Do You Put The “Cult” In Corporate Culture? Please Don’t.
What comes to mind when you hear the term “Corporate CULTure?”
Notice The Cult In Culture?
Are you imagining a bunch of people in an office gathered around a printer in robes, chanting something creepy in Latin late at night? Is that your idea of a corporate cult?
Or is it more employees being devoted to an organization, never questioning leadership, and working long hours (many to the point of overwork, a subject that I’ve written about here?).
Where the organization work is the main part of their identity?
Where all they do is hang out with their co-workers at all times, and don’t having a life outside the office?
That is the corporate cult that we are going to be looking at in this post.
My main focus is to be looking at the difference between a cult-like corporate culture, and an organization that is more or less a cult. In the traditional sense when you think of the word “cult”.
What are the differences between the two? How similar are they? How can an organization shift from one to another?
Let’s break it down.
What this article will cover:
(click to jump to section)
- How Might We Define The Corporate Cult?
- Leadership And The Corporate Cult?
- How Does The Organization Deal with Conflict And Disagreement?
- Do I Work For A Corporate Cult?
- How Does the Rise of Remote Work Impact the Corporate Cult?
- Conclusion
1. How Might We Define The Corporate Cult?
Before moving forward, let’s come to a consensus of what a corporate cult is.
In doing research, I came across an academic paper, Organizational Commitment and Corporate Cults. Let’s use this as a base for defining what a corporate cult is. From the paper:
Jim Collins, author of excellent books Good to Great and Built to Last(which I featured on my list of Corporate Culture books to read), makes a strong point on creating a cult-like organization, while not being an outright corporate cult:
Walt Disney created an entire language to reinforce his company’s ideology. Disneyland employees are “cast members.” Customers are “guests.” Jobs are “parts” in a “performance.”
Disney required—as the company does to this day—that all new employees go through a “Disney Traditions” orientation course, in which they learn the company’s business is “to make people happy.””
They warned, “The point … is not that you should set out to create a cult of personality. That’s the last thing you do. Rather, the point is to build an organization that fervently preserves its core ideology in specific, concrete ways.
The visionary companies translate their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a consistent set of reinforcing signals. They indoctrinate people, impose tightness of fit, and create a sense of belonging to something special…”
They added, “Cult-like cultures, which preserve the core, must be counterweighted with a huge dose of stimulating progress.
A cult-like culture can actually enhance a company’s ability to pursue Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG), precisely because it creates that sense of being part of an elite organization that can accomplish just about anything.””
Cult-like cultures drive organizational success
A key part to make note of from the above is the following:
They warned, “The point … is not that you should set out to create a cult of personality. That’s the last thing you do.”
The cult of personality, or the charismatic leader, and how prevalent it is, plays a major factor in if an organization falls under a cult-like setting, to one that is essentially a corporate cult.
2. Leadership And The Corporate Cult.
“I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
I’m the cult of personality”
Cult of Personality – Living Colour
How leadership leads, and how employees view defines whether an organization is cult-like, to organizations that are a corporate cult.
Leaders come in many forms. They can be larger-than-life figures extroverts or can be humble modest introverts who avoid the spotlight. They can be tyrannical, or hands-off.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to leadership.
Due to the nature of extroverts, it’s common to hear more about the stories of traditional charismatic leaders.
It’s a major point discussed in the excellent book by Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts (which is also featured in our list of books to read to improve your corporate culture).
So, how do they come across to those that work for them? Are they revered like a rock star, a God or Goddess, a historical figure bordering (if not outright) on worship?
Is the organization the leader and you couldn’t imagine them with someone else at the helm? Like a Tesla without Elon Musk?
Is the word of the leader the final say that you can’t question even if evidence points elsewhere?
Or is your leader one to admire but not worship? One in which you can approach if you disagree about the direction?
One who makes it clear about the values of the organization? One who realizes that the organization is more than them, and sets it up so should they leave, the organization will live on?
This is where the difference can lie between the two. This is where you end up with either a cult-like organization, to one that is a corporate cult.
To be clear, leaders should have an idea of where they are going, and they have to make hard decisions.
