This paper examines the impact of a joint GM/UAW ceremony on changes in the traditional labor‐management culture. Ceremonies can help change corporate culture when the actual event is transformed into an organizational story. Stories help motivate change because they provide purpose and clues to new behavior patterns.

This article describes the initial stages of an endeavor to bring about an integration of strategic management and human resource management in a major manufacturing organization—3M. The focus is on the agenda of the organization's Vice President of Human Resources for bringing about the innovation through a systematic program of cultural analysis, professional development of line managers and human resource specialists, restructuring of the human resource management organization, and creation of a new partnership between line and human resource managers.