Corporate Culture
What is it?
Elements of Corp. Culture
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Business Environment
•
What is it’s market?
Values
•
Beliefs of the Co. which define success and establish
standards
Heroes
•
Embody the culture’s values
Rites & Rituals
•
Systematic routines of day-to-day
•
Exemplify expected behavior
The Cultural Network
•
How values are communicated through the company. How to
understand what’s really going on.
Starbucks in Macau
Starbucks in Macau
Starbucks in Macau
Starbucks
1. Business Environment
Starbucks purchases and roasts high-quality
whole bean coffees and sells them along
with fresh, rich-brewed, Italian style
espresso beverages, a variety of pastries and
confections, and coffee-related accessories
and equipment -- primarily through its
company-operated retail stores.
Starbucks - 2. Values
Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the
world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we
grow.
The following six guiding principles will help us measure the
appropriateness of our decisions:
1. Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect
and dignity.
2. Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do
business.
3. Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting
and fresh delivery of our coffee.
4. Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.
5. Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.
6. Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success.
Starbucks - 3. Heroes
Howard Schultz
Grew up in working-class Brooklyn.His father never made
more than $20,000 a year and the family lived in
government-subsidized housing, which gave Howard an
intense drive to succeed. In his late 20s, working in sales
for a company in New York City, Schultz visited a client
firm called Starbucks, then a small Seattle purveyor of
coffee beans. It was love at first sight. He's a man who
lives via revelation, not analysis, and he follows up on each
epiphany with unwavering conviction.
McDonalds
1. Business Environment

It is one of the world’s most well-known and
valuable brands and holds a leading share in the
globally branded quick service restaurant segment
of the informal eatin-out market in virtually every
country in which we do business.

Serves the world some of its favorite foods –
World Famous French Fries, Big Mac, Quarter
Pounder, Chicken McNuggets, and Egg McMuffin
McDonalds
2. Values
We're not just a hamburger company serving people;
we're a people company serving hamburgers.
 For McDonald's to achieve our goal of being the world's
best quick service restaurant experience, we must have
the best experience for all McDonald's employees. So
we formalized our beliefs into our People Vision and our
People Promise.
 Our People Promise is how we remind our people what
they can expect and how high our goal is: To be the best
employer in each community around the world.
McDonalds
2. Values (cond.)


People Vision
Defines what we strive to be as an employer.
Simply put, we aspire to Be the Best Employer in
Each
Community Around the World.


People Promise
To the 1.5 million people who work at McDonald's
in 119 countries around the world, and to all future
employees, we want you to know that:
 We Value You, Your Growth
and Your Contributions.
“Our culture supports our vision”

1. We Care – We want to have lifelong relationships with our
customers. We seek to understand, meet their needs, care about our
employees, and are concerned about our environment

2. We Innovate – We create, build and market innovative solutions;
constantly looking for new and innovative ways to work and new ways
to spark new innovation

3. We uphold – Quality: we produce reliable products, but quality for
us also encompasses the quality of the experience of using the product
as part of a total solution that delivers lifestyle benefits.

4. We Celebrate – Enjoyment: We aim to bring enjoyment and
pleasure to our customers as we celebrate the beauty we see in life.
Corporate Culture

System of Rewards
 Hiring Decisions
 Management Structures
 Risk Taking
 Physical Setting
National Cultural Influences

Asians place a high value on concepts
associated with social harmony, while
Westerners put greater emphasis on
individuals’ rights and responsibilities.
 There is no escaping the fact that a national
culture HELPS shape corporate
responsibilities, practices, and traditions.
Cause and Effect

…the type of organizational structure that
has emerged across Asia is one of a very
hierarchical, bureaucratic corporation that
values such intangibles as “respect for
learning” and “honesty.”
Profitable Corp. Culture

Does it have any measurable impact on a
corporation’s bottom line or staff behavior?
Strong Corporate Culture

Clear sense of identity for staff
 Clarifies behavior
 Clarifies expectations
 Makes decision making fairly easy because
so much is already defined
Weak Corporate Culture
Employees will “vote with their feet”
 Decisions are hard to make and wrong
decisions are easily made

Views of Success

The main goal of any corporation is to be
successful.
 How you define success will have an impact
on how you organize your business and its
culture.
Cultural Differences

China and America
– Is salary talked about?
– How do vertical relationships affect promotion?
Societal and Institutional Differences
Aspects
Ethnic Culture
China
US