That said, how many organizations over the years have fallen from grace due to headstrong leadership not listening to concerns?
How much of that was due to a cult of personality that built around them, whether intentional or unintentional?
How far were they removed from employees, or the customers themselves? These are the approaches of organizations that align more with the corporate cult.
While debatable, I would say Apple falls under cult-like.
Why?
While Steve Jobs was such a large presence at Apple (and yes, a cult of personality built around him), they haven’t collapsed as a result since his passing away and with Tim Cook at the helm.
Some missteps here and there? Sure, but nothing major. Sure, the company had more money than they know to deal with, but it’s not like Apple has seen lowering profits. It’s the opposite.
It was due to the strong focus on the values without overstepping into the corporate cult.
Microsoft?
While Bill Gates still lingers large over the mammoth organization, Microsoft has thrived without him. They have made quite the comeback over the last half-decade with Satya Nadella at the helm (from a stock price standpoint).
I would argue that they have made progress in shifting away from a corporate cult (especially under Steve Ballmer) and shifted towards a more cult-like organization.
That said, this kind of worship happens at organizations far smaller than these. So don’t feel this just falls to the FAANG tech organizations (learn more about the FAANG effect here).
What about people like Elon Musk with Tesla?
Can you imagine Tesla without him at the helm?
Granted, people said the same thing about Apple after Steve Jobs, so it’s hard to say how the organization would do should he make an exit.
He has in hand in many different pies (such as doing questionable things with Twitter), so who knows how his focus will shift.
How Reddit views Elon.
What about Mark Zuckerberg and Meta?
Does Meta go down in flames if he leaves?
What would it become without him?
It’s hard to say what would happen, but there is a strong cult of personality around him.
Below is an article that mentions the corporate cult atmosphere within Facebook. While to note the title describes it as “cult-like”, reading it makes it clear it’s more of a corporate cult.
Plus, it has this unsettling image as well. Just look at their faces.
Those faces say it all.
Some notable portions of the article are below:
The episode speaks to an atmosphere at Facebook in which employees feel pressure to place the company above all else in their lives, fall in line with their manager’s orders and force cordiality with their colleagues so they can advance. Several former employees likened the culture to a “cult.”
They say Facebook might have have caught some of these problems sooner if employees were encouraged to deliver honest feedback.
“There’s a real culture of ‘Even if you are f—ing miserable, you need to act like you love this place,’” said one ex-employee who left in October. “It is not OK to act like this is not the best place to work.”
Former employees describe a top-down approach where major decisions are made by the company’s leadership, and employees are discouraged from voicing dissent — in direct contradiction to one of Sandberg’s mantras, “authentic self.”
The company’s culture of no-dissent prevented employees from speaking up about the impact that News Feed had on influencing the 2016 U.S. election, this person added.
Employees were further discouraged from speaking up following the election, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg brushed off the accusation that Facebook could have impacted the election, calling that idea “crazy.”
3. How Does The Organization Deal with Conflict And Disagreement?
I’ve written in the past about the value of allowing for healthy workplace conflict (which you can find here).
How an organization deals with workplace conflict is the second major factor in a cult-like vs. a corporate cult.
Corporate cults frown on disagreement and conflict.
The harmony (or whatever you want to call it) must maintain in the corporate cult.
You cannot question leadership. Due to the cult of personality, they make employees feel bad if they disagree with leadership.
This can leads to feelings of resentment and isolation (see our post on loneliness in the workplace here), which leads to employees not doing their best and looking for greener pastures.
In the article I posted earlier about the Facebook corporate cult, there is an interesting point on Facebook’s major mistakes in the last few years. Employees recognized issues like fake news spreading, but leadership ignored them.
In fact, shortly after the election, Mark Zuckerberg said it was “a pretty crazy idea” that fake news on Facebook influenced the 2016 election, which took the infamous 2018 congress hearing to get him to outright admit it did have an impact.
The memes that came out of these hearings were glorious.
Organizations that are cult-like allow for disagreement and healthy conflict.
I would argue that under new leadership over the past five years at Microsoft (Satya Nadella) has shifted the organization back towards a cult-like approach as opposed to the strong hand when Steve Ballmer was in charge.
