ICB3 summary I IBS I year 2

1.Question
Now assign Trompenaars’ four metaphors for corporate culture - Incubator, Guided Missile, Family or
Eiffel Tower culture - to the following ten statements. Be aware that sometimes more than one
metaphor can be assigned to the statements listed.
1. “Whatever it takes” attitude to complete a task in these organizations
Guided Missile, Incubator
2. Culture acts as a sounding board for ideas.
Incubator
3. Roles of employees are described and outputs are quantified.
Eiffel Tower
4. Relationships tend to be diffused in these organizations.
Family, incubator
5. There is a low priority to efficiency.
Family, Incubator
6. There is a rationale of means in such organizations.
Eiffel Tower, Guided Missile
7. Status is ascribed in these organizations.
Eiffel Tower, Family
8. Change is usually fast, unexpected and spontaneous in these organizations.
Incubator, Guided Missile
9. Duty is an important concept for employees in this culture.
Eiffel Tower
10. The purpose of these organizations is to free individuals from routine.
Incubator

2.Characteristics of each metaphor (incubation, fly missile, Eiffel tower & family)
Trompenaars four cultures model

Leading to the following types and orientations:
 Incubator (fulfilment) Google (everybody communicates)
 Family (power) father figure
 Guided Missile (project) impersonal and task oriented (target)
 Eiffel Tower (role) boss is boss (work related)

Relationship between employees
 Family
Spread out relationship to organic whole to which one is bonded
 Eiffel Tower
Specific role in mechanical system (building service using machines) of required interactions
 Guided Missile
Specific task in cybernetic system (interacting elements influence one another, feedback)
targeted upon shared objectives
 Incubator
Spread out spontaneous relationships growing out of shared creative processes

,Attitude to authority
 Family
Status is ascribed to parent figures who are close and all powerful
 Eiffel Tower
Statis is ascribed to superior roles who are distant yet powerful
 Guided Missile
Status is achieved by project group members who contribute to the targeted goal
 Incubator
Status is achieved by individuals that clarify and exemplify creativity & growth

Ways of thinking and learning
 Family
Intuitive, holistic (whole is more important than sum of parts), lateral and error correcting
 Eiffel Tower
Logical, analytical, vertical and rationally efficient
 Guided Missile
Problem centred, professional, practical, cross disciplinary (more subjects specialized ofzo)
 Incubator
Process orientated, creative, ad-hoc (made for that occasion), inspirational

Attitudes to people
 Family
As family members
 Eiffel Tower
Human resources (plan, coordinate, and direct)
 Guided Missile
Specialists and experts
 Incubator
Co-creators

Managing change
 Family
‘Father’ changes course
 Eiffel Tower
Change rules and procedures
 Guided Missile
Shift aim as target moves
 Incubator
Improvise and attune (make aware of something)

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Model of cultural differences, with two axes:
 Egalitarian (decentralized)
Equality, people should get the same, be treated the same and respected the same.
 Hierarchical (centralized)
Bureaucracy, the nature of a hierarchy, arranged in order of rank.
 Person (informal)
 Task (formal)


3.Cultural mindset (universalism, ethnocentrism, parochialism)
Universalism
 The philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or
applicability (relevance). A belief in one fundamental truth is another important tenet
(principle, opinion) in universalism. (Christian universalism refers to the idea that every
human will be saved in a religious or spiritual sense.)
 Whoever you are and wherever you are, you should be treated fairly and equally.
 States that individuals should uphold certain values, like honesty regardless of the results.
The important values are the ones society needs to function.