The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is substantial and quantifiable. In The Culture Cycle, James L. Heskett demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between organizations in the same business.  A follow-up to the classic Corporate Culture and Performance (coauthored with John Kotter), this book explains how culture evolves, can be shaped and sustained, fosters innovation, can promote survival in tough times, influences the success of global strategies, and is maintained in both for-profit and not-for-profit mission-driven organizations.Drawing on decades of field research and dozens of case studies, Heskett introduces a powerful conceptual framework for managing culture change and shows it at work in a real-world setting. Heskett's "culture cycle" identifies policies, practices, measures, and behaviors that are crucial to moving cultures forward and demonstrates how to calculate the economic value of culture through the "Four Rs" of referrals, retention, returns to labor, and relationships with customers.Heskett's insights will be invaluable to leaders, human resources professionals, consultants, those with responsibilities for productivity improvement, training, and operations--and for anyone seeking to understand important drivers of organizational performance.