Text c Corporate Culture

Every business – in fact every organization – has a culture or, simply speaking, ‘the way we do things round here’. Sometimes it is difficult to read from the outside – some people are loyal to their bosses, others are loyal to the union, still others care only about their colleagues. If you ask employees why they work, they will answer ‘because we need the money’. On the other hand, sometimes the culture of an organization is very strong; everyone knows the goals of the corporation, and they are working for them. At the heart of corporate culture – and critical to a company’s success – are the ‘shared values’ which provide a sense of common direction for all employees and guidelines for their day-to-day behaviour. A company like Caterpillar, for example, declares ‘an extraordinary commitment to meeting customer needs’ – symbolised in their slogan ‘24-hour service anywhere in the world’.

People at all stages of their careers need to understand culture and how it works because it will likely have a powerful effect on their lives. People just starting their careers may think a job is just a job. But when they choose a company, they often choose a way of life. Culture can make them fast or slow workers, tough or friendly managers, team players or individuals.

Take, for example, an executive at General Electric who is being wooed by Xerox – more money, a bigger office, greater responsibility. If his first reaction is to grab it, he’s probably going to be disappointed. Xerox has a totally different culture than GE. Success (even survival) at Xerox is closely tied with the ability to work and play hard, Xerox-style. By contrast, GE has a more thoughtful and slow-moving culture. Success at GE is ability to take work seriously and considerable respect for authority. But these same values may not be held in high esteem elsewhere. A person of proven success at GE will bring these values to Xerox because past experience of GE’s culture has reinforced them – and quickly fizzle out at Xerox, not even understanding why. Culture shock may be one of the main reasons why people ‘fail’ when they leave one organization for another. But they fail in not necessarily doing the job, but in not reading the culture correctly.

Whether weak or strong, culture has a powerful influence throughout an organization. It affects practically everything – from who gets promoted and what decisions are made, to how employees dress and what sports they play. Because of this impact, culture also has a major effect on the success of a business.

Exercise 27 Discuss the questions to the text.

1. What is corporate culture? 2. What is meant by ‘strong’ corporate culture? 3. How do corporate culture and success interrelated? 4. What is the cornerstone of corporate culture? 5. Why is it important to understand the culture of your organization? 6. How do the Xerox culture and the General Electric culture differ? 7. Why do people sometimes seem to fail in new work? 8. Which aspects of organization does culture affect?

Exercise 28 a) What, in your opinion, are the shared values behind the following businesses?

McDonalds, Sony, Rolls-Royce, The Walt Disney Company, Christian Dior, IBM.

b) Have you ever been in a situation where your personal culture didn't match the culture of an organisation/group you belonged to? Describe your experience.

Exercise 29 Here is a list of words and expressions connected with work. Use your dictionary and divide them into the following categories:

• departments in a company

• hours of work

• money

• losing a job

• applying for a job

• adjectives describing different jobs.

Sales, a 9 to 5 job, personnel, accounts, references, a salary, a wage, advertising, out of work, rate of unemployment, to do overtime, to go for an interview, to get a bonus, manual, to make someone redundant, a 7% pay rise, an hourly rate, mundane, to earn $10 p.a., skilled, to sack an employee, to work in shifts, to work flexi time, challenging, to get a commission, to fill in an application form, to get a promotion, flexible.