Task 7 : Interacting with people

DOCUMENT 1: How to demonstrate respect in the workplace, by S.M. Heathfield (2016), The balance.com.
No matter your job or your workplace, dealing with people effectively is a must for success. Dealing with everyday people
successfully will make work more fun and inspiring. Dealing with people is both a joy and a challenge.

But, dealing with people successfully is the most significant factor determining whether you will have the impact and
influence you need to accomplish your mission at work. Dealing with people effectively is a skill that you can learn. Here is
how you can become the most successful at dealing with people at work.

Ask anyone in your workplace what treatment they most want at work. They will likely top their list with the desire to be
treated with dignity and respect. You can demonstrate respect with simple, yet powerful actions.

Demonstrating respect is the most important interaction that you can have dealing with the everyday people who populate
your work life. Here's how to demonstrate respect when you're dealing with people.

1. Treat people with courtesy, politeness, and kindness.

2. Encourage coworkers to express opinions and ideas.
3. Listen to what others have to say before expressing your viewpoint. Never speak over, butt in, or cut off another person.
4. Use people’s ideas to change or improve work. Let employees know you used their idea, or, better yet, encourage the
person with the idea to implement the idea.
5. Never insult people, name call, disparage or put down people or their ideas.
6. Do not nit-pick, constantly criticize over little things, belittle, judge, demean or patronize. A series of seemingly trivial
actions, added up over time, constitutes bullying.
7. Treat people the same no matter their race, religion, gender, size, age, or country of origin. Implement policies and
procedures consistently so people feel that they are treated fairly and equally. Treating people differently can
constitute harassment or a hostile work environment.
8. Include all coworkers in meetings, discussions, training, and events. While not every person can participate in every
activity, do not marginalize, exclude or leave any one person out. Provide an equal opportunity for employees to
participate in committees, task forces, or continuous improvement teams. Solicit volunteers and try to involve every
volunteer.
9. Praise much more frequently than you criticize. Encourage praise and recognition from employee to employee as well as
from the supervisor
- Why we have to treat people with respect in the workplace ?
 Relationship is considered as an mirror image : generally , people tend to treat us the same way that we treat them ,
especially when it’s about negative behavior .

In fact, if we disrespected the others , they will disrepect us naturally. In this case , we will have tremendous problems with
colleagues and managers , and we have to work in unhealthy and poisoned environnement .

1. Who exactly is this information meant for?

The information object of this first document is addressed to all people interacting in the workplace, whether a manager or
employee.
2. Pick out all the positive verbs, then the negative ones. Are there more positive than negative verbs used? How
are negative ones used positively?
Positive verbs used are : Treat with courtesy, politeness, and kindness // Treat people the same //Encourage// Let employees
know you used //Listen// Improve // Include // Provide equal opportunity, // Solicit, // Involve// Praise
The negative ones are : Speak over// Butt in// Cut off// Insult// Name call// Disparage ,// Put down //Nit-pick// Criticize over //
Belittle // Judge// Demean // Patronize// Marginalize// Exclude// Leave out
Negative verbs are used more than positive ones, in order to deny and forbid negative behaviors toward co-workers and to
insist on the importance of respect within the office.
Negative verbs are used positively by employing negative verb forms like: never, don’t …etc
DOCUMENT 2: The Importance of Interaction in Workplace Issues, by Tara Duggan, Small Business.chron.com

Employees need to interact to solve problems effectively. Avoiding disagreements just causes more friction
over time. Common sources of problems in the workplace include limited resources, such as time or materials,
conflicts of interest and insufficient definition of responsibilities. Employees who interact effectively overcome
stereotypes and misconceptions to work more productively. Despite equal opportunity and fair hiring
regulations, organizations still need to value diversity and tolerance to improve day-to-day interactions
between workers. In a highly volatile global marketplace, successful leaders maintain their company's
competitive edge by ensuring that all employees develop skills to communicate with people from other
cultures and backgrounds.

