Driving cultural change through behavioral differentiation at Westinghouse

Abstract

Purpose

This article describes the successful application of behavioral differentiation in transforming the culture of a large engineering‐oriented company as it strived to become more customer‐centric.

Design/methodology/approach

Customer satisfaction surveys and interviews indicated that the company was difficult to work with and not customer‐focused. Subsequent benchmarking included an employee engagement survey, Lore's Behavioral Differentiation Survey, and the Denison Cultural Survey.

Findings

The results, which showed significant disagreement between internal and customer perceptions of the issues, indicated that the company had six behavioral improvement areas to focus on: customer relationship management, communication, execution‐related behaviors, information sharing, customer success, and organizational alignment.

Research limitations/implications

The cultural change initiative is ongoing, and further research is needed to identify the strength, effectiveness, and durability of the behavioral changes.

Practical implications

However, early anecdotal evidence shows that the company is transforming not only its behavior toward customers but customer perceptions of the company and, more importantly, the company is winning new business as a result of its behavioral changes.

Originality/value

This article illustrates one of the first attempts by a large company to transform its culture by focusing on behavioral differentiation. In businesses that are becoming increasingly commoditized, behavior is usually the final frontier in competitive strategy. The article will be of interest to any firms seeking large‐scale transformation of how employees behave toward customers.

Citation

Bacon, T.R. (2007), "Driving cultural change through behavioral differentiation at Westinghouse", Business Strategy Series, Vol. 8 No. 5, pp. 350-357. https://doi.org/10.1108/17515630710684466