Since then, Microsoft has embraced cloud technologies and open source (something that would have been seen as sacrilege back in the day), and have shifted their focus onto the culture at Microsoft, as opposed to a strong, charistmatic leader like Steve Ballmer.
Organizations in their early stages grew because of disagreement and healthy conflict.
They allowed for open questioning along the way as they grew.
As time passes and they become larger, disagreement and conflict can get lost in the shuffle. You end up with organizations taking a long time to acknowledge mistakes.
That is the corporate cult in action.
Bringing up Facebook again, look at how many mistakes they’ve made over the last few years. Where employees were aware, but told to smile and not question leadership. Even when the problem was staring them down like the barrel of a gun.
What’s worse is that you have many organizations that have “transparency” as a core value for their organization, but few live it out. A corporate cult will say it, but not live it.
4. Do I Work For A Corporate Cult?
Well, do you?
We’ve given a couple of key elements of a corporate cult above. Here are other things to be aware of:
- How does your organization respond to people leaving? For example, Theranos, a corporate cult, made dossiers of those that left. Blackmail and blacklists. Dirty work.
- Not respecting boundaries. If you’re expecting people to respond to any inquire at any hour, and fast, you have some boundary issues.
- What people say about your organization. Glassdoor is a great place for insight. It’s staggering how many organizations will flood Glassdoor with “positive” reviews to drown out honest voices. That right there is a major red flag. Other sites like social media give insight as well. Word gets around.
It’s easy to think, “Paul, I don’t work for a corporate cult!”
Which, I hope is the honest-to-God truth.
That said, if you’ve been somewhere for some time, many of these elements become ingrained. You may be unaware of it, even when looking in the mirror.
5. How Does the Rise of Remote Work Impact the Corporate Cult?
Let’s take another look back at the paper I mentioned earlier in the article: Organizational Commitment and Corporate Cults:
One of the corporate cult’s most powerful weapons is the office and keeping them there.
One that’s common is the cliche Silicon Valley office. The one that more resembles a kindergarten office compared to a “normal” office.
All these fun perks that they have around for employees to use? They can be beneficial for blowing off steam, and getting the creative juices flowing.
That said, many organizations use them to help for purposes like swiping dissent under the rug and getting them to stay longer.
After all, if they have all these things available to them, why should they go home right at 5?
So, how has COVID19 and the rise of remote work impacted the hold of the corporate cult from this standpoint?
Well, it has given the chance for employees to explore how much they enjoy remote work. From the people, I’ve talked to, and studies I’ve read, many love it.
Having this freedom helps chip off that residue of the corporate cult, much to the chagrin of micro-managers.
With many having the choice to remain working from home, we’re seeing interesting changes.
Many organizations are starting to re-evaluate if they need so much office space. If they need fancy gizmos in a world that moves towards a more remote focus. This is great!
That said, many organizations have pushed back. A number want people back in the office. Forget about increased productivity and well-being.
The office gives them that control back. It gives them that stranglehold that’s hard to maintain in a remote environment.
Of course, employees are looking elsewhere if that’s the case. If another organization is willing to offer them remote work, they’ll be more than happy to leave.
The long-term impacts of this change have been interesting to follow. It’s still playing out.
But this shift to more remote work has done wonders in chipping away at the corporate cult. Those now with remote working experience have had their eyes opened.
Conclusion
While there are many other factors in whether an organization is cult-like vs. being an outright corporate cult, I wanted to focus on the two major factors that I see that differ the two.
It’s very easy for an organization to slip into a corporate cult, and very difficult (but not impossible) to return to one that is more cult-like in its approach.
There is strong evidence about the value of having an organization have cult-like aspects, and yet so many organizations will overstep their bounds and turn into the dreaded corporate cult.
While the effects may not be seen right away, cracks start to form, and what made the organization successful in the first place gets lost, and many organizations never find it again. Some are so mammoth that they can cruise by for years, but it does take a toll, day by day, quarter by quarter, year by year.
Don’t be one of those places.
Thank you for reading.
