„In Search of Excellence”, by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, was published in 1982, and remains one of the one of the biggest selling and widely read business books ever, selling 3 million copies in its first four years, and being the most widely held library book in the United States from 1989 to 2006. The book was written based on a study of 47 of the greatest companies in America.
They found the following 8 themes common among the group of companies. In fact the term “organizational culture” was made popular in 1980s with this book, when by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman made the argument that company success could be attributed to an organizational culture that was decisiv customer oriented, empowering. Since then it has became the subject of numerous research studies, books and articles.