Implementing Culture Change: Organization Development

Organizational culture is a concept that most managers don’t spend a lot of time thinking about. What they do think about are questions such as:

• Why are we so slow at bringing new products to market?
• How can we get people to stop working in silos and become more collaborative?
• How can we build customer loyalty?

Given these and many other practical problems, culture can seem esoteric. Yet culture is an underlying issue in these and other problems managers deal with every day.

This Infoline presents a roadmap for culture change from the first and critical steps of getting leaders prepared and on board, providing a realistic view of change, and communicating to the final stage in which an organization’s employees live the new culture. Along the way you will also learn some creative ways to communicate about the change and how to identify action plans and projects that will support culture change.

About the Author

Patricia Carr has more than 15 years of experience in organization development, human resources, and communication. She has conducted organizational and leadership assessments and has designed and delivered training in a broad range of topics including leadership, communication, and process design. Dr. Carr has taught courses at the University of Pittsburgh, Duqnesne University, and LaRoche College. She also is a freelance writer and has published articles in T+D, The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly, and CareerJournal.com, among others.