Reducing Workplace Discrimination

By providing employees with opportunities to share cultural traditions and participate in role-playing exercises
to practice solving problems in nontraditional ways, you help workers become more tolerant of other
viewpoints. Human resource professionals help organizations by running workshops and seminars to allow
people to practice these interactions. By recognizing their perceptions and attitudes toward others with
unfamiliar backgrounds, participants start to develop new ways of working that minimize workplace
discrimination.

Maximizing Job Satisfaction

Unresolved conflict often leads to disruptions in workflow. Feelings of unhappiness, dissatisfaction and
depression result in poor relationships, aggressive behavior and sometimes violence in the workplace.
Successful leaders promote effective communication strategies to help employees resolve disputes quickly.
When employees interact productively, they work together to analyze the root causes of problems, identify
the nature of the issues and propose possible solutions. Without effective communication, messages are sent,
but the receiver fails to comprehend the meaning and take appropriate action.

Creating a Collaborative Environment

The more people work together, the more potential exists for conflict. Building effective teams and
establishing clear roles and responsibilities minimizes the negative aspects of teamwork. When you define
clear objectives at the beginning of a project, you help prevent misunderstandings about priorities later on.
When conflicts arise, you can reduce friction between opposing parties by assessing if the conflict occurs
because of a workplace issue or a personality difference. For example, if one employee can't complete work
because another employee fails to provide her with the necessary information, the conflict can be resolved by
addressing the workflow issue. In other cases, personality-based conflicts arise because of working style. For
example, if one member of the team works best under pressure while another prefers to get work done well in
advance, their interactions may be stressful and tense. By teaching employees how to work things out and find
a compromise that works for both parties, you ensure greater productivity in the workplace.

Impact of Stress and Tension

When employees avoid each other, productivity and job satisfaction tends to decrease. Employee retention
rates decrease, and absenteeism increases. Helping employees recognize the warning signs of excessive stress
can help them cope and prevent burnout. Employees who worry excessively tend to have health problems,
difficulties with their personal and professional relationships and trouble getting work done. By conducting
focus groups and encouraging employees to solve problems together, you help restore productive and provide
remedial solutions to ongoing issues.

1. Outline ten item that are mentioned to help reduce tension and improve productivity. (ten sentences)
- Employees who interact effectively overcome stereotypes and misconceptions to work more productively
- Human resource professionals help organizations by running workshops and seminars to allow people to practice these
interactions
- By providing employees with opportunities to share cultural traditions and participate in role-playing exercises to practice
solving problems in nontraditional ways, you help workers become more tolerant of other viewpoints.
- Successful leaders promote effective communication strategies to help employees resolve disputes quickly.
- Building effective teams and establishing clear roles and responsibilities minimizes the negative aspects of teamwork
 - When you define clear objectives at the beginning of a project, you help prevent misunderstandings about priorities later
on.
- When conflicts arise, you can reduce friction between opposing parties by assessing if the conflict occurs because of a
workplace issue or a personality difference.
- By teaching employees, how to work things out and find a compromise that works for both parties.
- Helping employees recognize the warning signs of excessive stress can help them cope and prevent burnout
- By conducting focus groups and encouraging employees to solve problems together, you help restore productive and
provide remedial solutions to ongoing issues.
2. Essay: What are some of the difficulties of working in an intercultural context? (200-250 words)
Working in an intercultural environment can have many difficulties caused mainly by the difference of co-worker’s cultures,
backgrounds and perceptions such as:
- Misunderstandings because of culture’s differences .For example, the same word or gesture can be understood differently
by the coworkers (considered innocent for some but offensive by others) the lack of understanding other’s behavior can
have many misinterpretations ( like judge the behavior such disrespectful)
-
- Discrimination generated by stereotypes and misconceptions, which arise in different ways like: not being tolerant of other
viewpoints or using aggressive behavior and violence in the workplace.
-
- Potential conflicts leading to dissatisfaction and depression ( manifested by absenteeism and decrease of productivity)
-
- All these problems are a natural consequence of ineffective communication and interaction between co-workers., which can
be considered also as a type of difficulties that coworkers can meet in the intercultural environment, caused by the previous
judgment that each employee has toward the others.

