Showing papers on "Culture change published in 2017"

Cultural Change: The How and the Why:

Abstract: More than half a century of cross-cultural research has demonstrated group-level differences in psychological and behavioral phenomena, from values to attention to neural responses. However, cultur...

The Social and Cultural Matrix of Health and Disease

Abstract: This chapter focuses on the relationship between the social and cultural milieu, and the individual response, in the production of health and disease. The Alameda County Survey in California is a landmark study of the influence of social and community ties on health status. Community studies aim to reveal relationships between cultural, social, behavioural, and psychological processes within a single community or geographic area. Culture change often has a significant impact both on the structure of social relationships, and on access to the material goods and sources and symbols of prestige that contribute to social identity. Mental health research, however, has gone further in understanding the influence of social and cultural determinants on particular health problems, and in searching for their mechanisms of influence. Yet the field of mental health is characterized by a particular difficulty in defining the diagnostic borders between disease entities.

The leadership role of college deans and department chairs in academic culture change

Abstract: Although it has been decades since gender inequality in academe was first highlighted, institutions around the world continue to struggle with how best to address the problem. Policies and procedures intended to increase women's representation appear to have had limited impact in many departments, especially those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Hence, current gender mainstreaming efforts must focus not only on explicit procedures but also on fostering a broad gender equality culture. This article introduces the approach utilized by one US research-intensive university to provide administrators with the tools and motivation to pursue such goals. Pre- and post-training questionnaires demonstrated that training can shift administrator attitudes. In addition, interviews with participants and surveys of faculty indicated the extent to which this approach altered departmental culture beyond policy and procedure. The results demonstrate the importance of empowered unit administrator...

Development and testing of the 'Culture of Care Barometer' (CoCB) in healthcare organisations: a mixed methods study.

Abstract: Objective Concerns about care quality have prompted calls to create workplace cultures conducive to high-quality, safe and compassionate care and to provide a supportive environment in which staff can operate effectively. How healthcare organisations assess their culture of care is an important first step in creating such cultures. This article reports on the development and validation of a tool, the Culture of Care Barometer, designed to assess perceptions of a caring culture among healthcare workers preliminary to culture change. Design/setting/participants An exploratory mixed methods study designed to develop and test the validity of a tool to measure ‘culture of care’ through focus groups and questionnaires. Questionnaire development was facilitated through: a literature review, experts generating items of interest and focus group discussions with healthcare staff across specialities, roles and seniority within three types of public healthcare organisations in the UK. The tool was designed to be multiprofessional and pilot tested with a sample of 467 nurses and healthcare support workers in acute care and then validated with a sample of 1698 staff working across acute, mental health and community services in England. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify dimensions underlying the Barometer. Results Psychometric testing resulted in the development of a 30-item questionnaire linked to four domains with retained items loading to four factors: organisational values (α=0.93, valid n=1568, M=3.7), team support (α=0.93, valid n=1557, M=3.2), relationships with colleagues (α=0.84, valid n=1617, M=4.0) and job constraints (α=0.70, valid n=1616, M=3.3). Conclusions The study developed a valid and reliable instrument with which to gauge the different attributes of care culture perceived by healthcare staff with potential for organisational benchmarking.

Understanding middle managers' influence in implementing patient safety culture.

Abstract: The past fifteen years have been marked by large-scale change efforts undertaken by healthcare organizations to improve patient safety and patient-centered care. Despite substantial investment of effort and resources, many of these large-scale or “radical change” initiatives, like those in other industries, have enjoyed limited success – with practice and behavioural changes neither fully adopted nor ultimately sustained – which has in large part been ascribed to inadequate implementation efforts. Culture change to “patient safety culture” (PSC) is among these radical change initiatives, where results to date have been mixed at best. This paper responds to calls for research that focus on explicating factors that affect efforts to implement radical change in healthcare contexts, and focuses on PSC as the radical change implementation. Specifically, this paper offers a novel conceptual model based on Organizational Learning Theory to explain the ability of middle managers in healthcare organizations to influence patient safety culture change. We propose that middle managers can capitalize on their unique position between upper and lower levels in the organization and engage in ‘ambidextrous’ learning that is critical to implementing and sustaining radical change. This organizational learning perspective offers an innovative way of framing the mid-level managers’ role, through both explorative and exploitative activities, which further considers the necessary organizational context in which they operate.

