Why do company efforts to initiate organizational change fail? We've worked with numerous organizations in the midst of change. No matter the change, no matter the company, there is one constant that largely determines success or failure – it is the role and importance of organizational culture.

Culture is the beliefs, values, and assumptions that shape behaviors and help individuals understand the organization. Culture is often so strong and so powerful that when there is a discrepancy or inconsistency between the current culture and the objectives of change, the culture will win. An organization's culture is directly related to its effectiveness and has everything to do with the bottom line.

A Center-managed culture study can help your company uncover "gaps" between the current culture and the cultural characteristics needed to support your business strategy. Based on this understanding, an appropriate approach to culture change can be implemented.

While many organizations have conducted employee opinion surveys, they haven't conducted culture studies. The chart below show how culture studies differ from employee opinion surveys on a variety of dimensions including: purpose, use, and items measured.

Companies are partnering, merging, and acquiring in unprecedented numbers today. Many of these partnerships are passively hostile to outright failures.

Companies that fail to meld the cultures of the employee groups or win the support of customers following a merger are those that fare the worst.

Successful companies use rigorous cultural assessment as an integral part of the due diligence process to discern how and whether cultural differences can be reconciled to build complimentary strengths rather than contradictory weaknesses.

Center Consultants will help you evaluate your corporate culture and use the tools that transform organizational change into innovation, progress, and improvement.