Corporate Culture

By Siphokazi Majozi

The world of work can be both an interesting and complex environment. One has to be fully equipped, not only with knowledge and skills, but even more so with emotional intelligence.

Good and talented people do breakdown or walk away from dream jobs due to pressure. Often one starts off well and somewhere along the line, things can change, sometimes for the worst. This book explores, own personality, diversity and causes of conflict in the workplace that can leave one overwhelmed or frustrated. The author was privileged to have received invaluable business and life coaching during the early start of her exposure to the corporate environment and it has become her survival guide throughout her personal and professional life.

This book has been derived from real-life experiences. It will help readers learn about the different work relationships and how they influence a person both negatively and positively. Through this realisation, one can make better choices and deal with situations in a more beneficial way. Much like many other spheres in our lives, corporates have a culture and what better way to understand it so that you can enjoy a full and well-deserved life.

About the Author

Straight from tertiary education, author Siphokazi Majozi started working in 2004 and has developed and filled many roles which have brought about plenty of bitter-sweet experiences in her work life. Currently, at the time of publishing this book at the age of 36 with nearly 15 years of work experience, she understands workplace dynamics and hopes that you will find the book inspiring.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Siphokazi Majozi
• Release date: Mar 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463690086

Book preview

Corporate Culture

Siphokazi Majozi

Copyright © 2019 Siphokazi Majozi

Published by Siphokazi Majozi Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Siphokazi Majozi using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Vanessa Finaughty for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Siphokazi Majozi

[e-mail]

Dedication

To my daughter Nosipho, who has inspired me beyond my own convictions.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Foreword

1. Characters

2. Diversity

3. Conflict

4. Management Roles

5. Employee Roles

6. Personal Management

7. Affirmations

8. The Cost of Them and Us

Foreword

After having spent nearly 15 years in a corporate environment, I began to see things differently. This book is written with the intention of showing others who might be struggling in the workplace and feel stuck in some kind of rut that work is, in fact, a complex environment and needs to be understood for what it is in order to survive. It is not in any way limited to the corporate sector and has a wider application to various types of working environments.

There is life beyond every kind of adversity, no matter how dire the situation may seem.

Many people give up (like I nearly did many times over) simply because they do not understand the workplace culture and blame themselves or some misfortune when things do not go their way.

Hopefully, those who have been affected at work and can relate to some of these events can better learn how to manage themselves now that they know that this is real. My hope is also that the perpetrators may also realise how their actions may contribute to the overall function of an organisation. I believe that we need to become aware of how our actions affect others. The more aware we are, the more we can understand the aspects of work that move the organisation and its people forward and those that can lead to strife.

Siphokazi Majozi Sept. 2018

One

Characters

I remember the day when I received that call to inform me that I had been successful in my first job interview and that I should come in to the workplace to further discuss the employment conditions. It was as if the universe was all with me and all mine. My family shared the euphoria with me and it was certainly a hopeful time amongst my classmates, as this was proof that we were actually employable. My contemporaries and I had diverted from the familiar career paths and wanted to experience whatever else was out there in the working world. This was a concern for some of our families, as careers in engineering had been unprecedented and we were celebrated for having set new trends. In all honesty, I did not know what to expect; everything was a whole new world.

So, there I was in a job, aged 21 years, with nothing but what I had learnt at school and some practical learning experience. I was very excited and looking forward to finally putting my training to good use and becoming important.

Work, however, was far from my fantasy in that it was not always inspiring. My first offence regarded an activity where I had to monitor a process and report the findings to my supervisor telephonically or via email. Me being me, I decided to stop working at the end of the working day and assumed that I would continue the next day, because it was home time.

I discovered the following day that my supervisor was infuriated, because I had abandoned an urgent activity and she had been waiting to make an important decision before the end of the day. On the other hand, I was nearly in tears, so hurt and confused. I didn’t know about feedback, reporting, working additional hours and time frames. There were times, though, where I felt on top of the world, because I had learnt to do things on my own and my function in the organisation was becoming known and accepted with much excitement.

My second shocking discovery was the struggle of working in a team. Teams had all kinds of people and it had not occurred to me what a driving force diversity was in teamwork. Some offer full support, while others will slander you at every given opportunity. I managed to survive these tornados, with lots of support and consultations, and have shared these in the later chapters.

Last, but not least, I learnt about the power of upward and downward relationships. Organisations are constantly flowing and the effectiveness of that flow is vital to its competitive advantage.

When Sun Tzu explores relationships in his book, The Art of War, he likens every aspect of an organisation to a battlefield. Constant change brings about constant conflict, which requires constant rethinking. Change is what we have to deal with all the time and this is uncomfortable, because our human nature does not embrace it easily. As humans, we feel safe around what we know and defend ourselves against uncertainty. Change comes with a high level of uncertainty that makes us want to recoil to our safe zone.

This is when you start hearing a new employee gloat about his or her old company and how great things were there. However, why did they leave? Others would reflect back to the golden age, where they were, for instance, under different management or were under what they often refer to as a ‘better’ system.

David Rock explains this behaviour in humans and attributes it to conditioning. In his book, Brain Theory, he refers to it as relatedness. We need relatedness to survive and this is true to life in