Evolving academic culture to meet societal needs

Abstract: Given today’s complex societal challenges, academia should work better with government, industry and others in offering innovative solutions that benefit our society, economy and environment. Researchers across disciplines must work together and with decision-makers to understand how science can have better on-the-ground impacts toward longer-term, resilient societal outcomes. This includes, for example, by working with end-users in problem formation and throughout research projects to ensure decision-making needs are being met, and by linking physical science to additional fields like economics, risk communication or psychology. However, persistent barriers to collaborating across disciplines and with external decision-makers remain. Despite decades of studies highlighting the need for interdisciplinary research and science for decision-making, academic institutions are still not structured to facilitate or reward such collaboration. A group of researchers and educators used a mixed-methods approach to consider the knowledge base on interdisciplinary research and evidence-based policymaking, as well as their own experiences, and formed targeted and actionable recommendations that can help academia overcome these barriers. Their recommendations, specifically targeted to administrators, institutional leads, individual researchers, and research funders, align to three categories: define the role of academia in linking to policy; incorporate nontraditional standards in evaluating success; and build trust while drawing the line between knowledge dissemination and activism. By implementing the following recommendations, academics can foster the culture change that is needed to promote interdisciplinarity, strengthen the impact of their work and help society address urgent and multi-faceted problems.

Supporting future scholars of engaged research

Abstract: Researchers in the UK are taking on new roles and responsibilities to meet the requirements of an expanded agenda for generating and evidencing social and economic impacts from research. Within this wider context, culture change programmes have identified learning as an important driver of change. Here we outline a professional development programme designed to train postgraduate researchers studying environmental sciences in core engagement, influence and impact, governance and organization skills for research. We argue that training is an important step in further catalysing progressive culture change. However, our research- and experience-informed critical reflections in supporting researchers suggest that there is still significant work to be done: (1) to offer consistent messages to researchers at all grades about social impacts from research and (2) to ensure that engagement is seen as an aspirational activity, embedded within research.

Actualizing culture change: The Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas Nursing Homes (PEAK 2.0) program.

Abstract: Nursing homes have been challenged in their attempts to achieve deep, organizational change (i.e., culture change) aimed at providing quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents through person-centered care. To attain deep change, 2 well-defined components must be in place: a shared understanding of (a) the what, or content goals, and (b) the how, or process of change. However, there are few examples of this at a macro or micro level in long-term care. In an effort to enact true culture change in nursing homes statewide, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services implemented the Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas Nursing Homes program. This program is a Medicaid, pay-for-performance program that formalizes the content and process of achieving culture change through person-centered care principles. This article aims to detail the content (what) and process (how) of a model macro-level program of culture change throughout the State of Kansas. Applications to the micro level (individual homes) are presented, and implications for psychologists' roles in facilitating culture change are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Work-based Assessment and Co-production in Postgraduate Medical Training.

Abstract: Assessment has always been an essential component of postgraduate medical education and for many years focused predominantly on various types of examinations. While examinations of medical knowledge and more recently of clinical skills with standardized patients can assess learner capability in controlled settings and provide a level of assurance for the public, persistent and growing concerns regarding quality of care and patient safety worldwide has raised the importance and need for better work-based assessments. Work-based assessments, when done effectively, can more authentically capture the abilities of learners to actually provide safe, effective, patient-centered care. Furthermore, we have entered the era of interprofessional care where effective teamwork among multiple health care professionals is now paramount. Work-based assessment methods are now essential in an interprofessional healthcare world. To better prepare learners for these newer competencies and the ever-growing complexity of healthcare, many post-graduate medical education systems across the globe have turned to outcomes-based models of education, codified through competency frameworks. This commentary provides a brief overview on key methods of work-based assessment such as direct observation, multisource feedback, patient experience surveys and performance measures that are needed in a competency-based world that places a premium on educational and clinical outcomes. However, the full potential of work-based assessments will only be realized if post-graduate learners play an active role in their own assessment program. This will require a substantial culture change, and culture change only occurs through actions and changed behaviors. Co-production offers a practical and philosophical approach to engaging postgraduate learners to be active, intrinsically motivated agents for their own professional development, help to change learning culture and contribute to improving programmatic assessment in post-graduate training.

