For all its financial troubles and shortcomings as an automaker, no aspect of GM has confounded its critics as much as its hidebound, command-and-control corporate culture. When GM collapsed last year and turned to the government for an emergency bailout, its century-old way of conducting business was laid bare, with all its flaws in plain sight. Decisions were made, if at all, at a glacial pace, bogged down by endless committees, reports and reviews that astonished members of President Barack Obama's auto task force. 'Everyone knew Detroit's reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures,' Steven Rattner, head of the task force, wrote recently in Fortune magazine. 'Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found.' GM will present its first postbankruptcy scorecard on Monday, when the company reports third-quarter earnings and its cash reserves. The company said on Nov. 3 that its financial health had 'improved significantly' in recent months. Even as it labors to change its culture, GM must convince consumers that it is building better cars. One sign of its challenge: Fewer than a dozen of the company's models were recommended in a recent Consumer Reports survey. But instead of playing down the survey, as GM might have in the past, its chief executive, Fritz Henderson, ordered it sent to every employee in the company. 'Have we made some missteps? Yes,' said Susan Docherty, who last month was promoted to head of U.S. sales. 'Are we going to slip back to our old ways? No.' GM emerged from bankruptcy this summer as a much smaller company, 60 percent owned by American taxpayers and free from much of the debt and health care obligations that had crippled its balance sheet. But its cultural change is a work in progress. GM's new chairman, Edward Whitacre Jr., and directors have prodded GM to cut layers of bureaucracy, slash its executive ranks by a third, and give broad, new responsibilities to a cadre of younger managers. GM Chief Executive, Fritz Henderson said he was aware the company was being scrutinized to prove it had learned from its mistakes. 'Above all, we need to be faster,' Henderson said in a recent interview. 