The Language of Change: Finding Words to Define Culture Change in Long-Term Care

Abstract

Many senior living organizations are working to transform their institutional character into home and community. This undertaking amounts to a virtual cultural shift, known in the industry as culture change. Culture change is receiving growing popularity in the senior living industry; however the majority of organizations have yet to begin tackling this transformation. One of the contributions to this hesitancy may be that no universal explicit definition of culture change is accepted within the industry. This article, based on an extensive literature review, examines the current definitions within the culture change literature and proposes a new definition that may be helpful in understanding and undertaking this challenging holistic transformation.