Resilience, culture change, and cancer risk reduction in a fire rescue organization: Clean gear as the new badge of honor

Abstract: Fire rescue organizations are central to community models of resilience, especially in the context of crisis. The ability of fire rescue organizations to fulfill their role relies on their ability to operate at full capacity; however, fire rescue services may face internal crises that require these organizations to be resilient in their own right. This study uses grounded theory drawing on concepts of organizational culture and resilience to show how one key partner in the community model of resilience (Palm Beach County Fire Rescue) is working to address their own crisis—an epidemic of cancer. Firefighters are engaging in behaviours to increase resilience by working towards cultural change to reduce cancer risk, using social capital to increase networks and expertise, and utilizing internal assets to enact change. Barriers to change include cultural practices, perceived threats to occupational practice, and logistics and resources to enact desired change. A model of risk reduction and resilience is advanced that explores how organizational culture and practice both support and undermine individual resilience and organizational resilience. Implications for communication and change efforts are explored.

Does Comprehensive Culture Change Adoption via the Household Model Enhance Nursing Home Residents' Psychosocial Well-being?

Abstract: Background and objectives Several studies suggest that to substantially improve residents' psychosocial well-being, traditional-model nursing homes should redesign themselves as small, homelike "households" along with comprehensively adopting other aspects of "culture change," a set of reforms meant to improve residents' quality of life. But this evidence mainly comes from qualitative studies. This comparative, observational study tested quantitatively whether residents in a household-model nursing home that had comprehensively adopted culture change reforms displayed greater positive affect, increased cognitive engagement, more extensive social interactions with staff and greater use of the environment than did residents at partial culture-change-adopting facilities with traditional, institutional environments. Research design and methods Household-model residents were matched on clinical and demographic factors with residents at two institutional control facilities that had partially adopted culture change and were observed for 8 hours each. To provide potentially converging evidence, aides and nurses were also observed. Finally, a culture change implementation assessment was conducted. Results The implementation assessment showed that the household-model home had implemented culture change beyond national norms, whereas the control facilities were U.S.-typical partial adopters. It also revealed that household-model staff cared for residents in a more person-centered manner. Observation analyses revealed that household-model residents spent less time idle and less time stationary at wheelchair hubs. Moreover, although household-model residents did not spend the most time in the dining area overall, they spent the greatest percentage of time there talking with staff, displaying positive affect, and displaying active engagement. Finally, household-model residents and staff spent the most time in task-oriented interactions, including personal care. Discussion and implications These results suggest that the intended psychosocial benefits materialize in household-model facilities, particularly in the dining area and in resident-staff relationships. The findings raise the possibility that facilities may be able to achieve these outcomes without entirely redesigning their environment.

Digital Strategy: Leading the Culture Change in Health and Care

Abstract: Technology and the internet are transforming society. They are changing the way we talk to each other, work with one another and organise our lives. More open access to quality data increases our understanding of how diseases develop and spread. Linking data gives us insight into the whole patient journey, not just isolated episodes of care. Advances in technology help people to do things quicker, more efficiently and with better results. Launching a health information revolution that puts patients in control of their own health and care information, and makes services convenient, accessible and efficient, is now a major priority for the Department of Health.

Building a Culture of Data Sharing: Policy Design and Implementation for Research Data Management in Development Research

