"Family" as the Core of Corporate Culture

Family owned or operated businesses (private or public) and corporations with non-family members like to refer to themselves as a "family“ and this being the main building block for the corporate culture. You will hear and read, "we are like a big family" in their corporate literature, employer branding campaign, and from employee statements.

Whereas social and religious conservatives often use the term "family values" to promote a conservative ideology, businesses refer to "family" to demonstrate moving away from a command and control management approach.

In most instances however, organizations are selective about which elements of the "family values" they overtake and promote. More often than not, families are fueled by feelings rather than performance, forgiveness rather than accountability, and conformity rather than thinking outside-of-the-box. The problem for businesses is that sustainable organizations thrive on performance, accountability, and creative thinking.

Importantly as well, families tend to be hierarchical, particularly based on seniority, and instill self-control and moral obligations while demanding respect, discipline, and attentiveness. While the former is unavoidable, the latter is an ideal to strive for in the majority of organizations. Only the strongest cultures can however inspire and engage their employees.

Hence, the corporate concept of "family" primarily refers to how people communicate and interact internally. Associated beliefs include being loyal and trustworthy, caring for each other, and spending time together (including after work). In a way, being a "family" is a promise for a more supportive and less formal/cut-throat environment. In such organizations, employees know more about co-workers than they need to in order to perform well. They become pals.

Secondly, the "family" values in corporate context are particularly visible during two extreme stages of an employee's lifecycle; attraction (apparent in the employer brand promise of a compelling workplace) and separation (demonstrated primarily through alumni networks, e.g. BBH’s blacklist).

One final point, redundancy can become a major issue and limitation for the "family" concept at corporations. Though the concept of “family” differ across cultures, families around the globe have one thing in common, it is a bond that cannot be broken. When the family is struggling, family members are expected to hold things together and to help each other out. Excluding family members is taboo and hardly ever the question. Lay offs are common practice at many different “corporate families”.

Engagement at the Expense of Personal Time

At Dun and Bradstreet, a great personnel policy aimed at protecting employees’ personal time has been introduced. Meetings cannot be scheduled on Mondays or Fridays if it requires people to travel over the weekend. This policy came into effect to demonstrate that the company cares and values people employees' free time .

In China such thinking is yet to come. Meanwhile, foreign companies like to promote the “work hard, play hard” philosophy expecting hard work and long hours as well as attendance of company organized “leisure activities”. After hours events are often an integral part of the company’s culture and engagement approach. In addition, managers sponsor these activities in order to improve team work and team spirit or to generally bring about more communication and friendships between foreign and local employees. Going out after work sometimes serves as a form of recognition for good team results.

After work socializing is often fueled by an expat manager's small circle of friends and lack of his/her family members in China. However, it is also sought out by Chinese employees as long as it is not too often and does not conflict with their private life such as the Friday family dinner. Eating together is a central element of Chinese culture and is considered a bonding endeavor.

Most of the time, departmental budgets support these activities. However, employees are sometimes expected to spend their own money. Since splitting the bill at the restaurant is fairly uncommon in China, each month a different team member may be expected to play the “host” and cover the evenings’ expenses.

Over time, many companies have started to realize that differences in taste between Expats and Locals cannot be successfully addressed during just one outing. As a result, some employees find excuses and do not attend . In turn, this low attendance causes a certain amount of resentment among management who feels that their generosity and efforts toward generating a "fun" workplace goes unnoticed.

Are the company activities after working hours really a payback employees expect?

More on Recruitment of Creatives

At Powell's Books in Portland, I picked up a book entitled, “Pick Me. Breaking into Advertising and Staying There” by Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin, Chief Creative Officers at Ogilvy, Toronto. This book is a great resource for college advertising students and fresh graduates. I read the book looking for authors’ viewpoints on HR's role in an Agency.

Result: almost nil. HR had been reduced to in-house recruitment and external headhunting and by all means was not presented as a partner to the Creative Directors (CD) or a contact point for job seekers.

In the authors’ experience, “most of headhunters don’t know a great book from an okay one”. They further imply that in-house recruiters do not do their job right given that student “letters are getting lost in the big stack of mail that’s full of resumes".

According to Vonk & Kestin, headhunters can be, however, helpful in passing one’s CV to the CD and assessing what one is worth given their good understanding of salary benchmarks (p.77). But, they “don’t play much of a role in placing juniors” nor the very best creatives. The latter are “well known, and the CD often contacts them directly” (p.171). There were no good remarks on in-house screeners “a necessary evil at some big places” (p.44) either,

Instead, the authors suggest outsmarting HR. For example, the aspiring copywriter or art director should try to get the CD’s attention – the only decision maker while aspiring account service pros should approach the managing director (“Try sending the managing director of the agency a reel of your favorite spots with a smart list of reasons why you like them so much (heavy on references to good strategies and consumer insights)” p.126).

I am not going to cry for HR folks, but seriously where does it leave us? Is this industry-specific?