Organization transformation (OT) focuses on redefining the desired mission, organizational culture, and strategy. Organizational culture is a system of shared values, beliefs, and norms that are used to guide employee behavior. Organizational culture is communicated and reinforced through organizational mechanisms and managers. Organizational cultural interventions involve more than simply restating values, beliefs, or norms, and communicating them to individuals. Cultural change involves a complex process of replacing an existing paradigm or way of thinking with another.

Strategic change is defined as any fundamental change in an organizational purpose or mission requiring systemwide changes. Systemwide changes can have three dimensions—size, depth, and pervasiveness. The earlier success with TQM and continuous improvement programs was the genesis of the “learning organization” approach. TQM intervention involves an emphasis on learning by everyone involved in the process.

The high performance work system (HPWS) is another approach that has emerged from companies involved in continuous improvement. HPWS are multifaceted, involving different combinations of the intervention strategies. Many anecdotal reports describe successful OT strategies, but not enough is known about their overall effectiveness. The key to successful OT intervention is the articulation of an organizational vision that provides guiding principles.