The value and impact of the Denison Model of organizational culture is best appreciated in its real-world application. With this in mind, a series of business case studies have been developed, with each edition highlighting the use of Denison surveys. The latest Denison case studies in the series, available at the Case Studies and Research Notes section of our website are: Reynolds American: A (Rare) Merger Success Story; and JetBlue Airways and Organizational Development: Partners for Change.

An in-depth case study on corporate performance improvement -- and the application of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey -- has also been released by the International Network Corporate Culture. Entitled "Managing Corporate Culture at Henkel - Applying the Denison Organzational Culture Survey," the case study was written collaboratively by Dan Denison, Founding Partner of Denison Consulting, and Rolf Schlue, Corporate Vice President of Global Human Resources for Henkel.

The Reynolds American case study focuses on steps that were taken to help drive the successful cultural integration of R.J. Reynolds and Brown & Williamson, following a merger of the two companies in August 2004. As America's second- and third-largest tobacco companies were combined, achieving a single, high-performance culture was established as a key goal.

Susan Ivey, who had been serving as CEO of Brown & Williamson, was named to lead the newly formed Reynolds American. And Angie Mannino, vice president of Culture and Change Management, was tapped to oversee the post-merger, cultural integration process. Ivey, Mannino and other leaders at Reynolds American turned to Denison for help.

Bryan Adkins, a Senior Consultant for Denison Consulting, became involved early on. About 100 days after the merger, Adkins conducted a series of employee focus groups to “take the pulse” of the organization - to gain firsthand knowledge about what was working, and what wasn't working.

Seven months after the merger, a customized leadership development program was launched. At the nine-month mark, the Denison Organizational Culture Survey was deployed, and more than 3,000 Reynolds employees participated.

According to Adkins, survey results were positive, but some performance gaps were identified - specifically in the areas of “empowerment” and “creating change.” To tackle these areas, a company-wide initiative to enhance employee engagement was implemented. In addition, more than 800 employees attended a custom-designed, change-management class. In these classes, participants reviewed their personal results from a targeted version of the Denison Leadership Development Survey.

In November 2005, Reynolds American used the Denison Change Monitor Survey to gauge its progress in the areas of empowerment and creating change.

“We took a thoughtful yet aggressive approach to integrating the cultures, and today we are light years ahead of where we were in August 2004,” said Mannino.

“This is as close as you will find to a textbook example of how to integrate cultures in a mergers and acquisitions context,” said Adkins.

Read the complete case study Reynolds American: A (Rare) Merger Success Story.

Since its launch in the year 2000, JetBlue Airways has emerged as one of the most successful start-up airlines in the history of commercial aviation. The latest JetBlue case study from Denison Consulting details the company’s rapid growth, with a focus on two questions: (1) In the context of dramatic change and expansion, how did JetBlue sustain its unique, customer-focused culture?; and, (2) How did an organizational development intervention bolster the company’s infrastructure, and prepare it for future growth?

The “heart and soul” and nerve center of JetBlue Airways is the company’s Systems Operations Center (SOC). With a workforce of 150 “crewmembers” (the JetBlue-branded name for all employees), the SOC consists of flight dispatchers; crew schedulers; maintenance controllers; fleet coordinators; and security professionals.

As JetBlue grew dramatically, leaders of the company became aware that some changes and improvements were needed in the SOC. The goal was to make sure that both current and future performance requirements could be met.

An internal, organizational-development team from JetBlue University was mobilized to help. JetBlue University is the company’s widely acclaimed, centralized training and development organization.

The change and improvement initiative for SOC featured the use of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey, as well as the Denison Organizational Culture Survey: Change Monitor.

Using results from an initial Denison survey, and insights from employee and leader focus groups and interviews, five themes were targeted in the SOC change process:

• Aligning of department and team goals with company goals;
• Providing technical and “soft skills” training for SOC crewmembers;
• Enhancing internal customer satisfaction through the use of better communication and consistent processes;
• Supporting crewmember willingness and capability for change; and,
• Developing and implementing work guidelines that support department and team goals.

