management gurus claim they were blindsided by toxic culture at countrywide

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/management-gurus-claim-they-were-blindsided-toxic-culture-countrywide-1323794868

On her first day at Coun­try­wide Fi­nan­cial Corp., Cyn­der Niemela gave a talk to a gath­er­ing of her new col­leagues. Every com­pany, she said, has its own cul­ture. Each is a tribe with its own rit­u­als and myths.

Niemela, a man­age­ment guru who’d worked for Boe­ing and other big em­ploy­ers, told the group of ex­ec­u­tives that re­search showed it took 16 months for a worker to be­come fully part of a cor­po­rate “tribe.” That time would allow her, she added, to offer a fresh per­spec­tive on how things were done at Coun­try­wide.

Af­ter­wards, she re­calls, one of her new col­leagues in­tro­duced him­self and, with a know­ing smile, said, “I can’t wait to see if you’re here 16 months from now.”

She lasted 16 months, but not much longer.



*** management gurus