How Employees Learn Culture
Culture is transmitted to employees in a number of forms, the most potent being stories, rituals, material symbols, and language.
Stories
When Henry Ford II was chairman of Ford Motor Company, you would have been hard pressed to find a manager who hadn’t heard how he reminded his executives when they got too arrogant, “It’s my name that’s on the building.” The message was clear: Henry Ford II ran the company.
Today, a number of senior Nike executives spend much of their time serving as corporate storytellers.53 When they tell how co-founder (and Oregon track coach) Bill Bowerman went to his workshop and poured rubber into a waffle iron to create a better running shoe, they’re talking about Nike’s spirit of innovation. ...
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