How do motivation and leadership affect the
corporate culture of multinational firms?

by: Stefanie Hoffmann

Nowadays nearly all companies have to develop their own ideas and personalities. As we are living in a fast moving society the company’s corporate identity plays a huge role. This term comprises corporate culture, corporate branding, corporate communication and corporate design. It is essential to make use of all these elements in order to be able to define a company to itself as well as to the outside world, to find out how customers and employees should be treated and how to respond to interactions with the external environment and culture. The external environment is defined as factors which are not under the direct control or influence of the organisation, such as demographic, economic, political or technological factors. (http://www.fiu.edu/~pie/environmentform.htm accessed on 05.11.2005) The corporate identity of a company can be expressed in company’s communications, architectural style, by how people address each other and of course by what people wear, for example cabin attendants representing their airline outwardly through the same uniforms.

In order to answer the question “How do motivation and leadership affect the corporate culture of multinational firms?” it is essential to clarify the different terms. Corporate culture, also called organisational culture, deals with the beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations and rules of an organisation. These values are used by all company members and are given from one generation of employees to another. (http://www.quintcareers.com/jobseeker_glossary.html accessed on 05.11.2005) To summarise, these characteristics should help to define and illustrate the nature of the corporate or organisational culture. If newly hired individuals enter a company, especially a multinational one, they bring their own national culture with their own values and beliefs, and in return they must adopt and respect the organisational culture of the company they work for. Of course, companies want their employees to fit in. At Pepsi for example workforce is expected to be cheerful and positive whereas at Ford, it is expected to show self-confidence and assertiveness. (Hodgett and Luthans, 1997)

“Multinational firms are companies which own and control enterprises in more than one country. The parent company is based in the home-country source for the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and has one or more foreign branches or subsidiaries. These firms are also referred to as multinational corporations (MNCs) and multinational enterprises (MNEs).” (http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0072487488/student_view0/glossary.html accessed on 06.11.2005) A good example for a multinational firm is the company Procter & Gamble. The so called “P & G community” consists of nearly 98,000 employees working in almost 80 countries all over the world. (http://www.pg.com/jobs/corpinfo/corpstructure.jhtml accessed on 06.11.2005)

The motto of the company: “We act on the conviction that the men and women of Procter & Gamble will always be our most important asset.” Regarding leadership, all members of the company are leaders in their area of responsibility, with a deep commitment to deliver leadership results. They have a clear vision of where they want to go and focus their resources to achieve leadership objectives and strategies. Therefore, all members develop the capability to deliver their strategies and eliminate organisational barriers. (http://www.pg.com/company/who_we_are/ppv.jhtml;jsessionid=MPFYFTDGSYA4LQFIAJ 2C0HWAVABHOLKG accessed on 06.11.2005) Furthermore, keywords like “Integrity, Trust, Ownership and Passion for winning” make Procter & Gamble to an organisation which wants to ensure that their employees fit in and that they can identify themselves with the corporate culture of the company.

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