- Lack of management in the workplace seems to be the main difficulty which can favor all problems described above .In
fact, if managers don’t ensure that employees develop skills to communicate and interact with people from other cultures,
help employees to resolve quickly the conflict, this will worsen the situation by causing strained relationship and stressful
interactions which affects significantly the productivity.

rst vVideo : what mistakes does the man make in his work?
I think that the mistake that the man made in his work is not to communicate the problem to his manager which is his lack of
focus caused by his co-workers. The video shows that he was clearly disturbed by his other colleagues: the first one who was
listening to the radio and the other employee’s noise. Therefore, this lack of focus made him forget to add the cover sheets in
the TPS.
And instead of resorting to communicating with his boss to resolve this issue, he is living an internal war; he imagines himself
killing others; but in reality, he cannot do anything.
Second video :
How do we define conflict? Conflicts arise when one person has a need of another and that need is not being met
How do conflicts develop? Conflicts develop when people don’t react to resolve it at the first step especially when they are
confronted with a difficult conflict. Then the conflict goes on for many weeks or even years
What mistakes do people make? To resolving a conflict, people tend to avoid it. In fact, they go straight from having an
unmet need into management of conflict without expressing the need, finding out if the need can or cannot be met and trying
to negotiate to resolve it . Avoiding conflict may be expressed in different ways like: walking away, getting sick, being
aggressive, keeping silence..etc)
What is the purpose of the video? The video shows us how to resolve a conflict step by step: by expressing the unmet need,
finding out if this unmet need can or cannot be met. If the conflict cannot be resolved, employee must involve a neutral third
party to help resolving the issue.
Third video : How is humour created?
Humor created by highlighting the negative behavior of the student toward the professor’s statements. In fact, it’s clear that
she is not interested in becoming a great manager able to resolve conflicts and the course seems to be boring for her. This
behavior was described many times by his reaction regarding the professor’s statements.
Task 8: taking part in a meeting
1. Look through the presentation, then note the ten most important things to do.
Ten most important things to do in regards to Agenda are :
- Don’t prepare a vague agenda
- Provide the final agenda to meeting invitees prior to the meeting
- Open the meeting with a review of the agenda
- Have everyone agree to the agenda before continuing with the meeting
- Start the meeting on time
- Ensure, during the meeting, that each topic helps achieve whatever goal outlined for the meeting.
- When listing the items, the most important should appear first.
- list the assigned talker for each topic
- Set realistic timeframes for addressing each item.
- for the time of meeting, it shouldn’t be longer ( one hour at most ) and if the meeting will be longer ,
we must to schedule break every 90minutes

2. What's on the agenda?

Agenda must contain:
- Header : include
 The name of meeting;
 Date;
 Time;
 Location;
 People attending the meeting
- Topic ( items)
 Should be written using action words i.e : discuss, decide, review,brainstorm..etc
 Items should be very short ( less than 7 words)
- Presenter
- Desired outcome
- Time allocation : should be placed next to each topic
- Old business that should be followed up
- New business ( reports , trainings, speakers)
- Announcements

DOCUMENT 1: 10 Things that go wrong in Meetings, by H. Wolters, Tips & Trics.

The other day I was in a meeting. Nothing special, just an ordinary meeting. People around a table, coffee, a
chair presiding. A power point.

Here are the 10 things that went wrong that morning:

1. The meeting started 25 minutes late, for a variety of reasons, including that the invitation didn’t state the
meeting room and mentioned the wrong date: Tuesday 5 March, instead of Tuesday 4 or Wednesday – the
usual meeting day – 5 March.

2. A beamer cable was missing.

3. The power point was far too long with too many words per slide. Attention was slipping quickly.

4. The agenda of the meeting was much too extensive as well and poorly thought through. This caused
confusion and irritation towards the end of the meeting.

