Corporate Culture and National Characteristics

1. Read the text.

Steve Redwood, a London-based management consultant Price Waterhouse, tells of a client who had brought together a team of eight different countries to work on a project. “The national stereotypes applied,” he says. “The people from Switzerland and Germany were mainly interested in the way the project was organized. The people from Spain took a much more intuitive approach. The British had a high level of skepticism about whether the whole thing really mattered. Language was not the issue. It’s more basic than that.”
Behind this lies the most fundamental problem of all: the fact that outside a handful of companies – Lowell Bryan, a senior partner with McKinsey in New York puts it at between a dozen and 20 worldwide – even the biggest corporations are dominated by the culture of the home country.
“Outside that handful,” Mr. Bryan says, “companies are very German, or very British, or very American. One big difference with American companies is they think globalization means Americanising the world. Others do not have that arrogance.”
If top management all come from the home country, that makes it much more difficult to attract and keep a global pool of talent. “People know when they fit in and when they do not,” Mr. Bryan says. “That’s true even of national companies: there’s a tendency for people to have gone to the same school, or all have trained as engineers, it’s even more true when it comes to where you grew up.”
The problem lies not in attracting people – a talented Indian or Korean manager will typically want early experience with a multinational – but in keeping them. “People will join the company to learn,” Mr. Bryan says, “but unless they feel they are part of the company, they are going to leave, and exploit the brand status of the company in their next job.”
Given the importance of local cultures within the global company, an obvious question is how to appraise and identify talent around the world on a consistent basis. Richard Greenhakgh, head of management development and training at Unilever, says that the company has been working on this for the past four years. “We’ve been developing a set of 11 management competences we can use worldwide,” he says.
“The aim is to have a clear objective measure of potential. We measure such things as entrepreneurial drive, the ability to lead and develop others, and integrity. That makes a common core of behaviours. We’ve tested it, and so far it seems to be culturally transferable.”

By Tony Jackson
From the Financial Times

2. Find out if the statements are TRUE or FALSE according to the text, and correct the false ones:

1. In national companies, it’s common for people to come from different backgrounds.

2. People can feel whether they fit in the company or not.

3. If senior managers in a company are all from the same country, it’s difficult to recruit people from other countries.

4. American companies think that globalization means developing an international culture.

5. Lots of companies worldwide are truly international.

6. Managers from different countries approach tasks in different ways.

3. Choose the correct alternative:

1. The problem with employing people with different national background is…

a. recruiting them.
b. motivating them.
c. retaining them.

2. If they do not feel the part of the company, they will…

a. stay anyway.
b. cause a lot of trouble.
c. leave pretty soon.

3. In applying for their next job they will…

a. mention the company they have worked with.
b. not mention the company they have left.
c. criticize the company they have left.

4. What do these figures mean in the text?

1. 8; 2. 11; 3. 1; 4. 20; 5. 12

5. Find all the irregular verbs in the text and compose sentences of your own using them.

6. Find out all the adjectives in the text and give their three degrees of comparison.

7. Complete the definitions of these words used in the text:

1. If something that is used in one culture can be used in another culture, it is culturally … .

2. People who are honest have … .

3. People who have new ideas for business activities and put them into action are … .

4. What people can do and what they might be able to do in the future is their … .

5. Talents, skills and abilities are … .

6. If you do something on a … basis, you use the same standards and rules in every situation.

7. If you … something, you measure and judge it.

8. If you ... something, you see where it is and where you can find it.

9. … is natural ability to do something.

8. Little Matching Game

a) Match the words to build new word combinations:

b) Now relate these expressions above to their definitions:

1. The country where the company started and has its main base.

2. The largest companies.

3. A way of doing something without analyzing it too much.

4. Over-simple ideas about countries that may or may not be true.

5. A basic difficulty.

6. Someone whose job is to give advice to companies.

9. Big Matching Game

a) Match the words to build new word combinations:

b) Now compete with your classmates. Individually or in small groups make the longest sentence trying to include as many word-combinations as possible.

10. Find spelling and grammar mistakes in these words and word combinations:

1. isue 2. typicaly 3. globalisacion 4. consaltant 5. malti-national

6. much people 7. arogance 8. stereo type 9. progect 10. enterpreneral

11. Discussion

Here is an example of corporate culture in Euro Disney theme park.

Read the text and discuss with your classmates:

Would you agree to work in a company with such corporate culture?

Before the Euro Disney theme park opened, it received strong criticism from Anti-American elements of the French media who accused the park management in a heavy-handed authoritarian manner. The company had announced a dress code which specified the Disney look required of its 12 000 workers. Female staff had to wear “appropriate underwear”. Fishnet stockings and suspenders were not allowed. Neither were dark lipsticks, leather trousers, miniskirts, false eyelashes, highlighted hair and very high heels.
Male staff had to observe certain rules too. Hair should be not too long; beards and moustaches were banned, as were visible tattoos and earrings. Finally both sexes had to have “an equilibrium between height and weight.”
The dress code caused quite a stir. A government inspector supported the media critics, saying the Disney dress code violated personal liberty. An American who applied for this job said: “This kinds of attitude have no place in France or anywhere else in the modern world.”
Does your opinion differ from this?

Key:

Ex. 3. 1. c; 2. c; 3. a

Ex. 9. 1. h; 2. j; 3. m; 4. l; 5. o; 6. a; 7. n; 8. k; 9. d; 10. f; 11. e; 12. g; 13. i; 14. b; 15. c

Ex. 10. 1. issue; 2. typically; 3. globalisation; 4. consultant; 5. multi-national; 6. many people; 7. arrogance; 8. stereotype; 9. project; 10. entrepreneurial