All Services, All the Time

Chapter 14

Diagnosing Culture(s) and Language(s)

A key aspect of matching people to roles has to do with attitudes, ­personalities, and interests that go beyond pure talent, knowledge, and the technicalities of work. Much of this has to do with what we might call cultural factors. Here we are not talking about national or regional cultures, although such factors certainly may be involved in your business situation. What we are actually talking about are work cultures: so-called corporate culture, on the one hand, as well as separate cultures that enter the picture via various disciplines and work groups.

The Corporate Culture

When we talk about culture, we’re talking about a set of ideas, beliefs, and ways of behaving within a particular ...