5. The chair did not really chair: he said interventions had to be short, but many people spoke too long while
others – were they women by accident?- weren’t asked for input.
 6. Four out of twelve people were checking texts, e-mails and perhaps other things during the meeting on
their tablets and iPhones.

7. The pens for the flip chart had dried out. Someone went out to find better ones, came back with better
ones, but also with the message that there was someone waiting for the chair. Which caused the chair to leave
the room for 20 minutes…

8. No one was taking notes or action points.

9. Towards the end of the meeting, people started to leave, discussing last things in standing, agreeing on a
possible next meeting date, which was later rejected.

Meetings are precious. So when you do a meeting, make sure it is well prepared, that the agenda is clear, that
follow up is well organised: 6 people waiting 25 minutes is 2½ hrs. of lost working time.

And one more thing:

10.Better coffee would really have helped create a better atmosphere…

Have you ever experienced any of these complaints during a meeting?

Yes, I have already been in this kind of situation. In fact, the most popular complaints that I have
experienced are:

- A meeting which start 15 minutes later in many times due to the top manager who is often late
because he is busy all the time or because of waiting some participants informed at the last minute.
- A beamer cable was missing: when the person responsible of the meeting do not prepare it well and
she search the beamer cable at the last moment.
- An agenda not well prepared (especially miss item’s time allocation), which influence significantly
the meeting and the transition between each item.

All these points depend on preparation of meeting (agenda, invitation, presentation, computer
equipment…etc)

Task 9: making a presentation

Document N°1 :

1. Pick out the key methods and techniques used by Jobs to keep his presentation interesting.

- Set the theme for the presentation

- Make the theme clear and consistent
- Create a headline that sets the direction for the presentation
- Provide the outline for the presentation
- Open and close each section with a clear transition ( in order to make it easy for the audience to follow the
presentation’s story)
- Wow the audience by demonstrating enthusiasm ( for example : by using positive words like amazing ,
extraordinary, awesome ...etc)
- Make numbers and statistics meaningful by placing them in context
- Make the presentation visual and simple by using very little text and a few images by slide (the aim is to paint a
simple picture without overwhelming)
- Identify the memorable moment of presentation and build up to it
- Spend time to rehearse
- Give the audience an added bonus to walk away with by using a strong conclusion

2. Which ones would you feel at home with?

Generally, many techniques that were mentioned above resonate with me because I used to give presentations in
my last job, especially
- Spending time to rehearse: this technique is, for me, the most important key to giving a good presentation,
because it makes me more confident and helps me to avoid stress during the presentation extremely.
- Set the theme clear and consistent for the presentation
- Create a headline that sets the direction for the presentation
- Provide the outline for the presentation
- Make numbers and statistics meaningful by placing them in context
- Make the presentation visual and simple by using very little text and a few images by slide (the aim is to paint a
simple picture without overwhelming)

Document N°2 :

Once you have studied these videos, prepare a nine slide presentation following the advice given
above.

I propose an example of presentation about a project managed to deploy a new management system (see
presentation bellow)

Task 10: defending a project

DOCUMENT 1: How to Successfully Defend Your Project to Experts

Stick to the story and avoid these five pitfalls (2013), Swayne B., qualitydigest.com.

With apologies to Tolstoy: All successful project certification reviews are alike; every unsuccessful project
certification review is unsuccessful in its own way.

During the certification of a Six Sigma Green or Black Belt, one critical step is to demonstrate that you used the
methodology and tools of lean Six Sigma to deliver sustained results. The usual way to do this is to present and
defend your project (i.e., describe your actions and answer questions) to a panel of experts. A successful review
begins by presenting the project in the classic format of any good story—setup, conflict, and resolution.
Questions from the panel experts follow the presentation—or more often, come during the middle of the story
when the experts interrupt the candidate to ask them. Either way, successful certification candidates answer
questions in the same way. They first recognize the question as something they and their team considered,
relate how they dealt with it, and then 99 percent of the time reflect on why that was a great way to deal with
it, or how they would have done it given new knowledge or greater experience.

