Corporate environment is not just the physical environment in which a business organization operates. It also encompasses the people, the culture, the practices and politics of the business organization. Everyone who joins a business organization comes with an inherent behaviour and cultural orientation, but rarely remain the same when they leave. The environment of business impacts on employees leading them to acquire new behaviours and adapt to the prevailing corporate culture. The longer an employee remains within a corporate environment, the greater the influence the environment would impact on the employee’s post-employment behaviour.
How Corporate Environment Shapes Employee Behaviour
Recently, I consulted for a start-up entrepreneur who desired to set up a strategic direction for his business. The entrepreneur has an extensive job experience from past employment. Therefore, he wished to leverage on this experience to set up a small start-up firm operating in the same industry as his last employer. The entrepreneur’s problem had to do with his long period of attachment to his former organization. This attachment made it difficult for the entrepreneur to lift himself out of the shadows of his old company. The entrepreneur set up the business with the aim of pursuing a specific business goal different from that of his former organization. Despite this, he sought to achieve his business goal by pursuing the same strategic objectives that led to success in his former organization.
A review of the entrepreneur’s background showed an interesting career path. He had just left a blue chip organization where he worked for over twelve years. While in his former company, the entrepreneur worked in a very limited number of different job positions. Having spent most of his career years in this organization, the entrepreneur’s thoughts, actions and social relationships were inadvertently shaped by the environment of the blue chip organization. The entrepreneur imbibed the business and cultural orientation of his last employer. As a result, it seemed difficult for the entrepreneur to see things differently from his previous employer.
Corporate Environment May Stifle Employee Initiatives
The entrepreneur’s dilemma is not uncommon. Corporate environment could sometimes stifle an employee’s initiative. In many corporate organizations, working practices, business transactions, and relationship order are long established and built around consistency of policy and delivery. These are usually enshrined in rule books, policy documents and operational guidelines which are passed on to managers to implement. Based on the established order in many corporate environments, these documents allow little or no room for experimentation, exposition of new ideas and radical change in existing policy direction. These documents also form the basis of assessment of employee actions in many business organizations. As a result, some managers are usually very reluctant to exhibit their own initiative in handling even minor business issues.
The above exemplifies the stiff and regimented nature of the corporate environment in which many employees work. Employees groomed under such environment will inadvertently learn to act in the way and manner envisioned by their organizations. The longer such employees remain within the environment, the greater the prospect of internalizing the prevailing culture and behaviour within the environment. Employees who subsequently leave to establish their own businesses may find it difficult to adopt new and innovative approaches that suit their line of businesses. Such employees may have become accustomed to believing that such experimentation may expose the organization to unnecessary risks and losses.
How to Adapt in Policy Guided Corporate Environments
It is possible to change the mindset induced by a regimented corporate environment and to think creatively. To achieve this, employed people should explore the opportunities provided by some commonly overlooked work related activities such as
- Regular change of the physical work environment
- Accepting new challenges, and
- Breaking free from repetitive work routines.
Change of the physical work environment allows the employee to meet new people, and learn new ways of doing things. The employee is also able to explore the opportunities provided by the job, the people, and the culture within their new environment.
Accepting new challenges provides the employees with useful learning opportunities. It also enables employees to exert their skills and competences and to showcase their capabilities.
Repetitive work routines may make employees experts in their fields, but it reduces the opportunity to learn new things. Employees constantly engaged in repetitive work routines may find this uninspiring and frustrating. Such employees may equally become redundant if their job functions become obsolete or their expertise no longer required. Reducing an employee’s involvement in repetitive work routines may enhance the employee’s motivation to perform better.
The activities listed above provide the enabling environment for the development of a mindset that enhances creativity and innovation. Employee actions such as acquisition of new skills, showing interest in other job functions, and seeking for transfers usually trigger the processes that lead to the accomplishment of these activities.
It also helps to explore opportunities in other jobs or industries. Stepping out of an employee’s immediate work environment or industry provides the opportunity to acquire cross functional experiences. This will help the employee to break the habit of thinking within the box. It also enables the employees to harness their latent skills and to take more agile entrepreneurial initiatives.
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5 Start-up assumptions that may kill your business
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