jjc1122 writes, “When i used to work at the chicago mercantile exchange, there were a lot of crazy stuff. traders routinely doing coke in the bathroom, old irish guys hurling racial insults, fights, and sleeping with their hot female clerks.”

He adds that his experience dates from 2005, but he’d heard that things were actually a lot crazier in the earlier part of the decade.

Two aspects of corporate culture are workplace mood (the social energy and decorum of an office) and leisure time (what coworkers do and the way they relate to each other when not at work). How has jjc1122’s manager tuned those aspects of the organization’s culture?

One aspect of working culture involves life values—that is, the extent to which on-the-job experience leaks out to color nonwork concerns and life. What kinds of life values are exhibited by this organization? What kind of theoretical ethical argument could be made to criticize the manager’s promotion of these values?

The two basic ways that an organizational culture is instilled are codes (established rules guiding an organization’s members) and social conditioning (guidance is provided by following the cues and examples of others in the organization). Do you suspect the values of jjc1122’s Chicago Mercantile Exchange workplace were established more by codes or social conditioning? Why?

The instillation of a workplace culture through social conditioning functions in a variety of ways. Three are listed here. Can you fill in for each how it may have worked in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2005?

Stories and myths embedded in daily conversations may indicate culturally appropriate conduct.

Heroes or stars in the organization may consistently communicate a common message about the organization’s guiding values.

The dress, speech, and physical work setting may be arranged to cohere with the organization’s values.

One social way that an organizational culture may reinforce itself is through a self-selective process. What is a self-selective process? How might that process have worked to reinforce the values guiding work life at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3508960&forum_id=2Elisa#32498280)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3508960&forum_id=2Elisa#41518776)