Donald C Fisher Ph D

Corporate Culture Donald C Fisher Ph D

CORPORATE CULTURE A Baldrige-based Assessment for Creating a Dynamic Workplace Environment Corporate culture refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that characterize members of an organization and define its nature. Culture is rooted in an organization's goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to employees, customers, investors, and the greater community. Culture is an essential component for any organization's ultimate success or failure. Corporate culture by definition affects an organization's operations and flows from management downward and outward. In many organizations the "culture" was set very early based on the charismatic activity and leadership of a founder. But as major tendencies and activities become deeply institutionalized, corporate culture becomes an institutional habit that newcomers acquire. In actual practice "reinventing" the organization from the top down, therefore, it is difficult to achieve, takes time, and happens only under strong leadership. This manual will be extremely useful in helping an organization to assess and gauge their overall corporate culture. The alignment of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria with corporate culture planning provides a unique assessment methodology for an organization to gauge corporate culture practices. The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence has been recognized as an international "best practice" initiative for organizations to use to assess and to ensure that their corporate culture practices are both sustainable and competitive in the global marketplace. Use of this Manual can also be very helpful for any organization that is planning to apply for a "Best Place To Work/Employer of Choice" Award recognition and/or Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For" that is conducted and administered by the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco, CA. About the Author: Donald C. Fisher, Ph. D., is Executive Director/CEO of the Mid-South Quality/ Productivity Center - The Quality Center, a partnership between The Greater Memphis Chamber and Southwest Tennessee Community College and a Center of Quality Emphasis for The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) in Memphis, Tennessee. He has presented the Malcolm Baldrige Award Criteria to and consulted with numerous types of organizations in the United States and internationally to help them use the criteria as a model for their own improvement. He is a consummate expert on the Baldrige Award, having served as a Baldrige examiner and judge for city, state and international Baldrige-based awards throughout his career, authored several books, and assessed quality performance based on its criteria for more than 170 leading organizations worldwide. Fisher earned his Ph. D. from the University of Mississippi.