Finding Information
on a Company's Culture
Corporate
culture refers to the work environment. It would include such issues
as: Work Load and Ethics, Hierarchy, Leadership, Workspace, Hiring
Process, Communication Styles, Teamwork, Apparance, Office Friendships,
Mentoring, Work environment, Diversity in the workplace, Personnel
management, Employees, etc. Below are some suggestions on how to put
together a snapshot of the culture of your firm:
- Books: Check out the Plunkett's
Industry Almanacs, located under the Finding Industry Information section in this guide. Each e-book has a one page
summary on each major company in a specific industry.
These summaries gives insight on: 1.) employee salary/benefits
2.) A little description on what employees do 3.)
a comment on the Competitive Advantage of the company
4.) and more! See the example for Abercrombie
& Fitch.
- Books: See the career guide e-books from Wetfeet available
in net-Library. Their career guides and "top 25" books will give
insight on the corporate culture of selected companies. Another way to
use netLibrary
is to do a full text search on corporate culture and your firm. For
example, this search: Full-Text: "corporate culture" AND Full-Text:
daimlerchrysler yielded 29 books.
- Books: If a book has been published on your firm, it
could provide insight into the company's culture. For example, here are
the books in the library on Starbucks. Here is a book in NetLibrary on Home Depot. In the library,
most company books are in the HD9999 call number section on floor 2.
- Biographies
on company leaders might give some insight into the culture, as
management practice plays a role in it. So check out the "Researching
the Leadership Style..." section above. For example, here is a book in
the library by Carly Fiorina, recent CEO of Hewlett Packard.Such a resource could give insight into the recent corporate culture at HP.