Sounds simple, right? In fact, most successful project defenses are simple, no matter what challenges were
faced and overcome during the project—sophisticated statistical analysis, elegant experiment design, or figuring
out the means to overcome resistance to change.

Generally, the narrative structure of any work, be it film, play, novel, or project presentation, can be divided into
three parts: setup, conflict, resolution. The setup is when the situation and problem are introduced. The bulk of
the story is the conflict, when the problem is diagnosed and a solution or multiple solutions are found. The third
element, resolution, is when the problem is confronted, and a solution is implemented that results in improved
performance - i.e., a happy ending, especially when the story is kept simple.

Every unsuccessful project defense is unique, but I have seen these five general issues regularly crop up:

Not succinctly telling the three story elements. Unsuccessful project defenses focus on one aspect of the
project and throw away any opportunities to tell a coherent story. For example, some belt candidates will walk
you through every possible step they (or the team) took to diagnose the problem. A comparable metaphor
would be your doctor describing how Alexander Fleming discovered in 1928 that penicillin had antibiotic
properties after he left a petri dish of Staphylococcus uncovered overnight, rather than simply prescribing
penicillin for your infection. Other unsuccessful candidates spend 70 percent of their defense talking about the
changes to their project charter, which may be interesting to them and demonstrative of the project challenges,
but doing this leaves too little time to describe the the project results.

My hypothesis is that belt candidates have spent so much time living and breathing their projects that they
focus on what’s interesting to them about it and forgot to tell the story. Create a solid executive summary, get
solid feedback from someone not associated with the project, and then stick to just telling the story during the
oral defense.

Lack of sustained results. This just kills the resolution part of the story. Results are needed to successfully earn
certification. No amount of PowerPoint engineering or good intentions can overcome this basic fact. Lying about
results is a very risky strategy. It sometimes works in the short term but very rarely in the long term, and it will
destroy your team’s credibility. There are many “but” arguments—the analysis may be dead on, but the solution
wasn’t implemented due to budget, resistance to change, lack of managerial guts, or lack of follow-through; the
effort was there, but this wasn’t a good problem to tackle; the team used the tools and methodology as best it
could, but there weren’t any data. The only acceptable justification for not presenting results is a long cycle time
that’s needed to show the results have been sustained over time. In that case, the expert panel can issue a
conditional certification and revisit the project, usually via e-mail, when the final results come in.

For example, I was on a panel that reviewed a capital budgeting project. The project was solid and had produced
a meaningful change for the following year’s budget. However, a one-time result isn’t sufficient. In that
particular case, we gave a conditional certification, and the Black Belt sent us the results (no need to reconvene)
for the next year to earn unconditional certification.

Solutions that don’t track to causes. If people are struggling to draw the connections between your root causes
and the final solutions as you explain your project results, you haven’t made direct connections. Point A must
make it to point B. During the course of the project, the team will brainstorm a lot, and nobody wants to kill the
enthusiasm. Sometimes extraneous undertakings will be identified and pursued; that’s fine as long as they are
there for a reason, and there is a direct connection between the project’s root causes and the solutions. If there
are extraneous initiatives involved, participants must know why they are committing to them. Likewise during
the project presentation, the relevance of the additional undertaking must be explained to the panel.

Appropriate consideration of tools. Many belt candidates have asked, “How many tools do I need for my
project?” The only answer is: the number of tools it takes to get to the right answer. Certification teaches
candidates to decide how to use which tools at the appropriate time. Candidates might end up including in the
project appendix other tools that didn’t work out. Invariably there is a Master Black Belt (MBB) on the panel
who likes to show off and asks why you didn’t use this particular tool. The automatic reaction is to think, “Oh
crap, I should have used this tool.” The right response is to say you didn’t need the tool, and the solution was
solved by some other method, or that your team didn’t find it to be appropriate for a specific reason. The
underlying question is, “Did you intelligently choose?” and if the answer is yes or no, say why. If you freeze up
on the subject of tool usage, make sure you say that your instructor explicitly stated, “Don’t ever use this tool,
it’s useless,” unless of course one of the reviewers is your instructor.