Eight months after the improvement initiative was launched, JetBlue used the Denison Change Monitor survey to evaluate progress in four key areas: creating change; customer focus; goals and objectives; and capability development. Scores in all four areas had improved considerably.

The words of JetBlue’s crewmembers may best reflect the results of the improvement initiative, which has, itself, become an “institutionalized” continuous improvement program:

“Communication has dramatically improved around here, causing us to work better as a team.”

“Now I really enjoy my job – there is a much better team environment.”

Read the complete case study JetBlue Airways and Organizational Development: Partners for Change.

Headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany, Henkel is a Fortune Global 500 company, with more than 52,000 employees worldwide. It is a leader in three strategic business areas: home care products, personal care products, and adhesives, sealants and surface treatment products.

The International Network Corporate Culture, founded in 2003, is a group of 11 European-based, multinational companies. They exchange information and best practices relating to corporate culture among participating firms, and also aim to develop, publish and disseminate studies and other materials on corporate culture best practices.

The Henkel case study is the first in a series of case studies planned by the International Network Corporate Culture. The article provides an overview of Henkel, its long-established corporate culture, and its decision to utilize the Denison Organizational Culture Survey, in an ongoing, company-wide, culture- and performance-improvement program.

In the case study, Denison and Schlue also describe the Denison Organizational Culture Survey, and highlight a series of surveys that were conducted at Henkel starting in 2002 – with a look at results, and management actions that were taken based in the results.

Bertelsmann Stiftung, a Germany-based foundation, published the case study. It serves as both a private think tank and a catalyst for social change, and currently is involved in more than 600 different projects.

In her preface to the study, Gabriele Scholer, project manager – Competence Centre Corporate Culture/Leadership for Bertelsmann Stiftung, wrote: “…Henkel considers its decision to apply the Denison Organizational Culture Survey a major success in itself…Expectations and objectives were fully met; not only did the work yield a clearer picture of the Henkel culture as it was perceived and lived in the company over the five years under investigation, but it also provided highly relevant insight into required changes and amendments.”

Read the complete case study, Managing Corporate Culture at Henkel - Applying the Denison Organzational Culture Survey.

Denison Consulting has developed an extensive network of experienced consultants and coaches who apply our work all over the globe.  We turn to these thought leaders for their insight and experience on applying our work in the day-to-day. Chris Musselwhite, CEO and founder of Discovery Learning, Inc. based in Greensboro, North Carolina, publishes a regular column on Inc.com. In a recent article, Musselwhite highlights the Denison Model and emphasizes that leading with a balanced internal and external focus is at the core of leading strategically.

Read his article, “Strategic Leadership -- Achieving Agility”, online at Inc.com.

Ryan Smerek and Dan Denison’s manuscript "Social Capital in Organizations: Understanding the Link to Firm Performance" was accepted for presentation at the 2007 Academy of Management (AOM) Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. The analysis links organizational culture to return-on-assets, sales growth, and market-to-book. Results suggest that the culture traits of adaptability and involvement contribute the most to long-term financial performance and short-term sales growth.

We are very proud to add that the submitted manuscript was judged by the reviewers to be one of the best accepted papers in the program. This honor entitled a shortened version of the paper to be published in the Best Paper Proceedings of the 2007 Academy of Management Meeting. To learn more, visit our presentation at AOM.

Event Details:

• Title: Social Capital in Organizations: Understanding the Link to Firm Performance
• Time: Tuesday, August 7th at 10:30 am
• Location: The Philadelphia Marriott
                  1201 Market Street Room 402
                  Philadelphia, PA

The European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology has just accepted a paper titled "Linking organizational culture and customer satisfaction: Organization-level results for two organizations in different industries," by Mike Gillespie, Dan Denison, Stephanie Haaland, Ryan Smerek, & Bill Neale. This paper summarizes the impact that organizational culture has on customer satisfaction in two of our client organizations, one in a large set of auto dealerships and the other in the sales regions of a home builder. Pre-publication copies of this paper are available upon request.

