Chapter Two shows how
Dupont family history and
values gave rise to the
strong corporate culture
of E. I. du Pont de
Nemours and Company,
who invented Lycra and
were for many years its
sole producer.
©2011 Taylor and Francis
What is ‘corporate culture’ and what makes a
‘strong’ corporate culture?
• ‘Corporate culture’ refers to a company’s
unique values, methods and worldview– ‘the
way things are done around here’.
• In a pioneering study carried out in the 1980’s,
sociologists Deal and Kennedy used
anthropology to explain what made some
companies and products successful, while
others failed.
©2011 Taylor and Francis
• Deal and Kennedy concluded that successful
companies were distinguished by a strong
corporate culture consisting of values, myths,
heroes and symbols that mean a great deal to
the people that work there, influencing the
things they produce and how they produce
them.
• Recommended reading: Deal, Terrence and
Kennedy, Allen, 1982. Corporate Cultures: The
Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. London,
Penguin Books.
© 2010 Taylor and Francis
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.
E. I du Pont de Nemours and Company – popularly known
as ‘Dupont’ and headquartered in Wilmington,
Delaware – was identified by Deal and Kennedy as
having one of the strongest corporate cultures.
Founded in 1802 and one of the oldest firms in the
Fortune 500 group of the largest companies in the
United States, it is a global corporation, operating in
some 80 countries worldwide, employing some 58,000
people and generating revues in 2009 of S26.1 billion.
How did the company get to be the way it is today? For
a description of the present corporation, see the
Dupont website:
http://www2.dupont.com/Our_Company/en_US/
©2011 Taylor and Francis
ORIGIN MYTHS: THE STORIES COMPANIES TELL ABOUT
THEMSELVES
‘Origin myths’ or ‘origin stories’ are a term
anthropologists use for the stories families
and companies tell about their beginnings, to
remind themselves and explain to others why
and how their distinctive values and practices
came about. Origin myths are an important
key to understanding why people do what
they do, and they are an important tool for
any kind of analysis
©2011 Taylor and Francis
The Dupont Heritage
Dupont has a ‘heritage’ section on its corporate website:
• http://www2.dupont.com/Heritage/en_US/1802_DuP
ont/IN_Depth_1802.html
In the heritage section of the website you see the ‘official
version’ of the Dupont origin myth in which the early
family and company are shown as inseparable. These
close links between family and company was one of
the sources of Dupont’s strong corporate culture.
©2011 Taylor and Francis
‘Owning’ Science
Another source of corporate strength was
Dupont’s ‘ownership’ of chemistry, the cutting
edge science of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
See http://www.chemheritage.org/
©2011 Taylor and Francis
The company’s immigrant founder, E. I. du Pont de
Nemours, had been trained in France by Antoine
Lavoisier, the father of French chemistry, whose
methods, transplanted to America, became the
basis of Dupont company practice.
The confidence that came with having this
‘chemical birthright’ and the value placed on
scientific research and development in the
tradition of Lavoisier was another element of
Dupont’s strong corporate culture and
commercial success.
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
Official and unofficial accounts
• The Dupont heritage site, like all official accounts,
only tells part of the story about how a family,
group or corporation work, and how they got to
be the way they are.
• For a full account, you have to supplement the
official version with ethnography and archival
work from a variety of sources.
• Always ask yourself why the official account of
anything says what it does., and why it leaves
some things out. What isn’t said is just as
important as what is, often more.
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
Why do corporate history and origin myths matter?
• History and origin myths matter because they influence
what a company makes and does, and, through that,
affect our daily life. As the anthropologist Dan Rose
put it – ‘the corporate form encases us in our everyday
life.’
• Recommended reading on different kinds of company
and family origin myths: Yanagisako, Sylvia Junko, 2002:
Producing Culture and Capital: Family Firms in Italy.
Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press.
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
Another corporate heritage site
• For example, the industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947)
revolutionised the American way of life through the
mass-production of inexpensive cars: the company
likes to say that Ford ‘put the world on wheels’, and
Henry Ford’s development of the factory assembly line
made it possible to produce inexpensive goods for
working people on an unprecedented scale.
• Like Dupont, the Ford Motor Company began as a
family company, and they have a heritage section on
their corporate website, which gives the Ford origin
myth and provides insights into the way single
powerful individuals and corporations can transform
daily life: http://www.ford.com/about-ford/heritage
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
Dupont’s diversified products
• Dupont’s strong corporate culture, scientific expertise
and distinctive working practices enabled the
corporation to diversify and produce a wide range of
materials.
• Unlike Ford, which produced one product which it sold
direct to the public, Dupont’s materials – such as
plastics and film – were used in mass-market products
made by other producers that became a fundamental
part of American life – as the company put it on their
website, “Look closely at the things around your home
and workplace, and chances are, you’ll find dozens of
items made with DuPont materials’.
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
The big question
• Because of the effect large corporations can have on
the way we live, some anthropologists and other social
scientists say that corporations are ‘hegemonic’ and
‘manipulative’ – meaning that they control us.
• But can corporations really make us do what they like,
or are other forces at work that can affect what
corporations do – such as historical events, social
change and public culture?
• By studying stuff, we can see that things are much
more complex than the simple opposition of
manipulators/manipulated.
©2011 Taylor and Francis
Discussion questions – Chapter Two
1. Compare the official version of Dupont’s company
and family history on the website with the version in
the book. What are the similarities and differences?
2. Compare the Dupont heritage website with the Ford
heritage website: what are the similarities and
differences
3. What contemporary corporations have distinctive
products, well-known founders and strong values.
How would you present the ‘origin myth’ of one of
these strong culture companies (for example, Apple).
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
4) E.I. du Pont and Henry Ford were both
charismatic figures in their lifetimes, as were
Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden and Helena
Rubinstein in the cosmetic companies that still
carry their names. How important do you think
individual vision and entrepreneurship are in
making stuff that changes the way we live?
• Recommended reading: Koehn, Nancy ‘Estee
Lauder: Self Definition and the Modern Cosmetics
Market’ in Philip Scranton (ed) 2001,Beauty and
Business: Commerce, Gender and Culture in
Modern America .New York and London,
Routledge, pp 217-251)
© 2011 Taylor and Francis
4) Companies and businesses don’t have to be big to have
strong cultures. Do you know of a small organization with a
strong culture? Describe its distinctive practices and origin
myths.
5) ‘The corporate form encases us all’ (Dan Rose). Discuss.
6) “Look closely at the things around your home and
workplace, and chances are, you'll find dozens of items
made with DuPont materials’. How many things in your
home or workplace are made by particular companies?
© 2011 Taylor and Francis