Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments. With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments. Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures.

Performing Culture presents a detailed and probing account of cultural studies' changing fixations with theory, method, policy, text, production, audience and the micro-politics of the everyday. John Tulloch encourages academics and students to take seriously the need to break down the separation between high and low cultural studies. Tulloch's case studies show that the performance of cultural meanings occurs in forms as diverse as The Royal Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare and Chekhov productions and our everyday work and leisure encounters. Drawing upon anthropological and dramatic studies of performance, the book emphasizes that academic research also performs cultural meaning. A central feature of the book is i

Named by The Washington Post as one of the 11 Leadership Books to Read in 2018 When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. McCord helped create the unique and high-performing culture at Netflix, where she was chief talent officer. In her new book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she shares what she learned there and elsewhere in Silicon Valley. McCord advocates practicing radical honesty in the workplace, saying good-bye to employees who don’t fit the company’s emerging needs, and motivating with challenging work, not promises, perks, and bonus plans. McCord argues that the old standbys of corporate HR—annual performance reviews, retention plans, employee empowerment and engagement programs—often end up being a colossal waste of time and resources. Her road-tested advice, offered with humor and irreverence, provides readers a different path for creating a culture of high performance and profitability. Powerful will change how you think about work and the way a business should be run.

'Does culture create competitive advantage? Case closed in this compelling analysis of sporting success. Read it.' – James Kerr, bestselling author of Legacy. In The Barcelona Way, sports psychologist Prof. Damian Hughes draws on exclusive insight into FCB as well as first-hand research from organizational psychology, to set out a method to create your own high-performance culture. At the heart of FCB’s winning culture are a set of principles, epitomized by Pep Guardiola, Johan Cruyff, Lionel Messi and many other FCB legends, which govern how to nurture talent, prepare for change and provide the best environment to build a culture of sustained success. These principles: Big Picture, Arc of Change, Repetition, Cultural Architects, Authentic Leadership are at the heart of FCB’s unprecedented domination of football, and are the key to developing high-performance cultures in any team-based organisation across every industry. The Barcelona Way is a hugely practical must-read that sets out a clear plan, based on the same principles, for you to create a culture of success and get the best of yourself and your team.

Performing Identity/Performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text, Pedagogy, and Lived Practice is the first book-length ethnography of young people and their uses of hip hop culture. Originally published in 2001, this second edition is newly revised, expanded, and updated to reflect contemporary currents in hip hop culture and critical scholarship, as well as the epochal social, cultural, and economic shifts of the last decade. Drawing together historical work on hip hop and rap music as well as four years of research at a local community center, Greg Dimitriadis argues here that contemporary youth are fashioning notions of self and community outside of school in ways educators have largely ignored. His studies are broad-ranging: how two teenagers constructed notions of a Southern tradition through their use of Southern rap artists like Eightball & MJG and Three 6 Mafia; how young people constructed notions of history through viewing the film Panther, a film they connected to hip hop culture more broadly; and how young people dealt with the life and death of hip hop icon Tupac Shakur, constructing resurrection myths that still resonate and circulate today.

Based on never-before-shared insights from more than 1,000 organizations and millions of employees, this insightful book reveals the ten essential culture qualities that can help any organization prepare for, and thrive in a constantly changing future. The Culture Quotient provides a simple, easy-to-read approach to culture that guides readers every step of the way. It focuses on helping companies achieve better financial results, as well as increasing employee engagement, and improving talent acquisition and retention. The Culture Quotient is written with three main goals. The first is to inspire readers. The second is to provide tangible data, tips, and actions. And the third is to share culture stories from many industry leaders that show the power and results of culture initiatives in action. The Culture Quotient features forty-five culture stories and excerpts written exclusively for this book. Some featured companies include American Express, GoDaddy, Bazaarvoice, and many others. The Culture Quotient combines these three goals to provide practical takeaways and tips to help readers implement similar culture programs at their company. The author Greg Besner, is the founder of CultureIQ, a company that helps organizations around the world create high-performance cultures. He is also a highly rated adjunct professor at New York University Stern School of Business, and he was one of the original investors in Zappos.com. Besner was recently ranked in USA Today as the eighth best CEO in the United States among a pool of fifty thousand companies. He also was named the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® in New Jersey. The Culture Quotient highlights qualities that help any organization achieve a high-performance culture. Business leaders have been seeking a practical yet data-driven solution for managing culture for a very long time. Now leaders have it with The Culture Quotient.