Published Online: 4 March 2008

Corporate culture and language learning

W H Whyte published “The Organization Man” in 1956. This was an early- perhaps even the first- attempt to describe the impact that an organisation’s culture has on the way its employees behave. Since 1956 we have all become aware that there are many different types of culture, each with their different types of behaviour. Indeed a useful definition of culture is “the way we do things around here”.

A strong corporate culture is a handy thing to have. It makes decision-making a bit more predictable. It helps recruiters hire people who will fit in. It even contributes to the value of the company’s brand.

A corporate culture can, however, have drawbacks when members of staff have to behave out of their cultural norm. It is, for example, quite hard for managers accustomed to an entrepreneurial freewheeling kind of culture to deal with the enforcement of rigorous safety standards. That’s one reason why, worldwide, construction companies are some of the most dangerous organisations to work in.

Almost all effective corporate cultures reward success. Most discourage failure. This tends to breed a risk-avoiding kind of mindset in most employees. And this is the worst kind of mindset with which to approach language learning.

When an organisation wants an employee to learn a foreign language there is an immediate cultural clash.

Think about it. Every time a language learner opens his or her mouth, or picks up a pen, to produce a piece of foreign language they have to take the risk that what they produce will be “wrong” in some way. Not usually wholly wrong, but inaccurate or situationally inappropriate. The more often they take the risk, the more they will learn. Language learning is all about risk. If we all resisted producing language that might be wrong, none of us would ever learn to speak anything but our mother tongue.

In our first years of life we learn a huge amount of language. We make enormous progress every day. We do not know that we should avoid failure, so we start off by babbling, then progress to one-word sentences, then gradually build up our fluency.

As adult learners we are most unlikely ever to learn at the pace of a small child, but we can improve our chances by actively embracing mistakes, learning from them, and moving on. We need to set our corporate culture aside, focus on the learning process, and stop worrying about whether what we are about to say or write is “wrong”.

A neutral, relaxed physical environment helps. Away from the office we find it easier to forget the office culture. But great teachers are the key. Teachers who will help you progress without fear of failure. Who will make the process fun, and astonish you with the progress you make.

Here’s a link to a language school that understands the clash of corporate culture and individual learning, and that has great teachers who make learning “fun”.

English training and IELTS preparation in Jakarta