Abstract: A pilot project worked with seven existing projects funded by the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC) to investigate the implementation of data management and sharing requirements within development research projects. The seven projects, which were selected to achieve a diversity of project types, locations, host institutions and subject areas, demonstrated a broad range of existing capacities to work with data and access to technical expertise and infrastructures. The pilot project provided an introduction to data management and sharing concepts, helped projects develop a Data Management Plan, and then observed the implementation of that plan. In examining the uptake of Data Management and Sharing practice amongst these seven groups the project came to question the underlying goals of funders in introducing data management and sharing requirements. It was established that the ultimate goal was a change in culture amongst grantees. The project therefore looked for evidence of how funder interventions might promote or hinder such cultural change. The project had two core findings. First that the shift from an aim of changing behaviour, to changing culture, has both subtle and profound implications for policy design and implementation. A particular finding is that the single point of contact that many data ‡ © Neylon C. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. management and sharing policies create where a Data Management Plan is required at grant submission but then not further utilised is at best neutral and likely counter productive in supporting change in researcher culture. As expected, there are significant bottlenecks within research institutions and for grantees in effectively sharing data including a lack of resources and expertise. However, a core finding is that many of the bottlenecks for change relate to structural issues at the funder level. Specifically, the expectation that policy initiatives are implemented, monitored, and evaluated by Program Officers who are the main point of contact for projects. The single most productive act to enhance policy implementation may be to empower and support Program Officers. This could be achieved through training and support of individual POs, through the creation of a group of internal experts who can support others, or via provision of external support, for instance by expanding the services provided by the pilot project into an ongoing support mechanism for both internal staff and grantees. Other significant findings include: the importance of language barriers and the way in which assumptions of English language in materials, resources, services and systems permeate the entire system; that data infrastructures are poorly served by current funding arrangements and tools, particularly where they are obliged to seek continuing funding through project grants. There are also fundamental questions raised by the status of digital objects as \"data\". The concept of data is part of a western scientific discourse which may be both incompatible with other cultures, particularly indigenous knowledge systems. More importantly that discourse may be incompatible with values-based approaches that seek to respect indigenous knowledge through a commitment to retaining context. With the possible exception of the last finding, none of these issues are exclusive to development research. The Development Research context surfaces them more strongly through its greater diversity of goals and contexts. In many ways this project illustrates not that Development Research has particular special needs, but that it is a site that surfaces issues in policy design and implementation deserving of more consideration across the research enterprise.

Culture Change In A Rural High School

Abstract: Rural high schools are most impacted by a negative organizational culture. Toxic behaviors prevail over the positive ones. Perspectives about what is possible to attain become jaded when school outcomes do not match individual expectations. If leadership does not treat sustaining a positive school culture as a priority, then the successful transition to the new demands of education is unlikely. The qualitative research was founded in the conceptual framework about change and culture in schools. A grounded theory approach was used in the methodology to examine the role collaboration and leadership play in establishing culture. Research questions addressed the role of collaboration in school culture change strategies to support a school culture, change agent qualities, and beliefs about transference. Themes regarding rural school culture, leadership and change emerged from the research. Data analysis using an open coding process generated themes of culture, collaboration, change, and leadership. Findings from the analysis of the data include: intentional collaboration techniques involvement focus; maintenance of positivity, using strong communication techniques, and application of effective change agent strategies. Leaders can support a positive school culture by having a focus on relationships, scheduling time for collaboration, intentionality, organization, and having a growth mindset. This supports implementation and sustainment of a respectful school culture focused on learning.

Are You Sure You Want to Do That? Fostering the Responsible Conduct of Medical Education Research.

Abstract: Engaging in questionable research practices (QRPs) is a noted problem across many disciplines, including medical education. While QRPs are rarely discussed in the context of medical education, that does not mean that medical education researchers are immune. Therefore, the authors seek to raise medical educators' awareness of the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and call the community to action before QRPs negatively affect the field.The authors define QRPs and introduce examples that could easily happen in medical education research because of vulnerabilities particular to the field. The authors suggest that efforts in research, including medical education research, should focus on facilitating a change in the culture of research to foster RCR, and that these efforts should make explicit both the individual and system factors that ultimately influence researcher behavior. They propose a set of approaches within medical education training initiatives to foster such a culture: empowering research mentors as role models, open airing of research conduct dilemmas and infractions, protecting whistle blowers, establishing mechanisms for facilitating responsibly conducted research, and rewarding responsible researchers.The authors recommend that efforts at culture change be focused on the growing graduate programs, fellowships, and faculty academies in medical education to ensure that RCR training is an integral component for both students and faculty. They encourage medical education researchers to think creatively about solutions to the challenges they face and to act together as an international community to avoid wasting research efforts, damaging careers, and stunting medical education research through QRPs.

