We live in a very big country with a large number of different cultures and nationalities. So that is why almost each region has its own peculiarities. And we are glad to find out that two cities and two cultures from our Siberia – Yakutsk and Krasnoyarsk – have so much common features, although they are located very far from each other and have ethnic distinctions.

Particularly, our teams compare tourist firms from our cities: the tourism agency “Olimp” (Krasnoyarsk) and tourism development center “Sakha Tour” (Yakutsk).

The team FORK writes about the company “Olimp”: “It is not a very large company, where all the workers are not just colleagues but also friends. Facilitating corporate culture allows the employees of the company to express themselves. Sometimes the tourism consultants come up with the ideas how to satisfy customers’ needs, they put their ideas forward to be discussed among the managers and very often these innovations come into a being. As a result the company benefits from it as the sales increase and so as the turnover. Social events are also the part of our culture.” (1)

As we can see from the information given above, this firm has a very friendly and calm atmosphere. They spend a lot of holidays together and value warm relationships in the group. They also pay a lot of attention to their clients and try to foresee their requirements. It means that they have very creative and cooperative staff. It is exact characteristics of Incubator according to Trompenaars Model of Corporate Culture. Of course, it is nice that they are so friendly. It is really important for modern company to be flexible, innovative, adaptable, and responsible. But there are also serious weaknesses in such organization. Referring to Trompenaars (2), Incubator type may be very chaotic and lead to confusion, because of lack of commitment to common goals. Also it can be overly dependent on small amount of people with creative ideas, and who actually further the company. Moreover, it may be very difficult to criticize each other, because of too close relationships. Even the team FORK underlines such situation existing in “Olimp”: “It is like a family business. But there are some drawbacks. For instance, if the employer is not satisfied with the performance of the stuff it is not so easy and convenient to reprimand your relatives for their faults.”

As for our team C, we write about “Sakha Tour”: “Tourism development center “Sakha Tour” was founded in April, 2000. “Sakha Tour” is now one of the largest tourist companies in Republic Sakha (Yakutia), which has a tour-operating and tour-agent licenses. It includes a complete range of directions in the field of tourism, viz. domestic and entrance tourism, exit tourism over Russia and abroad, sanitary and resort tours, educational tours for pupils and students, organization of children’s holidays. The main task of enterprise is realization subroutine of tourism development, organization of arrangements directed to the development of tourist-excursion potential and market of paid services in uluses (regions) and towns of the republic, commercial activity in field of entrance, domestic and exit tourism.” (3)

We can say that this company is a very-well structured one and every member does his or her own work, which they know perfectly. The atmosphere is also very friendly, but their group doesn’t intend to become a family like. Their company created more favorable conditions for reaching outstanding results. They are very active and not only participate, but also organize international exhibitions devoted to the development of tourism in Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It goes without saying that their type of Corporate Culture is Guided Missile according to Trompenaars Model. Such type characteristics are clarity, transparency, predictability, having structured processes, and being controllable. They are oriented to results and tend to promote drive and mobility.

And, of course, there are some disadvantages of such type. Trompenaars writes: “Their weaknesses are that there can be a lack of long-term orientation, a lack of trust, of creativity, of loyalty, an obsession with numbers and systems, too much focus on self-interest and an atmosphere of fear.”(2) While our visit to this company, we noticed that some of these factors really exist. We suppose that they have lack of creativity, at least at present time. For instance, when we asked for advertising prospectuses of their company, they gave us plain sheets of papers with logotype and too large in volume information. Maybe, it is some temporary problem in the policy of the company. They have been working for seven years in this field, and probably they are going to some new phase.

Although the Krasnoyarsk Company “Olimp” has been working in this market for some 13 years, their status is still tour-agency. As for the Yakutsk Company “Sakha Tour”, they have been working for 7 years, and they already have both tour-agency, and tour-operating licenses. Probably, that’s because of their types of corporate culture. “Olimp” is person-oriented, and “Sakha Tour” is task-oriented. Also there is a factor as competition. As for Krasnoyarsk, we don’t know the situation concerning this factor, but in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) the competition is very tough, and that is why it is important to be very active and goal-oriented.

We would say that the atmospheres in both companies are quite similar. It is very friendly and warm, the members support each other. Both companies are small in amount of employees.

After having analyzed these two companies, we came to conclusion that the differences between them are based on not cultural factors, but on differences in priority orientations and styles of doing business. Culturally they are very similar. We can see it from their relationships. Although our companies are located in different cities and regions, at least they are from the same country. That’s to say, generally, the culture is the same in different places of Russia.

 

1)      Immersion Project, Update 1, team FORK

2)      The Trompenaars Corporate culture Model (p. 52-53)

3)      Immersion Project, Update 1, team C

 

 

The analysis made by team FORK

 

Once we have chosen the profession of the Word Economy specialists to deal with the world wide approach to foreign markets and an integrated philosophy encompassing both domestic and overseas operations. For students majoring in World Economy it is not a surprise that there are differences and similarities between corporate cultures of different companies. We admit that there are hidden rules for playing the same game of doing business. But we could hardly realize that there are may be so many differences between companies of the same sphere of business operating in neighbor regions. During our closest cooperation with students from Yakutsk who have chosen to investigate the company of the same sphere of business - tourist industry, we found out a lot of interesting points. In spite of the distance between our cities we collected enough information to prepare a comparative analysis of our companies: “Sakha Tour” and “Olimp”. Certainly that kind of analysis would be hardly possible without the Trompenaars theory; in general we tried to compare corporate culture profiles by assessing the positions of corporate cultures on each of the nine dimensions. And as a result, we made an attempt to answer the question whether corporate culture important for the successful performance of the company or not.

