Leaders remain skeptical about the power of organizational culture even though extensive research shows that it is crucial to business success. Can a manager really influence an organization’s culture, or do executives just try to impose a culture on their employees? Is the concept of culture too vague to measure objectively and improve? What happens to valuable employees who feel left out by the prevailing culture? Even if a “good” culture makes team members happy, does it actually affect the bottom line?

This essential book answers the biggest questions about organizational culture, offering research-backed insights for leaders on shaping and managing an environment that spurs achievement. The management experts Jennifer A. Chatman and Glenn R. Carroll—a psychologist and a sociologist—draw on social-scientific findings to evaluate and debunk common misconceptions. They show how research on culture empowers managers to identify what really matters and deploy it productively. Chatman and Carroll also provide actionable levers to build and maintain organizational culture, from crafting a culture that supports strategic objectives to ensuring that it can adapt as conditions change.

Making Organizational Culture Great features compelling examples from companies and nonprofits including Apple, Genentech, Disney, Ford, Netflix, Maersk, Google, Cisco, Southwest Airlines, and many others. A practical guide for current and aspiring leaders, this book reveals how to manage culture consistently, comprehensively, and coherently.

Chatman and Carroll's latest book charts the promise and pitfalls of culture, providing an invaluable roadmap for managers, leaders, and executives to drive exceptional performance. It's an indispensable guide for building enduring, high-performing teams and companies. -- Laszlo Bock, former chief human resources officer, Google, and two-time founder/CEO
Chatman and Carroll put together a coherent narrative about what corporate culture is, how to improve and change your culture, and how to deliver performance from your organization through culture. This is a must read for any business leader looking to deliver impact. -- Alfred Lin, partner, Sequoia Capital
In Making Organizational Culture Great, Chatman and Carroll cut through the hype by providing accessible insights from organizational culture research; they provide leaders with pragmatic and robust practices for aligning culture and strategy. This is the book for managers interested in lifting their organization to new heights! -- Kristin Sverchek, former president, Lyft
This book busts some of the biggest myths about organizational culture. With rigorous evidence and vivid cases, two experts illuminate how to understand and improve systems of values, norms, and behaviors. -- Adam Grant, New York Times best-selling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, host of the podcast Re:Thinking
At WD-40 Company, we believe that culture is the ultimate source of competitive advantage; it takes a long time to build a culture that is strong, strategically relevant, and adaptive over time, and such a culture, once built, is extremely hard to copy. This excellent book is a wonderful guide as to why culture is such a strong source of sustainable advantage, with many practical tips and highly relevant case studies. The book helps demystify company culture, which many leaders have never formally studied and which can often be perceived as quite an opaque subject. Highly recommended! -- Steve Brass, CEO, WD-40 Company
Great culture doesn’t happen by accident—it’s designed, tested, and reinforced every day. Making Organizational Culture Great shows leaders how to build organizations where people, values, and performance reinforce each other over time. -- Manish Chandra, founder & ex-CEO, Poshmark

Jennifer A. Chatman is Bank of America Dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and codirector of the Berkeley Haas Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. She is cohost of the podcast The Culture Kit with Jenny and Sameer.

Glenn R. Carroll is Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and professor (by courtesy) of sociology at Stanford University. He is coauthor of Making Great Strategy: Arguing for Organizational Advantage (Columbia, 2021).