The Corporate Culture Shock

The corporate culture shock

Corporate culture can be defined as the collective beliefs, value systems, and processes that provide a company with its own unique flavour and attitude. As important as it seemed, its importance was always something that I underestimated. I never saw the value or how impactful a positive or negative corporate culture could have on its employees. Besides having established my definition of ‘corporate work culture’ from my previous internship, didn’t exactly give me a whole and proper perspective of the right corporate culture or a ‘good corporate culture’. Having being blessed with the opportunity to intern at DBS (Development Bank of Singapore) for about three to four months opened my eyes and widened my horizon to many things- of which corporate culture was one. DBS on a whole adopts a corporate culture that emphasises on work life balance which meant that frequent late night work and infrequent lunches were not encouraged. On my first day of work, I sat around waiting for my boss to give me permission to leave (as per my old work culture) but was surprised when she started packing her things and eventually left. I later learnt and saw that the colleagues in my department went of punctually and that the way they worked was flexible. As DBS has two office buildings- Marina Bay Financial Centre or Asia Hub at Changi Busniess Park, we are allowed to work from either building or even allowed to work from home. I also realised that the way the corporate culture was, was partly due to the fact that the few superiors within the department were all expatriates with the mindset of ‘I don’t bother where you are as long as you produce work’ compared to the Asian mindset where staff had to be seen at all times.  Another aspect of the culture is the positive flow of energy that the members exude. On my first assignment, which was to contribute an article internally, I received compliments and thanks, which really surprised me which was soon featured on the intranet. The team also tries to incorporate my ideas with openness and also provides me with space to experiment and handle my own work duties. With such freedom, flexibility and trust embedded into the corporate culture within the team, it was evident that the team members are a bunch of very happy working people, which is unlike the norm. It was then that I learnt that corporate culture was more than habits and norms of the organisation but also spoke a lot about the beliefs of the organisation, which had an immense impact on its employees. Relating this new learning point to myself, I have to say that I am enjoying the work myself and have learnt the importance of how corporate culture can influence work morale. Personally, as learnt from theory, I personally feel more united with the team and dedicated to produce work to the best of my ability to help the team as much as I can.