info, but also a lot of info that means nothing. This can make it harder to read since it goes in a direction then circles you back.