Read a pre-publication copy of the paper "Linking organizational culture and customer satisfaction: Organization-level results for two organizations in different industries".

The Denison Model has a strong following and many satisfied users throughout North America, Europe and Asia. But how did it play to audiences in New York City and San Francisco in recent “Showcase" events highlighting the Denison survey tools in action? Just ask Bryan Adkins, Jay Richards and Paul Wright -- Denison Consulting team members who coordinated and hosted the events -- and they’ll tell you the reviews from the field were overwhelmingly positive.

Nearly 100 people -- including managers and leaders from businesses, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations, as well as business consultants – attended the first two in an ongoing series of Denison Showcases.

Each Showcase event is designed to include a high-level overview of the Denison Model, along with firsthand case studies shared directly by client organizations.

The kick-off event – featuring a morning and afternoon session – was held in New York City on March 28, 2007. San Francisco was the location for the second Denison showcase, which was held on May 24th, 2007. Morning and afternoon sessions also were provided in San Francisco. Our third Denison showcase is scheduled for July 26, 2007 in Washington, D.C.

At the New York City Showcase, Jay Richards, Partner and Client Manager for Denison Consulting, introduced the Denison Model and surveys. Brian Glaser, OD Consultant, highlighted a case study where an organization used the help of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey and Change Monitor to help support their efforts in sustaining their top competitive position amidst dramatic change and expansion.

In San Francisco, Bryan Adkins, a Senior Consultant for Denison Consulting, provided an overview of the Denison survey tools and applications. In addition, a series of client case studies were delivered, reflecting success stories at Genomic Health (presenter: Emily Couey, Associate Director, Human Resources); National 1st Credit Union (presenter: Marcia Franks, President and CEO); Credence (presenters: Leb Tannenbaum, CEO - New Legends Consulting, LLC, and Sandy Pennington); and Verisign (presenter: Ron Sacchi, Corporate Shaman).

In both the morning and afternoon sessions in San Francisco, Paul Wright, also a Senior Consultant for Denison Consulting, hosted panel discussions.

More Denison Showcases – and similar workshops, educational events and forums – are in the works at Denison Consulting. Stay tuned, and visit the Denison Events page on our website regularly for updates and program details.

When corporations merge, the clash of cultures often brings the business to a standstill. Many executives, in the excitement of "doing the deal" underestimate how much effort it will take or how much risk is involved. Transition teams, charged with managing the integration process, often overestimate the similarity and compatibility between two organizations. As one top executive put it, "we convinced ourselves that we were really twins, separated at birth."

This April 18th IMD webcast by Dan Denison examined several different kinds of mergers and how companies are managing the integration process. This webcast will be summarized in a Video Podcast that will be available shortly.

View the presentation now: "Culture Strategies: Managing Cultural Integration in Mergers & Acquisitions".

2007 marks the release of updated norms for the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. The 2007 DOCS norms include 888 organizations as rated by over 350,000 employees. This is 20% increase from the 2004 norms. The DOCS database contains organizations from a wide variety of industries and countries, from architecture to zoological gardens, and Australia to Venezuela. Please contact a Denison Client Manager for more information.

The Denison Racing Team is back in action and the 2007 Racing Season is finally getting underway! We wanted to give you an update of our plans for the summer. This season's efforts are scaled back a little bit from last year, mainly because we've had to switch to a different series, make some changes to our cars, and try to make this all fit into a busy schedule!

We plan to do four events this season:

• July 14-15 Mid-Ohio: Mansfield, Ohio
• July 28-29 Road America: Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
• Aug 11-12 Grattan Raceway: Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Aug 25-26 Gingerman Raceway: South Haven, Michigan