Finding a Corporate Culture Fit

By Christy Dammen, Graduate Business Career Services

Newcomers to the job market make two significant false assumptions:

• All large corporations are cut from the same cultural cloth
• Any large company paying a sizable salary is likely to be a good fit for someone with an M.B.A.

What these newcomers fail to realize is that their own personality, communication style, values, ethics and expectations ultimately need to fit with the culture of the corporation where they work.

Most of us wise up over time and start performing cultural due diligence when checking out a new company, promotion to a new division or even a new position with a different manager.

Others simply get stuck thinking their business and its managers lack judgment or are malicious, when the real problem is their own fit within the organization. So these employees label their managers as wimps for failing to take the risks they would love to take. They grouse that any business that makes its employees work 14-hour days, no matter what the salary, is unreasonable. They accuse their directors of studying etiquette with Al Pacino.

Still others find that while they have not changed, the business culture around them has. Market pressures, new leadership and industry trends can all dramatically influence the culture of an organization—and even the very largest corporations experience these shifting cultural tides.

So, how do you figure out your fit in a corporate culture? The first step is to know yourself. Are you a risk taker? Do you prefer established processes and procedures? Are you easily bored and looking for new challenges? Do you get offended easily by direct communications? Do you do your best work for brilliant, yet arrogant, managers? Are you ready to work 80 hours a week and love your life and your job?

One way to learn more about your own cultural preferences is to take the CareerLeader assessment. Self reflection is key in figuring out your own cultural preferences.

The second step is to learn more about the culture of the business, department or division where you are considering a job. Strategies for doing this include:

• Contacting friends, colleagues or other St. Thomas students and alumni to conduct an informational interview to ask questions and learn more about their workplaces. You can do this on your own or through Graduate Business Career Services
• Reviewing UST and public library resources, such as Vault, to research what has been written about the culture of an organization. (Vault users require a UST email address.)
• Attending networking events and asking speakers and attendees about the companies that interest you Reading articles about companies and their leadership to decipher culture
• Asking in job interviews for specific examples of leadership or employee behavior surrounding the cultural traits you consider most important

100 Influential Health Care Leaders

Every four years, readers of Minnesota Physician are invited to nominate colleagues whose outstanding work in health care should be acknowledged in a special issue of the newspaper. The University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business is proud to recognize fifteen MBA alumni and advisors included in the August 2008 edition of Minnesota Physician Publishing's "100 Influential Health Care Leaders."

See the list

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