Corporate culture

Corporate culture affects employees in many different ways:

• the hours they work

• the working environment

• the dress code

• the office space

• training and skills development available

• onsite perks

• the amount of time spent with colleagues outside work

• the degree of interaction with employees, including **top management

Corporate culture or organizational culture comprises the attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of an organization.

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Monkey business?

Scientists put a group of five monkeys in a cage. At the top of a ladder, they hung a banana. As soon as a monkey climbed the ladder, he was showered with cold water; the group soon gave up trying to reach the banana.

Monkey business?

1 In paragraph 1 which words mean stopped or abandoned?

2 How many stages were there in the experiment described in paragraphs 1 and 2?

3 In paragraph 3 it states that the unwritten rules are always a good thing. True or false?

4 In the example of bad company culture in paragraph 4 how do the employees trick their boss?

5 In paragraph 5 find three examples of discrimination.

6 In paragraph 6 what word means not obvious.

Model answerI was employed for three months at Diftco, near Birmingham, under the supervision of Ms Witten. The objective of the internship was to gain management experience in an industrial environment. Diftco exports construction equipment and is one of the most profitable firms in the region.I worked in the Export Office most of the time, where I was in charge of preparing shipping documents. I was also responsible for checking containers in the warehouse, where the equipment is assembled and packed. I successfully learnt to use the automatic bar code system used in the warehouse. This is a sophisticated automatic system, which assigns a code and a position to every component in the warehouse. However, it was interesting to discover that even such a sophisticated tool can never completely eliminate human error. Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learnt was to double-check information. The importance of …

… careful checking was emphasized when I unfortunately sent a container to Austria instead of Australia, because I had misunderstood my correspondent on the telephone.

The company is successful and well organized, with a very motivated, hard-working and dedicated staff. However, I feel I would be more effective in an environment with more variety and less routine paperwork. One area of the company’s activity leaves room for improvement, and that is the problem of waste in the warehouse. A more systematic policy of recycling would help to solve this problem.The course module in international trade studied last semester was extremely valuable in understanding how a company like Diftco works. Thanks to this preparation, I was able to establish a good rapport with the export staff.

On the other hand, communication with the warehousemen was much more difficult, mainly because many of them do not speak English.Overall, the internship was a positive experience, which allowed me to gain significant experience in three months. However, I mostly worked alone and therefore did not achieve the goal of acquiring management experience. A placement at Diftco would be most valuable for first-year students, second-year students would benefit from a position with greater management responsibility.Appendix: A Daily journal, B Copies of letters to and from Ms Witten, supervisor.

Letter of thanks

Mr Geoffrey Thomson Marketing Manager Cambro Corp. Gates Drive Littlehampton

August 13, 2006

Dear Mr Thomson,

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for sponsoring my internship this summer with Cambro Corp. My experience was extremely rewarding. In addition to sharpening my marketing skills and maturing professionally, I thoroughly enjoyed working with such a great team of people. It was a pleasure to watch and learn from my colleagues.

In particular, I want to thank you for the time you spent with me discussing my professional development. Our weekly meetings were very helpful and provided me with insightful constructive criticism of my work. The market study I conducted to identify customer needs for electronic gearboxes for industrial conveyor belts was extremely interesting. I hope the study has provided the marketing department with solid data and some fresh ideas. If anyone has questions about the study I can be reached via email at frances.orford@coolmail.com.

In addition, thank you for agreeing to write a letter of recommendation on my behalf. It will be particularly valuable to me as I search for full time positions next spring. I will contact you periodically to let you know how my career search is progressing.

Please extend my thanks and appreciation to the entire marketing team for such a valuable internship experience.

Yours sincerely,

Frances Orford