This paper examines the acculturation programme which Digital Equipment Corporation has used with success to co-ordinate its world-wide activities. It is critical of the misuse of cultural concepts by some management authors and questions their talk of ‘shared values’. Employees accept the official values of the company as coordinates of work rather than internalising them. In Digital this is not difficult as the declared values are such that most people are happy to accept them as guidelines for management practices. Taking the former hardware manufacturing operation of the Ballybrit factory as an example, the aims of an acculturation programme are examined. The question of whether or not a local culture can be a match for a strong organisational culture is considered. The author concludes that Irish culture is no match for Digital culture in the workplace but that company culture has little or no influence outside it.
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