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.
1 3

2
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 answer
I 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