Compliance Culture or Culture Change? The role of funders in improving data management and sharing practice amongst researchers

Abstract: There is a wide and growing interest in promoting Research Data Management (RDM) and Research Data Sharing (RDS) from many stakeholders in the research enterprise. Funders are under pressure from activists, from government, and from the wider public agenda towards greater transparency and access to encourage, require, and deliver improved data practices from the researchers they fund. Funders are responding to this, and to their own interest in improved practice, by developing and implementing policies on RDM and RDS. In this review we examine the state of funder policies, the process of implementation and available guidance to identify the challenges and opportunities for funders in developing policy and delivering on the aspirations for improved community practice, greater transparency and engagement, and enhanced impact. The review is divided into three parts. The first two components are based on desk research: a survey of existing policy statements drawing in part on existing surveys and a brief review of available guidance on policy development for funders. The third part addresses the experience of policy implementation through interviews with funders, policy developers, and infrastructure providers. ‡ © International Development Research Centre. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. In our review we identify, in common with other surveys, that RDM and RDS policies are increasingly common. The most developed are found amongst funders in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and European Union. However many other funders and nations have aspirational statements or are developing policy. There is a broad pattern of policy development moving from aspiration, to recommendations, to requirements, and finally reporting and auditing of data management practice. There are strong similarities across policies: a requirement for data management planning, often in grant submissions, expectations that data supporting published articles will be made available, and in many cases requirements for data archiving and availability over extended periods beyond grants. However there are also important differences in implementation. There is essentially no information available on the uptake and success of different policies in terms of compliance rates, or degrees of data availability. Many policies require a Data Management Plan as part of grant submission. This requirement can be enforced but there is disagreement on the value of this. One view is that requirements such as DMPs are the only way to force researchers to pay attention to these issues. The other is that such requirements lead to a culture of compliance in which the minimal effort is made and planning is seen as a “tick-box” exercise that has no further value. In this view requirements such as DMPs may actually be damaging the effort to effect culture change towards improved community practice. One way to bring these two views together is to see DMPs as living documents that form the basis of collaboration between researchers, funders, and data managers throughout the life of a research project. This approach is reflected in guidance on policy development that emphasises the importance of clarifying responsibilities of various stakeholders and ensuring that researchers are both recognised for good practice and see tangible benefits. More broadly this points to the need for the program of improving RDM and RDS to be shared project with the incentives for funders and researchers aligned as far as is possible. In the interviews successful policy implementation was often seen to be dependent on funders providing the required support, both in the form of infrastructure and resourcing, and via the provision of internal expertise amongst program managers. Where resources are limited, leveraging other support, especially from institutional sources, was seen as important as was ensuring the scope of policy requirements were commensurate with the support available and readiness of research communities. Throughout the desk research and the interviews a consistent theme is the desire for cultural change, where data management and sharing practices are embedded within the norms of behaviour for research communities. There is general agreement that progress from aspirational policies to achieving compliance is challenging and that broad cultural change, with the exception of specific communities, is a long way off. It is interesting to note that discussion of cultural change is largely externalised. There is little engagement with the concept of culture as an issue to consider or work with and very little engagement with models of how cultural change could be enabled. The disagreement over the value of 2 Neylon C

Culture Change in Aged-Care Facilities: A Café's Contribution to Transforming the Physical and Social Environment

Abstract: Objective: To discuss the potential of a cafe on the premises of an aged-care facility as a vehicle for culture change. Method: Secondary analysis of primary qualitative data that explored the value of a cafe in an aged-care facility, compared with culture-change principles established from a literature review. Results: Secondary analysis established congruence between culture-change principles and the themes established in the primary qualitative data. A cafe, in one aged-care facility, has facilitated the following dimensions of culture change for residents: individualized care, facilitation of meaningful relationships, opportunities for participation in life roles, and creation of a sense of belonging. Conclusion: Culture change can be achieved through environmental innovations, such as a cafe, where food and dining maximize social opportunities and create a homelike environment that facilitates continuation of residents' identity.

Identifying influential individuals on intensive care units: using cluster analysis to explore culture

Abstract: Aim The objective of this paper is to identify attribute patterns of influential individuals in intensive care units using unsupervised cluster analysis Background Despite the acknowledgement that culture of an organisation is critical to improving patient safety, specific methods to shift culture have not been explicitly identified Methods A social network analysis survey was conducted and an unsupervised cluster analysis was used Results A total of 100 surveys were gathered Unsupervised cluster analysis was used to group individuals with similar dimensions highlighting three general genres of influencers: well-rounded, knowledge and relational Conclusions Culture is created locally by individual influencers Cluster analysis is an effective way to identify common characteristics among members of an intensive care unit team that are noted as highly influential by their peers To change culture, identifying and then integrating the influencers in intervention development and dissemination may create more sustainable and effective culture change Additional studies are ongoing to test the effectiveness of utilising these influencers to disseminate patient safety interventions Implications for nursing management This study offers an approach that can be helpful in both identifying and understanding influential team members and may be an important aspect of developing methods to change organisational culture

