Deconstructing Corporate Culture to Find Microsoft's Soul
pcmag.com
pcmag.com
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[...]
The Stages of Employment
SURVIVAL STAGE. When first hired, this is critical. If you cannot last a week because you said something stupid or broke some unknown (to you) protocol, you're doomed. [...]
SOCIALIZING STAGE. Everyone approaches this differently, but you need to make friends who will teach you the ropes about the company and with whom you can bond and scheme. [...]
EFFICIENCY STAGE. The next stage in an employee's life is the awkward teen phase. You have to actually figure out what it is you are supposed to be doing. [...]
RESIGNATION STAGE. The person finds his or her groove and just does that until they are moved into some other position, often based on arbitrary metrics. The process resets to various points within the framework of survival, socialization, establishment of efficiency, and resignation.
[...]
Corporate culture is the grease that makes the operation run.
The combined experiences of the entire organization as combined into a single mindset or hive mentality forms the collective corporate culture. It's a foolish if not arrogant pipe dream to think that this amorphous "thing" can be altered by edict.
[...]
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Actually, coming to think of it, I'd say culture is a bit more ethereal than "grease" - perhaps the set of common unstated assumptions and expectations. That does make for smoother interactions - conflicts arise when different things are assumed or expected.