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CHAPTER 14: SHAPING CULTURE AND VALUES 427
have unethical values or values that are unhealthy for the organization because
they don’t fi t the needs of the environment. Research at Harvard into some
200 corporate cultures found that a strong culture does not ensure success
unless it also encourages a healthy adaptation to the external environment. 16
A strong culture that does not encourage adaptation can be more damaging to
an organization than a weak culture. For example, J. C. Penney Company has a
deeply-entrenched corporate culture rooted in the company’s 1902 founding as
“The Golden Rule Store.” Penney’s founder emphasized values such as agreeable-
ness, thriftiness, discipline, and dignity. Over time, these values led to a degree
of formality and a paternalistic attitude among many managers that prevented
employees from proposing changes and participating fully in the organization.
Only senior managers, for example, were eligible for awards and ceremonies hon-
oring employees for a commitment to service and cooperation. New CEO Mike
Ullman is trying to shift Penney’s to a more democratic and egalitarian culture,

emphasizing the use of first names among colleagues and their superiors, selling
off the company’s art collection and replacing it with photos of rank-and-fi le
employees, and giving everyone access to all parts of headquarters, including the
executive suite. Ullman has adapted the company’s core values for modern times
in a statement called Winning Together Principles. “If I had a choice to honor the
past and lose, or move forward and win, I pick winning,” Ullman says. 17

Adaptive Cultures
To improve your understanding of adaptive
As illustrated in Exhibit 14.2, adaptive corporate cultures have Action Memo
different values and behavior from unadaptive cultures. In adap- versus unadaptive cultures, go to Leader’s
tive cultures, leaders are concerned with customers and those in- Self-Insight 14.2 on page 428 and assess the
ternal people, processes, and procedures that bring about useful cultural values of a place you have worked.
change. In unadaptive cultures, leaders are concerned with them-
selves or their own special projects, and their values tend to discour-
age risk-taking and change. Thus, a strong culture is not enough,

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