I hired in at RBS after the EOI [Entergy Operations Inc.] transition was complete (circa 1997). The story of how the transition went was something like this.
Almost immediately two "meatballs" showed up as observers [meatballs refers to the EOI rising sun emblem on the white EOI shirts]. These guys were basically the two Bobs from the movie "Office Space." Instead of evaluating the rank-and-file workers like most efficiency experts, these "meatball" Bobs were there to evaluate which managers/supervisors could make a smooth transition to the EOI culture. After about six months, they replaced all of the managers/supervisors that they thought couldn't become EOI-style leaders, thereby effecting a very swift and thorough top-down culture change. The new managers were from other EOI plants [EOI intentionally overstaffs their plants so that they have the extra leaders necessary to expand like this]. The replaced managers/supervisors were given senior engineer/assessment auditor type positions so that they could assimilate to the EOI culture, but not in positions of authority.
It seemed like the best way to effect real cultural change. I've seen transitions where only a few key management positions were replaced and nothing really changed in the long run. I always thought that EOI had a formula for success in this matter.
I hope that this helped,
mgm
