Corporation Meets Culture – Beyond Employer-Branding

Due to globalization the demand all-embracing, cross-linked thinking increases, whereas the reduction of the cultural and social barriers melt aiming for efficiency in the operational and organizational structure. Human Resource Management is in times of globalization and competitiveness one of the most important issues, which need to be addressed as a company’s success depends greatly on the attitude and performance of its employees.
The aim of this paper is to firstly address corporate culture; secondly single out issues within a company and finish this paper with recommendations.
As a matter of fact the 21st century will experience a new kind of employee. Schemes shift, change is evident when it comes to HR-Management. Finding a valuable employee and even more importantly keep that employee turns into an art.


As it is so often the case, globalization does have a serious affect on employment, as education gets global, employees get more flexible and the desire for finding “the” workplace rises constantly.  The study of Neumann international indicates that company climate and the job tasks are considered as the two most important issues to an employee. “Neumann International, (Karriereentscheidungen22; 2007, Secretary Search, Studie “Der perfekt Job”, 2007, www.secretarysearch.at)
Concerning HR Management there is unfortunately no general approach how to deal with these sensitive issues. Although we always like to use the words ‘diversity’ and ‘globalization’, a culture is inter-dependent to its regions. Thus, I consider this as a positive characteristic, as for me after all individuality is important. Although the trend is towards adapting to the current environment, the faster the better, I do find it of great importance to keep one’s own quintessence- the personal unique selling proposition.
I believe that the main guideline for a company should be to enhance relationships, create enthusiasm, loyalty and engagement as well as an enhancement in corporation and communication. The key is spirit. And as easy as it sounds, as hard it is to implement. It is those processes that sound so familiar, and yet so hard to implement. I would like to move away from the already implemented approaches, how to be considered as a great employer, as for example offer additional benefits like a kindergarten within the company, free lunch and so on. To me at first hand it is of great interest to look at the buzzword “Corporate Culture” more closely.  Considered from the semantic point of view the word culture contains cult – which I interpret as creating a hype.  


What is culture? I connect culture at first hand with heritage. Furthermore, every culture has its own rites and rituals, with which a culture identifies itself, very often expressed in its religious belief. Here we can draw the first parallels to company culture, which I will address in detail later on in this paper.
Every individual starts with zero. As time passes one grows up with a certain culture which greatly influences the development.  Very often, culture is expressed or lived as with religious belief. No matter at which religion you take a closer look at, the main reason why they have a close community is –spirit--. I am absolutely convinced that the 21st concerning HR issues are all about spirit. Sprit should be the overall aim. Where is spirit present? I have never seen so many people excited for a football game, than the Americans for the play offs. If we could get the employees to be as exited for the balance sheet, I would say this is the final destination of HR-Management. How is this particular issue to be implemented in order to create a win-win situation – for the employer a sustainable recruitment attitude and for the employee a comfortable workplace? The main should focus is supposed to avoid compromises as well as possible. If one takes a closer look at the state-of-the-art recruitment attitude, employers very often tend to make compromises. Google’s success is very easily explained. They get thousands of applications every day. Their recruitment is based on taking the perfect applicant for the open item, without compromises. As most companies are not nearly as lucky to receive as much valuable applications as Google, it should be kept in mind that comprise in recruitment has a serious impact on performance, as one misses out on potential knowledge and skills. This is where employer-branding comes into play, that is to say get appropriate applicants to apply. To make this even possible, we firstly have to rule out negative issues, I will now address the, to me most striking ones.


A notion which is present in each single company I have worked for so far is that departments stick together. They somehow build a guiding coalition which generates a lack of communication and harm the idea of corporate culture. Why is this notion even evident? Because employees within a department have undergone a similar education, which if I reflect on, as mentioned above, culture. They have so to say the same heritage, which indicates a familiar feeling. Further on one has to do similar tasks within the department, which I consider as rites and rituals.
Heritage + common rites and rituals = Corporate Culture
My equation above is actually a positive issue if there wasn’t a further step in this process before we cross the finishing line. Each department, as very often cultures too, create boarders around themselves, to distinguish from the others. Departments, as well as cultures stick together. This negative notion automatically creates a lack of communication. Employees start talking behind backs of others and the vision-circle starts harming corporate culture seriously. The need to counter steer this situation is evident. But no matter which action one takes is has to be on a voluntary basis, because one cannot force people to like each other but one can support the process. The stress should be on corporate activities. As for instance once a month, the employer pays lunch for departments who take it together. Of course, the departments having lunch together would need to swop every time. I am convinced of the success of this idea because it would not only give the employees the chance to get to know each other outside of the company; it definitely enhances communication and hopefully eliminates prejudices on a natural and self-generated basis. An easy tool, but we most definitely would like stick to “keep it easy and simple”!


Another issue I had to find out is the negativity between the office employee and the workers. There is a great misunderstanding, as well as a lot of prejudices. Unfortunately, the office employees do very often undervalue the workers. It might be true, that workers have little influence on the whole management process but we need to keep in mind that it is those who close the circle. Without workers, most companies would be worth nothing.
I have participated in all kinds of internships, starting from a warehouse clerk to the corporate communications department. All have been challenging somehow, the warehouse internship physically and the others mentally. But I do have to add that in my times in the warehouse, whenever the office employees had a down-looking attitude, I thought, “How about you take a walk in my shoes!” Sometimes one needs to look beyond the borders. Sure, there are already implemented tools like job rotation but the job rotations mostly split up between office and production. I would like to reinforce the connection between those two.
For instance if someone is on sick leave in the production, one can implement a job try-out. Let’s get the office employees one day in the production. And trust me, when it is 35°C outside and you have to work in the production, with loud machines and anything but fresh air, one most probably will change his/her point of view towards workers. Here the lack of knowledge and understanding create the problem.
This is the first step towards corporate culture, further more we need a vehicle to drive towards employer branding. The very basis for employer branding are content and satisfied employees. It is those who talk to the outside. With the means of corporate communication, PR and marketing one can put a company into the right spot but the opinion and attitude of the employees is way more valuable.

Regarding this issue one should not underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. The power of WOM is mostly underestimated but yet so valuable. Because that is what people mostly do, they talk about their job and employer. The employees fill up the picture of a company. We cannot force employees to give the company a great reputation, this instance needs to emerge automatically. As we can see this is a whole chain of interaction. The chain towards employer branding is almost finished.
Summing up, employees are the base on which to build on. One has to select without hardly any compromises, and if so to minimize the compromises as well as possible, create a history, rites and rituals, as for instance lived out with common lunch. Furthermore one has to eliminate prejudices in form of the “Take a walk in my shoes”-approach.
This is so to say the 1x1 of sustainable recruitment. In the present fast changing environment one needs to act pro-actively and think long-term, in order to avoid tremendous labor turnover and to create an outstanding-reputation. As addressed throughout the paper, the processes and emotions of a culture are indeed very similar to that of a company culture. And as it is so often the case, we need to start and try understanding and change towards the better.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough we must do. - Goethe