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

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: over 70% - A, Cardiff University, language: English, abstract: 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)