Week 1: Leader/Follower Relations

Although I was excited to start working at a corporation as large and successful as General Motors, I did not realize how overwhelmed I would find myself in the first week. Due to the fact that my direct supervisor is out sick, I have been struggling to find a cohesive and consistent schedule. I have not for a second felt at all alone in the process, but rather have been helped by all of the employees around me. My department, Governance and Standards, is broken up into various teams throughout the country. I am lucky to be working at the headquarters, and my job specifically falls under the umbrella of Talent Acquisition. Although I have one direct supervisor, all the employees on the floor have gone out of their way to make me feel comfortable at the company. One thing that I learned right away is that there is no strict office hierarchy, but rather the entry-level employees are respected just as much as their senior managers. The corporate culture ensures that nobody is left unnoticed in his/her department, and the employees often recognize the work of their coworkers in company newsletters. That being said, however, the sheer size of the company makes each department feel extremely small. So far, I have noticed that all of the employees in Governance and Standards are willing to work together in their common interest for company success. There is a level of trust among the employees in my department that I have yet to find in any of my previous work experiences, and I personally think that this is a direct result of their mutual trust in the senior executives. Additionally, I have noticed that the employees truly want one another to succeed, and there is no sense of hostility when internal employee transfers are made across departments.

From the start, the first thing that I noticed is that everyone admires the CEO, Mary Barra. People refer to her almost as an omnipotent figure who changed the company for the better. She is humble, kind, and has an open-door policy that makes even the interns feel instantly welcome. Because the company is so large, people rarely get any face time with Barra, yet she makes an effort to walk through all the GM floors of the Renaissance Center weekly. The decision-making process at GM is as efficient as it can be for its size, and I am excited to get a greater sense of the company throughout the summer.