The Value of Corporate Myth
Recently, a friend described how companies often rely on a handful of stories to define their culture. He also noted how the tales grow like fishing stories. He cited Kinko's lore about the first shop, which was so small we had to wheel the copier onto the sidewalk to do business. He said every time he heard the story, the shop got a little smaller, and he expected to hear one day that I opened the first Kinko's in a refrigerator box and had to produce my own electricity with a hand-cranked generator.
I had to laugh, because I've heard lots of stories about the company that bear little resemblance to the events I recall. But if true stories evolved into myth over time, they did so to better communicate the culture's core values. Like any other society, a company retells certain stories to indoctrinate new members in the values of the culture.
Categories: Corporate Culture | Management Skills | Leadership
3 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 3:52 PM