Culture. We blithely use the term for just about anything--a vibrant culture, a dominant culture, a corporate culture. But do we really know what we're saying, what culture really means? Or do we most often assume that the term is just a convenient way to group those with a common purpose or goal and a method for achieving it? Isn't a corporate culture, for example, just "the way we do things around here"?

No, it’s not. In The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, Edgar Schein reveals how that’s merely the tip of the iceberg, an iceberg that managers ignore at the peril of their company’s future. Underneath lies the much-harder-to-grasp "essence" of the company, the "learned, shared, tacit assumptions on which people base their daily behavior." These assumptions are learned over time and in different internal and external environments, becoming, as Schein puts it, the "residue of success." As these assumptions influence all aspects of how a company functions, discovering their nature and cause is vital to the success of any new organization-wide venture or strategy. In the second half of the book, Schein illustrates how, using this knowledge, a company’s culture can be deliberately created or changed. Supported by numerous case-study examples, his advice is pertinent to startups, mature companies, and blended organizations.

Table of Contents :

PART ONE: THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF CULTURE.
Chapter One: Why Bother?
Chapter Two: What Is Culture Anyway?
Chapter Three: What Are the Elements and Dimensions of Organizational Culture?
Chapter Four: Deeper Assumptions.
Chapter Five: When and How to Assess Your Culture.
PART TWO: THE DYNAMICS OF CULTURE FORMATION, EVOLUTION, AND CHANGE.
Chapter Six: Cultural Learning, Unlearning, and Transformative Change.
Chapter Seven: Culture Creation, Evolution, and Change in Start-Up Companies.
Chapter Eight: Culture Dynamics in the Mature Company.
Chapter Nine: Mid-Life Crisis and Potential Decline.
Chapter Ten: When Cultures Meet: Acquisitions, Mergers, Joint Ventures, and Other Multicultural Collaborations.
Chapter Eleven: Cultural Realities for the Serious Culture Leader

(text cited from www.amazon.com)