Not managing the audience. The first audience challenges will come from the MBBs on the panel. As soon as
you present any numbers, they will go into a frenzy not unlike feeding time at Sea World. Questions will fly
regarding where the numbers came from, whether you did an MSA, why this isn’t in a trend chart, what the
confidence interval is, and whether the sample is representative or and random. First, don’t show them a
number until you’re ready. Second, be prepared to discuss any number in the presentation deck. Third, make
sure you tell your story first. This gives appropriate context for a meaningful discussion about the data when
you’re asked. Finally, you can use this tendency of the MBBs to your advantage by telling the story, then
showing them a nice, juicy number, then discussing the math for the rest of defense.

In short, for a successful defense, tell a good story with a happy ending (sustained results), make sure your
causes link to your solutions, and proactively prepare for tool and data questions. It’s that simple.

Exercises:

1. Sum the article up in 150 words.

2. Which points are fundamental? Make a list and prioritize.
3. What does he mean by a belt candidate?
4. Make a diagram to show the method suggested in the article.
PRESENTATION 2 : 5. Write a critical analysis of the lady's method.

Task 11: negotiating a pay rise

DOCUMENT 1: How to negotiate a pay rise (2013), North S., theguardian.com.

The art of salary negotiation is a key career skill that will help you throughout your working life. Here are our
top tips for planning and executing a strategy to help you get you the pay rise you deserve.

Timing is everything

Asking for a raise can be disruptive for employers, so it's essential you get your timing right. If you get it
wrong, you can get yourself labelled by senior people in the organisation as a pain in the neck, at a time
when they need to be thinking more about your value.

Can you dovetail your request with the pay round? This is usually done as part of the performance
management process, annually or sometimes bi-yearly. If your company doesn't have a set pay review time –
or you've just missed it – raising the subject of your salary during your performance development review
(PDR) is a good option. It's very possible that your organisation's pay review is being carried out at this time
anyway.

Research your market value

Negotiating a pay rise is primarily about your value. Get an idea of what you should be asking for by speaking
to people doing similar roles to you within your company, in the same sector and in similar organisations.
Talk to people you know well so that you're comfortable asking how much they currently get paid and how
much they're planning to ask for at their next review. Also take a look at salary surveys and checkers, as well
as speaking to recruiters.

Know what you're asking for

Begin with the end in mind. Be clear about why is this is so important to you and your rationale behind it.
Why does this have to be done now? Where does your salary fit into overall career trajectory? Make the
effort to understand the organisation's process for making pay awards. Find out how it works, who is
involved and the power and influences regarding the decision.

Talk to your boss

Where is your boss is likely to fit into this process? They will need to be involved at some point, even if they
don't have the power or influence to make the final decision. It's useful to know what they will do for you,
just as much as knowing what they might need from you.

Build a business case

You're going to need a water-tight business case and evidence of your skills. Record specific you things did
and significant moments and events. Include examples of your work and projects you were on, how you work
with different teams and your relationships with key people. You need to show that you've been working
well on tasks that are beyond what everyone else is doing.

Present your case

When presenting your business case to whoever you're negotiating with, highlight the successful projects
you've been involved in. Draw attention to quantifiable data, such as figures and timeframes. Go over your
track record in producing results and other stages of your work history that demonstrate your value. Be sure
to point the decision-makers towards recommendations from colleagues and any supporting documentation.
Invite them to go and talk to Jane in marketing, for example, who will tell them about the work you've done
for her.

Be ready for discussion and negotiation

Be well prepared to discuss your pay at the negotiating table: make sure you know what you deserve. Be
clear with yourself on what your boundaries are. How much scope for flexibility are you going to allow? What
are you willing to accept or not accept?

