"Roughly 50 percent of our supervisors changed jobs," says Judy Shah, metrics coordinator for ChevronTexaco's Business and Real Estate Services (BRES) organization. "We had to accommodate the internal movement and then adjust our databases, customer surveys, and scorecard forms to reflect the new line-up at all the sites."

In fact, the upward feedback survey and scorecards for the first quarter of 2002 were postponed due to the reshuffling. The first upward feedback was slated for second quarter, while job assignments and locations were expected to stabilize by the fall. In the meantime, the company has already reaped savings from the consolidation, especially through the sale of a large Texaco facility in New York.

"The sale made a significant contribution to the corporate bottom line, which in turn was a good validation of our existence as a real estate organization," Shah says.

Cultural integration proceeded in a cascading pattern from the highest levels of the new enterprise, starting with the chief executive's engagement meetings with his management committee, and following a lesson learned from previous mergers: in a union of equals, neither company's culture should overshadow the other. The goal was to fuse the best of each into a new identity.

One of the specific measures taken to promote a feeling of inclusion in the blended workforce was the decision to abandon, at least temporarily, specific acronyms and corporate buzzwords. Spelling things out was a real effort, says Shah, but it leveled the playing field and emphasized the moving-forward-together aspect.

"Respect for different backgrounds does a lot to build a good future," she notes.

Even more widespread was the effort to craft the new company's mission, vision, and values statement. Instead of rehashing old verbiage, management placed great emphasis on combining multiple voices to forge a fresh document. Everyone in the company participated in a dialogue about the new ChevronTexaco Way and how the various work groups were connected to it.

Many other programs and practices have undergone only slight modification since the merger. For example, a look at the strategic metrics shows that the same categories—safety, gross expense, recovery, and customer satisfaction— still major areas of concern. Currently the company has a strong focus on safety and prevention of repetitive stress injuries (RSI), with BRES charged to implement ergonomically correct workplace standards throughout the corporation.

Another carry-over is the commitment to reinforcement-based leadership (RBL), with its emphasis on positive consequences for positive actions, initiated at Chevron in 1997. Incentives include bonus programs that reward superior performance in high-priority categories like safety (for instance, no lost workdays due to RSI), both at the site services level and on an individual employee basis. Recognizing others is another encouraged behavior. Employees get five $20 gift certificates to give away during the calendar year (with more available upon request) to recognize peers for excellent service. A larger monetary prize is awarded to nominated teams or individuals for outstanding contributions.

"RBL continues to the current day," says Shah. "An education campaign has brought everyone into the same process and made it an integral part of our new culture. By maintaining our constancy of purpose, the program is sustainable and will not go away as we change organizations." N.S.