A member of a group I belong to on LinkedIn sent me this request:

“I have a presentation to an executive team for a company that provides medical garments to outpatient facilities throughout the US. I will be helping the Organization Development manager make a business case for leadership and culture development. I’m going to reference Jim Collin’s work and some things by a former associate. I know you were very close to this type of thing in the days of Service/Quality and Firing on all Cylinders, the TARP data etc. Is there any particular resource that you could suggest?”

I have touched on this issue in many different ways. Here are some resources that might help:

• The classic study of this issue was published by John Kotter and James L. Heskett in their book Corporate Culture and Performance, The Free Press, New York, 1992. It’s based on extensive studies of high versus low performing organizations and their cultures.

• I referenced a few studies in the first chapter of my book, The Leader’s Digest. You can read that chapter online at https://www.clemmergroup.com/books/pdf/TLD_Chapter1.pdf.

• The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations has been researching the impact of leadership and “soft skills” for many years. One of their early studies on “the business case for IE” is on their web site at http://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/business_case_for_ei.html.

• I have a series of articles and book excerpts you can read on Management versus Leadership and Culture Change.