A recent article (A Call for Leadership) in the Harvard Nieman Journalism Lab points to leaders as the chief reason that corporate culture does not change. The article cites research and examples to make the case for why executives are to blame for failure to change corporate culture in news organizations. But, this is true of probably any organization!

The typical view of most executives in organizations is that the masses will ‘resist’ change and that the masses is where the problem is. That is a fallacy. As the article points out and in my experience, it is leadership where the blame lies. Why? Because 1) often the change leaders are not truly willing to change, and 2) it is at the mid-management layer where the change most often loses steam (not the masses). Not surprisingly, the most common reason for mid-level leaders not supporting the change is top level leaders not being willing to change!