Jennifer A. Chatman

Whether a company’s employees work in the office full time, are hybrid, are strictly WFH – or some combination of the three – how do leaders create and maintain a work atmosphere that is complementary to overall corporate strategy?

“Building a company culture that aligns well with your corporate strategy is an indispensable element of fulfilling your objectives,” says Jennifer A. Chatman, Ph.D, University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business interim dean. “If your culture doesn’t support your strategy, achieving your strategic aspirations may be elusive.”

The world’s top authority on corporate culture and co-developer of the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP), Chatman has been a key voice in outlining what defines an organization’s culture and how to create one that is high performing. A valued advisor to organizations as varied as Genentech, Goldman Sachs, Mars Inc., Sony and the U.S. Treasury, she teaches leaders how to measure and assess the gaps between their organization’s current and strategically needed culture.

Winner of the Academy of Management’s Organizational Behavior Division lifetime achievement award for “research on culture that has changed the field of organizational behavior,” her work has shown that organizations that emphasize adaptability first perform better on bottom line financials, showing how essential culture is to success. But, she says, leaders must first understand what corporate culture is and the impact it has on an organization.

“Companies would be well served by thinking systematically about culture alongside of this future of work question because whatever approach its leaders identify is going to require a complementary cultural approach,” says Chatman. “If the two are aligned, then the culture will be bolstered and serve as a tool for innovation and high performance.”

How Organizational Culture Really Works

While organizational culture can feel like a puzzle to many leaders, this discomfort is natural because many managers receive little or no training in how to think about or manage culture in the same ways they do for concrete tasks like reporting financial outcomes. 

In her highly anticipated new book, “How Organizational Culture Really Works: Facts About the Most Misunderstood Leadership Challenge,” Chatman demystifies organizational culture to bring leaders a deeper understanding of the behavioral realities. She further demonstrates how to prioritize what truly matters and equips leaders and managers with frameworks and actionable strategies to shape a strong, adaptive culture aligned with their strategic goals. 

Chatman’s three-part framework helps leaders better understand the finer details of their company’s current culture. By offering a set of key levers for change – among them, the signals leaders send to employees and how people are recruited and brought into an organization – as well as the OCP assessment and framework, she helps leaders increase the probability that new business strategy initiatives will succeed.

“Very quickly, my research helped me understand how and why a company’s culture is incredibly important,” she recounts. “The context of that culture really influences how inspired people are about working in a particular place and how well they understand the strategic priorities. It’s just as important for leaders to be clear about what the collective goals are for the organization.”

The influence of leaders on culture can’t be understated, Chatman emphasizes. Her engaging keynotes illustrate how leaders have a stronger impact on corporate culture than they may even realize – for good and for bad. 

How AI Can Have a Positive Effect on Your Organizational Culture

The quick rise of AI tools in the workplace has caused some leaders to want to embrace AI, but they don’t want their workforce to view the technology as a threat to employment. Chatman, who leads the annual Berkeley Culture Conference, helps organizations think through the opportune areas where AI can help their individual needs and create efficient financial savings. Drawing from insights into AI’s applications within HR at organizations across industries, Chatman illustrates AI’s potential to streamline operations while maintaining a personalized touch.

“For example, IBM’s most efficient financial savings use for AI is the ability for AI to write confirmations of employment,” explains Chatman. “These reports need the IBM seal and it’s a pretty routine task, but it needs to be customized for the individual. People can use AI to make that happen. Now that people view that as a positive use case, they’re more open to thinking about other ways of bringing AI into the organization.”

Chatman’s approach helps leaders see AI as an opportunity to reinforce their company’s values and mission, rather than as a disruptor. Her roadmap ultimately helps leaders align AI integration with cultural values, fostering an environment where technology and humanity coexist to drive innovation and efficiency.

Jennifer A. Chatman, Ph.D. is the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, the interim dean, Haas School of Business, the co-founder and co-director of the Berkeley Haas Culture Initiative, and the editor-in-chief of the premier research series, Research in Organizational Behavior. Her research and expertise have led to advisory work with a variety of organizations including Google, Goldman Sachs, Mars Inc., Sony, the U.S. Treasury and many more across public and private industries. 

Chatman’s research has appeared in numerous academic journals as well as being highlighted in national and international publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and more. She’s also appeared on numerous podcasts and TV and radio programs.

Chatman has won a variety of research and teaching awards including the Academy of Management’s Organizational Behavior Division lifetime achievement award, Haas’s Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Academy of Management’s Outstanding Dissertation Award. She was honored as the Ascendant Scholar by the Western Academy of Management, and she received Best Paper of the Year honors from California Management Review twice (2006 and 2021). She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society, and is a fellow of the Academy of Management. Chatman also co-designs and co-hosts the Berkeley Culture Initiative’s Berkeley Culture Conference each January.

Jennifer A. Chatman is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.