Corporate culture

Introduction:

Corporate culture is one of the important conceptions in organizations in recent years. Every organization has its own unique culture or value set. Having a clear understanding of corporate culture and its classification would help us comprehending the organization in every aspect. Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner’s [1]have defined four kinds of corporate cultures: the family, the Eiffel Tower, the guided missile and the incubator. We will certainly benefits from studying their classification of corporate cultures.

Key words:

Corporate culture, classification, overlap

What is corporate culture?

Many articles and books have been written in recent years about culture in organizations, usually referred to as "Corporate Culture."(企業(yè)文化) Here corporate culture refers to "the moral, social, and behavioral norms of an organization based on the beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members."

Organization’s culture is not a list of values developed at an offsite by the executive team and framed on the wall in their lobbies. These are ideals. Every organization has its own unique culture or value set. Most organizations don't consciously try to create a certain culture. The culture of the organization is typically created unconsciously, based on the values or of the top management or the founders of an organization. In reality, what management pays attention to and rewards is often the strongest indicator of the organization's culture. This is often quite different than the values it verbalizes or the ideals it strives for.

Culture drives the organization and its actions. It is somewhat like "the operating system" of the organization. It guides how employees think, act and feel. It is dynamic and fluid, and it is never static. A culture may be effective at one time, under a given set of circumstances and ineffective at another time. There is no generically good culture. There are however, generic patterns of health and pathology.

The classification of corporate culture

Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner’s classification of the corporate culture is based on two dimensions, universalism-particularism（普遍主義-特殊主義）and individualism-collectivism（個(gè)人主義-集體主義）, thus generating four quadrants. The dimensions they used to distinguish different corporate cultures are equality-hierarchy（平等-等級(jí)） and orientation to the person-orientation to the task（以人為本-以工作為本）. These two dimensions enable them to define four types of corporate culture. The four types can be described as follows.

1, the family（家庭型）

2,the Eiffel Tower（埃菲爾鐵塔型）

3, the guided missile（導(dǎo)彈型）

4, the incubator（孵化器型）

Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner point out that these four types of corporate culture are “ideal types”.  While in practice the types are mixed or overlaid with one another（相互混合交替）. It’s rather complicated than our imagination. And this classification is useful for exploring the basis of each type in terms of how employees learn, change, resolve conflicts, reward, motivate and so on. We do get benefits from studying their classification of corporate cultures.

The family culture家庭型文化

According to Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, the metaphor of family culture poses a kind of close relationship within the whole organization. “It is personal and at the same time hierarchical（等級(jí)性質(zhì)的）, in the sense that the “father” of the family has experience and authority greatly exceeding those of his “children”, especially where these are young. As a result, the leader in the organization is regarded as a caring father（慈愛(ài)的父親） who knows better than his subordinates what should be done and what is good for them. However, rather than being threatening, this type of power is essentially intimate and (hopefully) benign. The work of the corporation in this type of culture is usually carried forward in an atmosphere that in many respects mimics the home.” Father is always the representative of power and authority at home, especially in the Asian countries. However, he is also a caring father, whose power and authority seems quite intimate and benign, not threatening at all. (Here the absolute authority posed by some arbitrary leaders is exclusive in this setting).  To some extend, the subordinates are passively accepted the arrangement and order of the father, but this order could essentially bring benefits to them. And the benign atmosphere of a big family is quite humanistic.

The Eiffel Towel culture埃菲爾鐵塔型文化

As we mentioned above, the nepotism（裙帶關(guān)系） within an organization would be regard as corruption and a conflict of interest by some cultures for the reason that they emphasizes on the various roles and functions prescribed in advance. They’re role orientated. Everyone of the organization has been placed in a certain place, being responsible for the certain work prescribed by his or her supervisors. If every one of them dedicated to carry out their works successfully, the whole organization would be run smoothly forward. In other words, the whole organization assembles a pyramid（金字塔）, forming a certain kind of hierarchy（等級(jí)）. Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner have chosen the Eiffel Towel in Paris to symbolize this culture type “because it is steep, symmetrical, narrow at the top and broad at the base, stable, rigid and robust.” It’s characteristic to some degree assemble that of the work hierarchy in role orientated corporate. And more importantly, “its structure, too, is more important than its function”. Therefore, the organization, including the supervisors and the subordinates, pay their attention to the structure of the organization rather than the functions. Function would be taken over by structure under certain circumstances.

The guided missile culture導(dǎo)彈型文化

Equality, or being called the egalitarian（平等）, is the very characteristic of the guided missile culture. Everyone in an organization has taken up an unchangeable place and on one could be replaced by another. The role of each individual has been greatly emphasized. Moreover, “the guided missile culture is oriented to tasks, typically undertaken by teams or project groups”. Team and project group is the focus of their work. To some extend, accomplish a project usually become the goal for the supervisors and subordinates.

The guided missile culture differs from the family culture type and the Eiffel Towel culture type. Egalitarian （平等）within an organization is emphasized rather than the interpersonal relationship（人際關(guān)系） that is typical in the family culture type. Changes come quickly to the guided missile culture. New project and target will come, and new groups will be formed, and new boss of the project will be nominated soon. Consequently, loyalties to professions and projects are greater than loyalties to the company. “The guided missile culture is in many respects the antithesis of the family culture, in which bonds are close and ties are of long duration and deep affection.” Therefore, due to their task-orientated （工作導(dǎo)向型）characteristics, it resembles the Eiffel Towel culture. The Eiffel Towel culture nevertheless pays attention to their inner structure rather than the egalitarian among the members, while the results of a project is what the guided missile culture emphasizes, not the means to accomplish it.

The incubator culture孵化器型文化

According to Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, the incubator culture is based on the existential idea that organizations are secondary to the fulfillment of individuals（組織從屬于個(gè)人成就）. The individuality id the most influential value within this kind of organizations. The cultural incubator is quite similar to the logic of business. Both of them are designed to free individuals from the routines to more creative activities and to minimize time spent on self-maintenance. As a result, “incubators often, if not always, operate in an environment of intense emotional commitment”. The employees and the employers are working toward a common goal, to bring something beneficial to the society and the mankind. And the well-being of themselves are not so important compare with the greatness of the work they’re undertaken. For example, the computer could bring ‘power to the person”, and the gene-splicing could save crops, save lives, rescue the economy. They enjoy the process of creating and innovating. And that’s the pleasure of their lives. Thus the shared enthusiasm and superordinate goals constitutes the invisible tie that forms the close relationships among the work partners, thus creating an honest, effective, nurturing working atmosphere.

References:

[1]豐斯。特龍彭納斯，查理斯。漢普登-特納。在文化的波濤中沖浪：理解工商管理中的文化多樣性。 北京，華夏出版社，2003，1

[2]王正元. 國(guó)際商務(wù)文化. International Business Culture. 沈陽(yáng):遼寧教育出版社, 2001. 4.