You have the option to go back with a compromise and other suggestions. Think about a solution that could
fit in well with your strategy. There may be different elements of your pay package that could be
interchangeable or traded-off. Identify what these are so that you know what your options are.

Your organisation is unlikely to ever pay you what another organisation will: when you're under contract,
your employer will try and hold you at the lowest possible rate. That doesn't mean that you cannot create a
package that will work well for you, just be clear about what you want and why you deserve it.

Use the power of silence

Don't be tempted into speaking or committing yourself to an offer too early. Negotiation is about pacing. An
appropriate response to the first offer might be, "Thanks for that, I'm going get to back to you on it".

Take time when considering the offer

Each situation is different and you may need more or less time to consider the offer depending on how close
it is to what you want and what the other options may be. If you're asked how long you need to think the
offer over, say you'll let them know that day or that you'll sleep on it, depending on how much time you
need. Even if you think that the offer is perfect, I would recommend giving yourself at least a night to think it
through.

This also helps you stay in control of the situation. The people negotiating with you need to know this is
important and it's absolutely fair enough for you to take your time in making a decision or thinking about
what your next move will be.
 Tie it up

If you get an offer that's not what you wanted you can easily say it's close enough, or it isn't close enough.
Whether you get what you want or not, you need to close the discussion. Do that by saying: "Thank you, I
appreciate your time and offers. I appreciate you've taken on board my case and listened." Whatever's
happened, if you're happy to stay, then stay. If you're not happy to stay, then you'll have to consider leaving.
If you want to try again next year, that's also up to you.

Simon North is the founder of Position Ignition, which created the Career Ignition Club, an online careers
support and learning platform. You can follow him @PosIgnition.

Vocabulary: dovetail

Task 12: corporate culture

Vocabulary
paying off = profitable

astonishing = etonant

worth imitating= vaut la peine d’etre imité

sleek design = design elegant

pitfalls = pièges

gather = rassembler

workforce ( main d’oeuvre ) =

turnover = roulement

( resignation) = demission

The beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact
and handle outside business transactions.

Exercise 1: Comment on the documents

The Company culture reflects the beliefs, values, and

behaviors of everyone in the workforce. A positive
company culture has a significant effect on the success
of a business.

It can have different forms such as : Detail oriented ,

Innovative, Aggressive, Outcome oriented, Stable,
People oriented , Team oriented, depending on many
points: the product/service proposed by the company,
conditions of work …etc

Determining a positive company culture can be

achieved by reviewing company culture examples of
successful business. However, before creating a
company culture, it is important to be conscious of all
values and behaviors that define the business.

Many examples can be analyzed and examined in order to set a list of attitudes and behaviors that the
company seek in the people hired. When the company ovoid hiring the wrong people, it can improve
employee satisfaction and reduce turnover:
 1. Google :
- A good example of a successful company culture in the technology field
- The company has an informal product development process and gives staff members access to the
co-founders and chief executive ( unlike the hierarchical organization that puts barriers between
employees and top management)

2. Wegmans Food Markets : a company culture costumer oriented

The Wegmans company culture is costumer oriented. To achieve this goal, Wegmans concentrate
efforts on training employees and instead of focusing on rapid expansion, it opens just a few new
stores each year , until making sure that employees are fully trained and ready to work

3. DreamWorks Animation

The company culture of DreamWorks Animation relies on creativity. it fosters creativity by

encouraging employees to take risks and giving staff members the opportunity to engage in
spontaneous discussions. And the astonishing 97 percent employee retention rate is the best
indicator of its successful strategy.

4. Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com’ corporate culture is focused on new methods of communication between employees

helping them to win time and improve work. This aim is accomplished through a collaborative
application called Chatter, which allows employees to communicate in real time in order to analyze
date, compare drafts of documents and share ideas.

