Impact of Language on Corporate Culture
Corporations, like any organization, define and are defined by a shared culture. This culture is created through the use of language first in the creation and implementation of a shared vision articulated in a company mission statement. This vocabulary steers the organization toward what will become their shared culture. This culture is then reinforced through all manners of language, evidenced in corporate communications such as press releases and company policy, the semantics of job titles and descriptions, and in everyday jargon that is used around the legendary water cooler, in stockholder meetings, and in every employee office, desk, and cubicle throughout the organization. In order to prove this point we will first define what corporate culture is, we will then explain how language creates and reflects culture and then use examples of how that language is used specifically in an organization to create and reveal culture.
People learn culture. Many qualities of human life are transmitted genetically -- an infant's desire for food, for example, is triggered by physiological characteristics determined within the human genetic code. An adult's specific desire for milk and cereal in the morning, on the other hand, cannot be explained genetically; rather, it is a learned (cultural) response to morning hunger. Culture, as a body of learned behaviors common to a given human society, acts rather like a template, shaping behavior and consciousness within a human society from generation to generation. Culture resides in all learned behavior and in some shaping template or consciousness prior to behavior. In other words, a "cultural template" can be in place prior to the birth of an individual person.
This primary concept of a shaping template and body of learned behaviors might be further broken down into the following categories, each of which is an important element of cultural systems. These include systems of meaning, of which language is primary;
People learn culture. Many qualities of human life are transmitted genetically -- an infant's desire for food, for example, is triggered by physiological characteristics determined within the human genetic code. An adult's specific desire for milk and cereal in the morning, on the other hand, cannot be explained genetically; rather, it is a learned (cultural) response to morning hunger. Culture, as a body of learned behaviors common to a given human society, acts rather like a template, shaping behavior and consciousness within a human society from generation to generation. Culture resides in all learned behavior and in some shaping template or consciousness prior to behavior. In other words, a "cultural template" can be in place prior to the birth of an individual person.
This primary concept of a shaping template and body of learned behaviors might be further broken down into the following categories, each of which is an important element of cultural systems. These include systems of meaning, of which language is primary;
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