ABSTRACT
Most texts on corporate culture, both Chinese and non-Chinese, divide the process of organizational change into two main stages. 1 First comes the stage of defining the corporation’s values, mission, philosophy, and spirit. These terms seem to overlap somewhat, but are designed to get corporate managers and employees to decide on a set of high-level, relatively generalized ideals and objectives that everyone in the corporation will strive to attain. The textbook writers emphasize that this stage should involve as many employees in the corporation as possible in order to achieve maximum consensus on what the firm actually stands for and what its fundamental aims should be (Deal and Kennedy 1982: 167; Huang and Tian 2006: 110). Once the values are formulated, the second stage is to implement them throughout the firm. 2
