EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine August 2017 | Page 38

Creating
P RO B L E M - F R E E
CORPORATE
CULT URES
by Greg Snell
E
very company has a culture, for better or worse. Some companies
deliberately develop cultures to pursue legitimate business
objectives. For example, there is the pro-employee culture
where, we are told, employees are loved, spoiled, and always having fun.
Perks may include wearing t-shirts and jeans, playing ping-pong all day,
drinking company supplied beer and pretty much working whenever and
wherever you please. Clearly the objective is to attract employees with the
promise of fun and freedom as the incentives.
Another example is the pro-customer culture where companies will do
anything to make customers happy. Reportedly, if you just need someone
to talk to, there are employees who will talk to you for as many as thirteen
hours straight. The objective here is to go to great lengths to satisfy and
woo customers.
Then, there is the culture which is not for any legitimate business
objective, the problem culture. One of these was exposed recently at Fox
| 38 | EVOLVE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE