Question

In your own words, please describe the main concepts of Fons Trompenaar's 4 cultural company types (incubator, guided missile, family, eiffel tower) You need to describe all 4 cultural company types in detail, and how they differ from one another.

Answer 1

The Family culture (FAM): This culture is based on the hierarchy and orientation toward the person. Most experienced person is treated as father and rest follows him/her. This type of culture can be found in actual family companies and in companies that originate from family enterprises, but publicly owned companies may have a family atmosphere as well. It focuses on collectivism, preferring group harmony and consensus to individual achievement. And people in these cultures are less governed by reason than by intuition or feelings. Work satisfaction is based on loyalty and the accumulation of power and status over time. Therefore, here, position is more important than the performance.

The Eiffel Tower culture (EIF): The great Eiffel Tower in Paris is used here to symbolize this culture type “because it is steep, symmetrical, narrow at the top and broad at the base, stable, rigid and robust”. How it is structured is more important than its how it is functioned. Everyone has separate work to do. Boss has the power, other employees need to follow him/her.

The Guided Missile culture (GUI): This culture is based on equality. The principle of this culture is getting the job done, no matter who is doing what. Every one in the organization perform as a team to perform a task.

The Incubator culture (IN): This culture is both person-oriented and equality type. The purposes are free individuals from performing routine tasks in order to enable more creative activities and shrink minimize time spent on self-maintenance. It is person- oriented cultures because creativity, passion and improvisation skills of each individual are highly appreciated and applied to pragmatic situations. That's why it is said that it is based on equality type too. Continuous learning, passion for the work itself, and celebrating new discoveries are the main tools for the work satisfaction

Difference:

Family: Most experienced person has all the authority.

Eiffel Tower: Power is given to the person who has superior role.

Guided Missile: All work together towards the targeted goals.

Incubator: Most creative person has the power.