First of all, it is reasonable to characterize the companies’ profiles in brief. “Sakha Tour” and “Olimp” are engaged in tourist industry (as we have already mentioned). However, tourism development center “Sakha Tour” was founded in April, 2000 and is now one of the largest tourist companies in Republic Sakha (Yakutia), “Olimp” entered the tourism market 13 years ago but has its own niche specializing in the South East Asia directions. Both companies are tour-operators and tour-agents. This is their competitive advantage over the rest of the companies in this field.

According to the corporate cultures, it is worth mentioning that both companies (“Sakha Tour” and “Olimp”) are on the one hand the Guided Missiles. It is proved by the fact that they have reached definite status in the community. “Sakha Tour” is a founder of the tourism of Sakha Republic and that it is respected by all its colleagues and, of course, by tourists. “Olimp” is praised with numerous rewards and is encouraged by the local government as it has found the “Olimp” performance significant for Chinese-Russian relationship. On the other hand, these two companies have their own approach. Each employee in “Sakha Tour” is responsible for his or her direction, which he or she knows perfectly. On the contrary, in “Olimp” every tourist manager can consult the client about any destination he or she is interested in. Of course, each company realizes the importance of the detailed instructions for the tourist going abroad.

More thoroughly we can immerse in the cultures of these two wonderful companies if we turn to the Trompenaars’s corporate culture model with its nine dimensions. No doubt, “each of the nine dimensions is directly related to a key element of corporate culture, allowing detailed corporate culture assessment” (p. 59).

The first dimension is consistency versus pragmatism. Both companies value pragmatism by allowing flexibility and adaptation. It is obvious that for these definite organizations it is the best way because the customers of tourist products are becoming more and more picky, demand more individual approach. And only if there is a response to satisfying their needs, do the companies get benefits.

So as a consequence we can point out the next dimension that is internal drive versus responsiveness. To overcome obstacles, to cope with the unpredictable, uncontrollable forces it is not enough for “Sakha Tour” and “Olimp” to have internal drive. It is getting more and more difficult to impose your will on the environment because of the strong competition in the market.

Another dimension is stable continuity versus dynamic change. Unfortunately, we are not sure about “Sakha Tour” but we can suppose that this large solid company might continuously innovate to develop revolutionary products (such as weekend tour to Lensky Pillars on high-speed boats, rafting across rivers Botuma, Amga, and Syniaya, sightseeing excursions in Yakutsk and other places of interest, visits to ethnographic complexes), constantly seeking to exceed customer demands. “Olimp”, on the contrary, “sticks to its core, work on sustaining technology, and manage corporate transformation in steady stages”. (p. 80)

So we come to the next dimension that is long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. We believe that both tourist firms are oriented to the future. They are strong enough today, they care about their performance in the future, so they invest in the development to gain fruits in the perspective.

The dimension egalitarian versus hierarchical helps to asses the leadership and the structure. “Olimp” is the organization where the management just sets the aim, puts forward the key idea and its up to employees to decide what way to choose to reach the goal. “Sakha Tour” has another perception of how the business should be built. It has a harmonious structural construction, where each worker has precisely certain registered purposes and tasks.

As a result, the individuals’ contribution to the performance of the company is more appreciated in “Olimp”, while in “Sakha Tour”, we guess, there is some kind of reconciling which means rewarding “individuals for what they contribute to groups” (p. 76) and rewarding “groups for how they nurture individual development and initiative”. (p.77)

Turning to rational versus inspirational dimension, there is a similarity here between the companies. The decisions are made on the basis of the rationality, but implementing them into practice is connected with the inspirational leadership style.

And the last point about the dimensions is the relationships within the company and out of it. (people centrality versus result centrality and competing versus partnership orientation). According to the words of the representatives of “Olimp” the working climate there is exceedingly comfortable and the atmosphere is really friendly. The atmosphere is so, because most of the workers are the friends or relatives of the owners. It is like a family business. But there are some drawbacks. For instance, if the employer is not satisfied with the performance of the stuff it is not so easy and convenient to reprimand your relatives for their faults. Each worker in “Sakha Tour” has precisely certain registered purposes and tasks. However, we reckon, it does not prevent them to be friends, to spend time out of the “Sakha Tour” office. About the behaviour of the companies in the market we can quote Trompenaars “cooperate to compete”; it is the motto of the rational solid companies.

Let’s summarize the results of our survey. Once again we would like your attention to the fact that every business – in fact every organization – has a culture. Sometimes it is fragmented and difficult to read from the outside. But it can have a major effect on the success of a business.

At the heart of corporate culture are the shared values which provide a sense of common direction for all employees and guidelines for their day-to-day behavior. Strong corporate culture can help workers march to the same drummer, create high levels of employee loyalty and motivation, and provide the company with structure and controls without the need for a stifling bureaucracy.

Coming back to the question whether corporate culture a blessing or a curse, there can be the only answer – everything depends on the abilities of the management to direct the culture in the way to success or ignorance of the theory that are more accessible now for studying.