The founders of the Meridian Group, Barry Phegan and Royal Foote, met in 1973. They had returned to graduate school after separate and successful professional and management careers. Their desire to understand more about the people side of organizations brought them together. This common interest led to an enduring friendship and in 1976 they founded a consulting partnership, Pacific Management Group. In 1984, they incorporated as the Meridian Group.
A key friend and mentor in those early days was Nevitt Sanford, Ph.D, principal author of the book The Authoritarian Personality and past President of the American Psychological Association. Nevitt's influence shaped the theoretical groundings of Meridian Group. He believed that "the way you get to understand a human system is to try to change it and see what happens." This principle, learning through action, had been a key part of Meridian Group's practice. Some other key ideas that were incorporated in those early days included systems theory, psychology, group dynamics, and evolution.
The result is our unique Cultural Approach to understanding and managing the issues of company culture underlying people-related concerns in the workplace.
Dialogue sessions on theory and practice were an exciting element of our beginnings. These "Theory Sessions" formed a core part of Meridian Group. Here, Meridian Group consultants, and occasionally invited guests, attended monthly 2-hour theory sessions where they discussed, explored, and extended the underlying principles and the practice of leading culture change and consulting to companies.
The Principals
Barry Phegan Before founding Meridian Group in 1976, Barry had 15 years of technical and managerial experience in the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Australia. Barry has been a key consultant on major culture development projects with over 40 companies. He has been a frequent speaker on the topics of leadership, management, and organizational culture to international management groups at the University of California, Berkeley, to other San Francisco Bay Area universities, and to professional groups, conferences and corporations.
In addition to many papers and articles on management topics Barry is the author of the book Developing Your Company Culture: The Joy of Leadership —A Handbook for Leaders and Managers, Context Press, 1996, available through Amazon.com. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Sydney, a Master's degree from Washington University, St.Louis, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
barry@meridiangrp.net
Royal Foote
Royal began his career in physics and earth sciences. After receiving a Masters from the California Institute of Technology, he served as Chief, Geophysical Exploration Branch at the Atomic Energy Commission. Royal began his career in private industry by forming Resources Development Corporation in Colorado financed by a private stock inssue in New York. Later he launched Expanded Shale, Inc. in Colorado with private financing and subsequenty financed the construction of production facilities with an initial public offering. Royal also serverd as a member of the Corporate Long-Range Planning and Development Staff of Bechtel Corporation.
In a mid-life career change, Royal earned his Ph.D. from the Wright Institute, Berkeley, California in social psychology. His special interests include theory of cultural dynamics, general systems theory, personality, corporate culture, productivity and quality of work life. Royal is a founding partner of Meridian Group. He takes responsibility for sustaining and evolving the theoretical orientation of Meridian Group's work. royal@meridiangrp.net
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Our Cultural Development Process
Culture and Employee Productivity
Questionnaire