The most important element of successful change is never to let your people get offside, says Marie Gill, head of organizational development at UK supermarket Asda, which recently merged with Wal‐Mart, one of the world’s largest retailers. She was speaking at a forum organized by Brathay, a...

Dejando huella, the concept of leaving a legacy for all to see, has helped to establish a culture of success at a plant in a border area known for cultural clashes, discrimination, stereotyping, workplace conflict and language difficulties. Established in April 1992 as an automobile airbag and...

Top managers at Life Care Centers of America, the USA’s fifth‐largest provider of nursing care to the elderly, believe that by creating a strong, consistent organizational culture they create an environment where employees will provide high‐quality service to residents. The importance of...

Vodafone’s change from a command and control culture to one based on coaching and collaboration has helped the company to top the league table of mobile‐telephone network quality. The company culture of the mid‐1990s, which had its roots in the manufacturing facilities of Racal, had caused...

UK airport operator BAA plc has undergone two major change‐management programs since it became one of the first publicly owned organizations of its kind be privatized. Human‐resource management has been an important factor in both. The “Freedom to Manage” cultural‐change program,...

It is not every company that would think to provide kayak racks for employees wishing to travel to work by boat, but that is precisely what Capital One did when it opened a new canal‐side building at its European headquarters site in Nottingham, UK. The move reflects an important philosophy at...

An award‐winning equality scheme has helped almost to treble the proportion of senior‐management jobs held by women at Wakefield Council over the last six years. When the Stepping Up scheme was launched, in 1996, 69 percent of the council’s employees were women, but only 13 percent of...

The fact that the Finns fought an epic battle to repel a Soviet invasion more than 60 years ago should not really have much bearing on how banking colleagues get on with each other in the twenty‐first century. Such things should not matter when you are faced with merging two big banks, but...

When Delta, one of Canada’s biggest hotel companies, appeared for the third consecutive year in a list of “The 50 best companies to work for in Canada” they knew they were doing something right. But being a place where people like to work did not just happen. Getting the right results...

Around 80 percent of workers say that their first step towards improving job performance has nothing to do with the job itself, but is based on how they feel about themselves. This is a lesson that has been taken to heart by Sargento Foods Inc. which, for the last 50 years, has remained loyal to...