An enormous consulting industry has sprung up promising to help organizations overhaul themselves to meet today's competitive pressures. Yet far too often, such change efforts fail. The solution, according to best-selling management author William Bridges, lies in identifying, understanding and working with what he calls organizational character. Just as people have personalities, Bridges explains, organizations - as well as their departments and teams - have characters. An organization's character shapes how decisions get made and new ideas are received, how employees are treated and change is accepted or rejected - all factors that affect company performance. Using examples from McDonald's, Hewlett-Packard, GE and other companies, Bridges identifies 16 organizational character types using the framework of MBTI© personality types and shows how these influence an organization's growth and development. With a foreword by Sandra Krebs Hirsh and a new preface by the author, this updated edition of the time-tested classic includes the Organizational Character Index, Bridges' popular tool for assessing the character of your own organization or team. Gives change agents - organization development consultants, HR professionals, organizational psychologists, and top executives and mangers - an opportunity to further their understanding of why organizations act as they do and why they are so very hard to change. Includes detailed descriptions of the sixteen types of organizational character, the impact that an organization's life cycle may have on character development, and the consequences that mergers and acquisitions may have by juxtaposing different organizational character types.― Vision/Action: Journal of the Bay Area OD Network This brief, well-written, and seminal volume uses type concepts to analyze how organizations handle their business operations, meet the challenges of competition and change, and deal with their employees and customers. It provides invaluable insights into the role of leadership and methods to promote team building, smoother career transitions, and a better fit for individuals, and offers new dimensions for exploring key aspects of life in the workplace.― Bulletin of Psychological Type The first book devoted to an organizational interpretation of Jung's personality theory. Provides an exciting new lens for the organizational looking glass.― Open Forum: Publication of the Western New England OD Network "Today we can say that William bridges 'wrote the book' on organizational character just as we can say he 'wrote the book' on change. I have been using the insights in The Character of Organizations with assurance and great success for years. In this book, he offers helpful information on organizational character so that we can use it in a responsible, effective way for team building, career transition, leadership development, and change management. His writing is direct, crisp, and contemporary, with examples that speak to all of us in the field. Our clients who live in the 'real' world will find it a practical guide once they have learned about type and their organization's character. This book needs to be a part of your tool kit if you want to extend what you already know into more powerful applications for organizations."--from the Foreword by Sandra Krebs Hirsh This book is the foundation of a larger training program by Bridges and his associate Chris Edgelow, called Working with Organizational Character. It includes a facilitator's guide, participant workbook, and the Organizational Character Index. William Bridges, PhD, was an internationally known speaker, consultant, and the author of ten books. He was known for his expertise in the "human side" of organizational change and made his career guiding individuals and organizations through transition. The professional seminars that he launched in 1988 now have certified thousands of managers, trainers, and consultants to conduct Transition Management programs worldwide. ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTER AND WHERE IT COMES FROM The Concept of Character Everyone knows that organizations differ in their size, structure, and purpose, but they also differ in character. A play-it-safe, old-line manufacturing company has a very different character from a new start-up software company. They differ in the same way that two individuals do. And the character of both the manufacturing company and the software company differs from that of a state university, a community hospital, or an architectural firm. An organization's character is like the grain in a piece of wood. There is no such thing as good or bad grain, but some kinds of grain can take great pressure, other kinds can withstand bending or shearing forces, and still others are lovely and take a fine polish. Some are too soft or hard, too light or heavy for a particular purpose, but each has some purpose for which it is well fitted. There are other metaphors: Character is the typical climate of