5. Apple

Depending on the innovative products and sleek design offered by Apple, this company apply a
corporate culture based on innovation by pushing their employees hard and expect nothing less than
the best from them, in order to bring out the best in them.

DOCUMENT 2: Cultivate a Positive Company Culture: 5 Examples to Emulate (2016), staples.com.

Your company culture reflects the beliefs, values, and behaviors of everyone in your workforce. As a result,
company culture has a significant effect on the success of a business.

It's important to cultivate a positive culture right from the beginning because it is difficult to change
behaviors and attitudes that have become the norm. If you need some inspiration when determining your
desired company culture, it can be helpful to review company culture examples of successful businesses so
that you can emulate the ones that make the most sense for yours. Here are five.

Google
Examining the cultures of other companies can help you create a list of desired attitudes and behaviors that
you will seek in the people you hire. When you avoid hiring the wrong people, you can improve employee
satisfaction and reduce turnover. Google is one of the companies you might consider emulating, especially
if your business is involved in the technology field. The company has an informal product development
process and gives staff members access to the co-founders and chief executive.

Wegmans
If your company relies on customer service professionals to keep customers happy, examine the company
culture of Wegmans Food Markets, which is consistently voted one of the best places to work in the United
States. Instead of focusing on rapid expansion, Wegmans opens just a few new stores each year. This allows
the company to send its best employees to the new locations to get the stores set up properly. Wegmans
spends millions of dollars training employees and will not open a new store until all staff members are fully
trained and ready to work.
DreamWorks Animation
If creativity is one of the most important traits you look for when hiring employees, the company culture of
DreamWorks Animation may be worth reviewing. DreamWorks executives strive to foster creativity by
encouraging employees to take risks and giving staff members the opportunity to engage in spontaneous
discussions. This type of company culture seems to be paying off for DreamWorks because the company
has an astonishing 97 percent employee retention rate.

Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com also has a company culture worth imitating if you work in the competitive technology field.
Led by Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com delivers cloud computing solutions for businesses around the world.
Staff members collaborate by sharing ideas via a social networking application called Chatter. This
application allows employees to analyze data, compare drafts of documents, and share ideas in real time.
Real-time data sharing eliminates the lag associated with the use of email and other older methods of
communication.

Apple
When considering pricing in determining your company culture, you may want to take a look at Apple's
corporate culture. Apple is known for its innovative products and sleek designs. The company is also known
for offering tech products at higher price points than its competitors, but consumers still line up to buy new
products or purchase upgraded versions of existing products. Apple corporate culture is built on innovation,
but critics report that the executives push their employees hard and expect nothing less than the best from
them. The company's focus on creating seamless consumer technology has allowed it to prosper even
when other tech companies have experienced declines in sales.

Create Your Own Culture

One of the major pitfalls of basing your culture on successful company culture examples is that culture is
not a one-size-fits-all concept. You can gather valuable information by researching the corporate culture of
other companies, but you must be sure to pick the values and behaviors that will work best
for your particular business.

If you want to create a company culture that helps your business thrive, you must work toward that culture
from the start-up phase of your business. Doing things right from the beginning will save you from having
to correct undesirable behaviors or ask employees to change their attitudes at a later date. Investing in
books and other educational tools about management and company culture can also help you create a
culture that makes you proud.

Exercise 2 : What can you say about the culture of the firm you work for? (150 words)

I have worked for ten years ago at the Moroccan Railways Company (ONCF) . The company culture is based
on many values:

- The first value that the company broadcast and inculcate into employees is the pride in being a
railway worker, for example, by participating to cultural events focused on the company
achievements. It’s a technique that the company apply to create satisfaction and to motivate
employees to bring out the best of them at work. In addition, by this technique, the company make
sure that employees spread a good image of the firm outside.
- Another value is the participating management: employees are often invited by top management to
give their opinions about work, to propose new ideas and to participate to top management
meetings.
- Finally, the corporate culture relies on valuation of women and promote female in different ways:
celebrating female events like word women’s day, and encourage female evolution.