Planning for engaged research: a collaborative ‘Labcast’

Abstract: How can you plan effectively for engagement? This chapter offers practical advice on how to respond to this important question in a pragmatic way. Our thinking is based on support we have offered to researchers through two related culture change projects: one designed to embed an engagement strategy and improve the quality of engaged research at the Open University, UK (Holliman et al., 2015); the other to develop a more structured, sustainable and aspirational culture for school-university engagement with research (Holliman and Davies, 2015). In this chapter, we introduce a framework developed to support researchers who are planning for public engagement with research. As such, we have written this account primarily from a researcher perspective, but also with input from non-academic stakeholders. For the purposes of this chapter, we take non-academic stakeholders to include end-users, members of the public, and any other non-academic beneficiaries. Hence, a further aspiration is that the framework could also be adapted by a range of non-academic stakeholders to inform their negotiations with researchers. In the context of the activity we discuss in this chapter non-academic stakeholders include teachers. It could have also included the participating students. In what follows, we offer an authentic worked example of the framework in action, involving an activity mediated via digital tools and technologies and involving scientists, an educational technologist, several teachers, 25 sixth-form students, and an evaluation researcher. It is important to note, therefore, that the framework is designed to be flexible and adaptable beyond this worked example. We have developed it from our experience of advising Open University academics from across a wide range of disciplines, consultation with Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), other projects funded through the School-University Partnership Initiative (RCUK, 2013), and our collaboration with Denbigh Teaching School Alliance. The framework should be applicable to any researcher and discipline, and all forms of engaged research.

The Relationship between Culture and Corruption in Nigeria – Prospecting Culture Change in Dealing with this ‘Big Black Hole’

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interface between the national culture and the realities of corruption in Nigeria. Drawing from Hofstede’s culture theory, a qualitative design was used as a framework to explore views of 40 Nigerians on the extent to which social norms, traditions, values, and personal orientations interplay with the magnitude of corruption in Nigeria. The findings provided empirical support for uncertainty avoidance values, patriarchy, and collectivist practices as influencing levels of corruption that is adversely affecting the nation’s economy and human development. Further results revealed the need for a pragmatic approach that places more emphasis on functional education that can raise cultural consciousness which will promote accountability, transparency and moral adherence to anti-corruption values. By implication, the i¬ ndings offers valuable insights that unveils corruption in Nigeria as more cultural than political. It is therefore argued in this paper that eradicating corruption in Nigeria will practically necessitate the need for a culture change, which can be a slow and difficult process, but not an impossible one.

Applying Positive Organisational Scholarship to Produce Extraordinary Performance

Abstract: This chapter discusses the application of positive organisational scholarship (POS) and its impact on organisational performance. Specifically, we review how POS interventions implemented in two different businesses within the Prudential Financial Services Corporation led to extraordinarily successful performance in each business. We organise the various POS practices that were implemented into five themes, and we discuss how each positive practice was applied. Our purpose is to illustrate a few ways in which POS can be employed to enhance the performance of organisations.

Can We Survive? A Case of Culture Change and Learning:

Abstract: In an effort towards business survival, an executive team considers progressive options for the future of their organization. The external business environment continues to change with fierce compe...

Listening to drive culture change

Abstract: Purpose The paper aims to show how a Detroit-based company recovered from a fractured culture and staggering projected financial loss by igniting a cultural revolution fueled by listening and employee engagement. Design/methodology/approach After setting the scene in post-recession Detroit, the case study walks the reader through how the company defined its turnaround goals, engaged its workforce to inspire widespread cultural change and how it is sustaining momentum. Findings The paper provides a detailed account of implementing a listening-focused culture and the positive impact it had on Webasto. It suggests that widespread organizational change is only possible when all employees are engaged and involved in the process. Originality/value This paper illustrates a real-world example of how an automotive supplier took a people-focused approach to engage its workforce with listening to drive culture change and ultimately impact an organization’s bottom line.