Publications
Publications
- Harvard Business Review
Culture Is Not the Culprit: When Organizations Are in Crisis, It's Usually Because the Business Is Broken
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Emily McTague
Abstract
When organizations get into big trouble, fixing the culture is usually the prescription. That's what most everyone said GM needed to do after its recall crisis in 2014—and ever since, CEO Mary Barra has been focusing on creating "the right environment" to promote accountability and head off future disasters. The corporate leaders we have interviewed say that culture isn't something you "fix." Rather cultural change is what you get after you've put new processes or structures in place to tackle tough business challenges like reworking an outdated strategy or business model. The culture evolves as you do that important work.
Keywords
Citation
Lorsch, Jay W., and Emily McTague. "Culture Is Not the Culprit: When Organizations Are in Crisis, It's Usually Because the Business Is Broken." R1604H. Harvard Business Review 94, no. 4 (April 2016): 96–105.