Bruce Pfau

Dr. Bruce Pfau joined KPMG LLP as Vice Chair of Human Resources. Before this role, he served as National Practice Director of Organization Effectiveness at Watson Wyatt Worldwide and is well-known for his expertise in employee motivation, corporate culture change, and organization measurement. Dr. Pfau has made numerous contributions to professional journals, spoken for various organizations, and has been quoted in "The Wall Street Journal," "The New York Times," "Business Week," and "Fortune."

Organizations seek change for a variety of reasons—to improve operating efficiencies, boost morale, spur growth, or facilitate integration. Ultimately, this is all to create financial value. Pfau's work centers on human capital management, which, at its core, leverages the skills, talents, and creativity of a workforce to create high-performance organizations.

Pfau works with clients to identify specific actions that organizations can take to affect desired culture change and then helps them understand and implement those actions. The best leaders come to understand that corporate culture develops and maintains itself as a direct result of an organization's leadership, policies, practices, systems, structures, and staffing. They realize that culture can be changed only by altering these factors.

To initiate a culture change, Pfau encourages clients to consider three elements: organizational consequences; expectations, goals, and attitudes; and employee behavior. Leadership must display the desired change in the values and management style of the organization, and there must be consensus regarding the target culture. In the end, it is the executive team's enthusiasm and hard work that allows change to be implemented successfully.