National and organizational culture

Although corporate culture is a very influencing factor in companies today, many of them dont take it into account (i.e. no one identifies with the company) and many others push it to its limits (i.e.people that LIVE for their companies). Issues like these make me ask myself if companies really want their employees to be free of what they think and believe about or if they really try to hide ones true ways of being buy putting a "corporate uniform" on them?

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In todays entry, I would like to discuss a very important question about corporate culture: is it a way to manipulate employees?

• If you go over to the company Quala S.A., you will see how all the employees talk about their company as almost a religion; they sing the corporate anthem every morning, they wear uniforms, they cheer each other every time they can, etc.
• Instead, the so famouse Wal-Mart uses a different strategy: instead of calling superiors by Mr. o Mrs. and their last name, they encourage people to adress to others by their first name. This strategy is probably used to diminish the barriers of employee/employer or boss/subordinate.
• HP is famous for treating each employee as a family member: the trendto hire and fire doesnt exist; people are allowed to leave early from their jos in order to spend time with family; remuneration goes beyond money awards, instead they offer scholarships for employees and family members.

These types of behaviors could probably be seen as strategies that the company imposes in order to grow and sell more. They impose the common thinking, beliefs, values, etc., in order to establish common goals. But it is almost logical to think that a company has to do it, because a work team that has a smiliar culture will probably try harder to acheive a common goal. But what happens when a new person enters the company? from the interview, that person is evaluated and tested ir order to find out if he fits into the company´s culture; if he is accepted, he will probably have to adapt to the culture imposed by the company.

I believe that in all cultures certain ranks of power are imposed wether they are inforced or not. By establishing who is higher or lower in power, people can have more influence over others, and eventually being able to manipulate them. I.e. a new person comes into a company and even though everyone treats each other as equals, that new person knows that he is below some people, so he will be easily influenced by his superiors, and could potentially by manipulated under the circumstance that the corporate culture establishes that everyone is equal.

Finally, I think that corporate culture has its pros and cons. Under this case, it is always a win-win situation. Why? because the company has more motivated employees that seek harder their goals and the employees are retributed with money, breaks, less labor hours, scholarships, etc.

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IMAGES:

1. http://graphicsfile.finaldownload.com/screenshotimages/changing_organizational_culture_software-93589.jpg - image accessed on 02/02/2011
2. http://www.funonthenet.in/images/stories/forwards/corporate-culture/corporate-culture-1.jpg - image accessed on 02/02/2011

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Waring, Peter. The paradox of prerogative in participative organisations: The manipulation of corporate culture. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/departments/Strategy%20and%20Human%20Resource%20Management/Airaanz/old/conferce/wgtn1998/PDF/waring.pdf
• Dr. El-Nadi, Fathi. http://www.evancarmichael.com/. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Human-Resources/840/Examples-Of-Strong-Corporate-Cultures.html
• Groeger, Martin 2002. The HP way - an example of corporate culture for a whole industry. http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/sv/hp_way.html