The Influence of Culture on Organizational Success

This text is Chapter 1 of the complete work with concrete, pragmatically applicable tools for culture change in organizations. Culture change here refers to the so-called non-technical part of change processes. This involves sustainable changes in behavior and attitudes of people within an organization. This chapter conveys the first part of the basics: The terms “organizational culture” and “culture change” are explained. In addition, this chapter illustrates the importance of culture for organizations based on current studies. Change processes often fail because the topic of culture change is not addressed systematically. Change succeeds when not only processes and systems, but also behavior and attitudes of employees change. This chapter provides insights into the development of organizational theories up to the current understanding of culture change and sheds light on the change from an initial skepticism towards psychological issues at the executive level to a self-understanding of the importance of the issue of culture for business success.