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The thing is that managers help build a company's culture. Really, a few bad managers in the right place is all you need to kill a company's culture.

by j_baker 13y ago

MAGZine 13y ago
Not necessarily. Corporate culture is defined in large parts by the people who started the company. It's the first few, and to a smaller extent, dozen, and smaller extend, 50, etc people that will define your corporate culture. At a large company, such as the one (I'm guessing here) discussed in the article, corporate culture can be VERY resilient to a few bad apples.
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
  In a very large company, the corporate culture becomes massively varied by department. Critical parts of a company can easily develop a culture that comes from organisations and societies well outside the founders culture. Ultimately a companies culture is affected by who it can hire as much as anything else.
- nostrademons 13y ago
  That depends a lot on hiring practices. Corporate culture usually starts with the founders and early employees, but is transmitted in two main ways: 1. Who they decide to hire. In general, people tend to hire folks like themselves, and so if you start with an initial core of people with a certain value system, you'll end up with a company that reflects this value system. For example, Google started with a couple Ph.D drop-outs, they hired all their Ph.D friends, who hired their thesis advisors, and so they ended up with a very academic culture. Facebook started with a college student, who hired some of his college friends, who hired a bunch of young folks fresh out of school, and so they end up with a "move fast and break things" culture. 2. Acculturation of newbies. When a new hire arrives at a place, they instinctively look around for guidance on how to act. They get it from the people around them - their teammates, their manager, and the people that company holds up as heroes. Either one of those can go wrong. The first one usually goes wrong in the "A players hire A players; B players hire C players; C players hire dodos" way. If you start with a core group of confident, energized, intelligent people, they will typically try to hire folks who are equally or more effective, because they view working with top-caliber folks as an opportunity to learn. Once you start getting some folks who are lazy or insecure in, though, they tend to hire folks who are even lazier and more insecure, because they feel threatened about being upstaged. That repeats until eventually the whole company is full of non-threatening bozos. The second one goes wrong in periods of rapid expansion. Here newbies outnumber experienced veterans, and so when they look around for how they should behave, they pick up the culture of their new teammates' former employers. It doesn't need any bad apples, only the lack of a critical mass of good apples. This is also why the oldest division at a company often maintains the most of the original culture: oftentimes new divisions are staffed up in a hurry, facing different market realities, and the people in it look toward each other and to the leader of the division to figure out the culture.
- j_baker 13y ago
  Well sure the founders define the culture. Who do you think put the few bad managers in the right place?

The thing is that managers help build a company's culture. Really, a few bad managers in the right place is all you need to kill a company's culture.

by j_baker 13y ago

The thing is that managers help build a company's culture. Really, a few bad managers in the right place is all you need to kill a company's culture.

MAGZine 13y ago

Not necessarily. Corporate culture is defined in large parts by the people who started the company. It's the first few, and to a smaller extent, dozen, and smaller extend, 50, etc people that will define your corporate culture. At a large company, such as the one (I'm guessing here) discussed in the article, corporate culture can be VERY resilient to a few bad apples.

moocowduckquack 13y ago
In a very large company, the corporate culture becomes massively varied by department. Critical parts of a company can easily develop a culture that comes from organisations and societies well outside the founders culture. Ultimately a companies culture is affected by who it can hire as much as anything else.
nostrademons 13y ago
That depends a lot on hiring practices. Corporate culture usually starts with the founders and early employees, but is transmitted in two main ways: 1. Who they decide to hire. In general, people tend to hire folks like themselves, and so if you start with an initial core of people with a certain value system, you'll end up with a company that reflects this value system. For example, Google started with a couple Ph.D drop-outs, they hired all their Ph.D friends, who hired their thesis advisors, and so they ended up with a very academic culture. Facebook started with a college student, who hired some of his college friends, who hired a bunch of young folks fresh out of school, and so they end up with a "move fast and break things" culture. 2. Acculturation of newbies. When a new hire arrives at a place, they instinctively look around for guidance on how to act. They get it from the people around them - their teammates, their manager, and the people that company holds up as heroes. Either one of those can go wrong. The first one usually goes wrong in the "A players hire A players; B players hire C players; C players hire dodos" way. If you start with a core group of confident, energized, intelligent people, they will typically try to hire folks who are equally or more effective, because they view working with top-caliber folks as an opportunity to learn. Once you start getting some folks who are lazy or insecure in, though, they tend to hire folks who are even lazier and more insecure, because they feel threatened about being upstaged. That repeats until eventually the whole company is full of non-threatening bozos. The second one goes wrong in periods of rapid expansion. Here newbies outnumber experienced veterans, and so when they look around for how they should behave, they pick up the culture of their new teammates' former employers. It doesn't need any bad apples, only the lack of a critical mass of good apples. This is also why the oldest division at a company often maintains the most of the original culture: oftentimes new divisions are staffed up in a hurry, facing different market realities, and the people in it look toward each other and to the leader of the division to figure out the culture.
j_baker 13y ago
Well sure the founders define the culture. Who do you think put the few bad managers in the right place?