organizational culture

CULTURE CHANGE

What is CULTURE, what is my organization’s culture, how do I improve it?

What differentiates extraordinarily successful organizations from others? How have firms like Amazon, Apple, Walmart, and Google thrived over decades while their competition has stumbled? The major distinguishing feature in these companies, their most important competitive advantage, the most powerful factor they all highlight as a key ingredient in their success, is their organizational culture.

So, what is “culture”, what is my organization’s culture, what should it be, and how do I change it? Since 1999 Dr. Kim Cameron’s preeminent Competing Values Framework™ (Cameron, Quinn 1999), Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)™, and Management Skills Assessment Instrument (MSAI)™ have stood alone as the industry standard for diagnosing and changing organizational culture. Cameron Institute and Dr. Cameron have enabled thousands of organizations globally to diagnose their current cultures and determine their optimal cultures, while guiding them in implementing a successful culture change.

START YOUR CULTURE CHANGE PROCESS

CAMERON INSTITUTE CULTURE CHANGE SYSTEM

culture change

FRAMEWORKS

culture change

The Competing Values Framework (CVF)™ is the foundation upon which the empirically-validated culture assessments are built. Developed by Dr. Kim Cameron and Dr. Robert Quinn, the Competing Values Framework (CVF)™ is a theoretical model that is now the dominant framework in the world for assessing organizational culture. The framework is extremely useful in organizing and interpreting a wide variety of organizational phenomena, one of the most prominent of which is organizational culture.

The Competing Values Framework (CVF)™ was developed from extensive research, rigorous statistical analysis, and careful empirical analysis. Since its development, the framework has been studied and tested in thousands of organizations, and validated through 80+ doctoral dissertations and scholarly articles published in more than 50 academic journals that have demonstrated its validity in accurately measuring and describing organizational culture.

The framework was named by the Financial Times as one of the Top 40 most important frameworks in the history of business (Have, S. T. Key Management Models. Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003).

PUBLICATIONS

Learn more about the Competing Values Framework (CVF)™, culture change, and how leaders use the framework to create greater value:

 

ASSESSMENTS

  • PHASE 2: Based on The Competing Values Framework™, The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)™ is the definitive instrument for measuring organizational culture. Developed over 40 years ago, the instrument has been used by more than 10,000 organizations and taken by 24+ million respondents. Contact Cameron Institute today to set up your assessment.

  • PHASE 2: As part of any culture change effort, individual change is necessary. To understand how the skills and competencies of your leaders align with your culture, and what skills and competencies need to be developed in order to for a culture change to be successful, Dr. Kim Cameron created two leadership assessments. The first leadership assessment is the The Leadership Competencies Assessment (LCA)™. The LCA™ is administered to leaders during a live engagement or in conjunction with the administration of the OCAI™ to obtain a high-level snapshot of culture and leadership alignment.

  • PHASE 3: The second leadership assessment is called The Management Skills Assessment Instrument (MSAI)™ and is based on extensive research. A summary of 15 of those studies is found in Whetten and Cameron (2026).  The MSAI™ is a more in-depth assessment that measure competencies in each of the four quadrants in the Competing Values Framework (CVF)™. The instrument measures 36 skills organized into 12 competency categories. The skills being assessed have been identified in multiple studies as being critical for managerial effectiveness. The MSAI™ is most effective when administered as a 360-degree assessment involving subordinates, peers, and superiors. The instrument and methodology have been used in many Fortune 500 companies and firms in Europe, Asia, and South America.

  • PHASE 3: A special version of the MSAI™ called The Management Skills Assessment Instrument for Executives (MSAI-e)™ was developed specifically for the most senior leaders in organizations. This version of the instrument measures 60 skills organized into 20 competency categories and includes skills and competencies in specific leadership areas that are unique to the top leaders in dynamic organizations.

WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP?

Scenario

Desired Result

You are seeking greater understanding of what culture is, how it relates to your organization’s performance, and whether you need to assess your culture.

Next Step

Connect with Cameron Institute to schedule a training session on organizational culture, how it is essential for success, the Competing Values Framework™, The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)™, and what it can reveal about your organization.

Connect with Cameron Institute today

Scenario

Desired Result

You have a level of expertise in organizational culture, have an advanced knowledge of The Competing Values Framework™, and want to diagnose your organization’s current culture and determine your organization’s optimal or preferred culture.

Next Step

Engage with Cameron Institute to administer The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)™ and receive a PDF report revealing your current culture and ideal or preferred culture within 5 business days upon completion.

Order your OCAI today

CONNECT WITH CAMERON INSTITUTE

    © Copyright 2025 Cameron Institute