Centered around
"relationships"

Centered around
"individuals"

"Reclusive", each
minding his/her own
business (especially
with "strangers" and
people outside of the
relationship network)

"Messianic": "let's
save the world"
Source of
Trust
Trust those around you;
don't "lose face" and
credibility by failing to
live up to written or oral
agreements
Trust the contract;
don't get into legal
hassles by not fulfilling
the agreement
Business
Culture
Quiet and reserved;
clumsy communicators
Outspoken; eloquent;
effective
communicators
Societal and Institutional Differences
Aspects
China
US
Negotiation
Style
Group decision; final say
by the "boss"
More individual
authority and
distributed decision
making
Dealing with
Business
Counterparts
Indirect; courteous; take
things personally; long
memory for both favors
and humiliations
Direct; more matter-offactly; memory for
conflict superceded by
business objective
Ability to Make
Immediate
Response
Weak
Strong
Value Differences
Aspects
China
US
Interpersonal
"Relationship" comes first
"Economics" comes first
What Commands
Respect
Respect for seniority,
wisdom, ability
Respect for success,
achievement, wealth
On "Family"
Children should learn to
respect the elder, love
the young, and rely on
the "extended family"
Children should learn to
be independent
On "the Strong"
and "the Weak"
It is not righteous to
bully
It is an honor to win;
business is all a
competition; it is only
natural that the weak is
preyed on by the strong
Value Differences
Aspects
China
US
Discipline (in
following
procedures and
schedules)
Strong
Depends on the
individual
Tolerance of
Diversity /
Openness to
Alternative
(possibly
opposing)
Ideas
Openly - very receptive;
but actually, less so
More open
Shame or
Humiliation
Long memory; need and
urge to exonerate
Tends to be superceded
by business priorities
Priorities
Mixed: business,
individual, factional,
nationalistic, and political
Almost strictly business
Geert Hofstede’s Research





A corporate/organizational level of culture is
achieved according to the way employees have
been socialized by their work organization.
Power Distance
Individualism
Masculinity
Uncertainty Avoidance
Long Term Orientation
Power Distance

predicted upon:
– geographical latitude
– population size
– nation’s wealth
Low Power Distance
High Power Distance
The use of power should be legitimate
and is subject to criteria of good and evil
Might prevails over right, whoever holds
the power is right and good.
All should have equal rights
The powerful have privileges
Power is based on forma l position,
expertise and abilit y to give rewards
Power is based on family or friends,
charisma , and abilit y to use force.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Collectivist items:
Training
Physical conditions
Use of skills

Individualist items:
– Personal time
– Freedom
– Challenge
Collec tivism
Individualis m
Colle ctive interests prevail over
individual interests
Individual interests prevail over
collective interests
Private life is invaded by groups
Everyone has a right to privacy
Opinions are predetermined by group
memb ership
Everyone is expected to have a private
opinion
Hiring and promo tion decisions take
emp loyees’ in-groups into account
Hiring and promo tion decisions are
supposed to be based on skill s and rules
only.
High PDI
Low PDI
Masculinity vs. Feminity

Statistics showed relationship between masculinity
and age. Young men and women tend to be more
masculine, wheras the older men and women tend
to be more feminine.
Femini ne
Masculine
The needy should be helped
The strong should be supported
Everybody is suppose to be mod est
Men are suppose to be assertive,
ambit ious and tough
Live in order to work
Work in order to live
Manager, Cooperation, living
area, employment security
Earnings, recognition,
advancement, challenge
Uncertainty Avoidance

Relationship between the strength of uncertainty
avoidance in a country and the maximum speeds
allowed in freeway traffic in that country.
Avoid uncertainty less
Avoid uncertainty more
Low stress; subjective feeling of wellbeing
Comfortable in ambiguous situations and
with unfamiliar risks
Citizen protest acceptable
High stress; subjective feeling of anxiety
Citizens positive towards institutions
Citizens negative towards political
process
Conservatism, extremism, law and order
Tolerance and moderation
Acceptance of fami liar risks, fear of
ambiguous and unfamili ar risk
Citizen protest should be repressed
Long Term Orientation


Long term:
– Persistence/perseverance
– Ordering relationships by status and observing this order
– Thrift
– Sense of shame
– Respect for traditions
Short term:
– Personal steadiness and stability
– Protecting your face
– Respect for tradition
– Reciprocation of greetings
– Favors & gifts
– Adaptation of traditions to a modern context