Maximino Matus

1. M A X I M I N O M A T U S
CULTURE AND
NON-CULTURE IN THE
INDUSTRY
MUMBAI 2018
S E M I O S F E R A C O N S U L T I N G
M É X I C O

2. WHAT IS SEMIOSFERA
CONSULTING?
Semiosfera is a disruptive innovation
consultancy established in Mexico City.
We use anthropological and semiotic research
methods in order to analyze social practices
and signs in action.

3. Problem
In 2016 Semiosfera consulting was contacted by a
multinational company in central México that was
facing problems to retain workers due to migration,
but also because of the presence of many
multinational companies in the area. Even more,
the company was on its way to increase its
production capacity in 2018 and in order to achieve
this goal they had to double their workforce.
Objective
To generate a strategy to retain
workers and double the work force of
the Multinational company in a context
of high rate of migration, violence and a
competitive labor market.

4. Place of study
The study was held in the summer
of 2017 in Western Mexico, a region
that is well known because of its
high rate of migration to USA.
Field research
How we did it?
Mistery worker
Methodology
A team of four researches (two
anthropologists, a linguist and a
semiotician) did field research for
the period of one month in the
region were the Multinational
Company was stablished. We also
did field research inside of the
company.
We visited 20 rural towns and talked
to people about quotidian life and
labor regardless if they were
working or not in the multinational
company.
1) 40 inddept interviews
2) 40 contextual interviews
3) 5 focus groups
4) Participatory observation
A member of our team spend several
days working in the different stations in
the floor shop of the company. She
started in the company as a common
worker and received the general
training before starting to work in the
floor shop.

5. Main
Findings
Multinational companies
in the region are surrounded by a popular
mythology that is very important for workers
when they decide were to go to work.
3
The multinational company (MNC)
has developed two opposing cultures inside of
the workplace; both of them see each other as a
non-cultural spaces.
2
The multinational company (MNC)
is a non-cultural space that opposes to local
culture in the region.
1

6. Quotidian life
vs life at work
places
There is a lot of violence in this region
because of the narcotrafficking.
• Because of the violence in the region local plazas are
not being used as a place for leisure anymore: since
there are few places for socialization workspaces are
becoming important places to meet people and talk.
• Family and communitarian rituals are very important.
Some people prefer to lose their Jobs instead of
missing those especial parties.

7. Week days
Workers who live faraway from the company do not had time
to be with their relatives and friends. Some of them spend up
to 3 hours traveling a day; there is no social life anymore and
to socialize is very important in their culture.
01
Week or free days
On weekends workers likes to go into nature with family and
friends; that makes them to feel free, especially after long
days of working inside in the company: nature means freedom
and in opposition to the workplace.
02
Family life
Foodscape: eating together with family and the quality of the
food is very improtant in local culture. The food that they get
in the company is low quality food and they do not have
enough time to enjoy their meals with workmates.
03
Quotidian life
vs life at work
places

8. Workmates
They consider any blue-collar worker a friend, and
all white-collar workers are identified as non-
friendly people. They don’t trust in their leaders
(white-collar workers).
Confidence
Blue-collar workers trust and protect all the
members of their community. They try to help
each other when it is need it.
Breaking the rules together
If there is an illegal practice they protect to
each other; e.g. arriving late to work or even if
someone steals something from the company;
they are a community and their social bonds
are based on trust and confidence.
Work life in the shop floor: the
blue-collar community

9. Cons
Since there are many multinational companies in the region
it is quite easy for young generations to change workplaces
when they feel bored, so they move to a “new plaza” to meet
other people.
Cons
Rules inside the company do not allow socialization practices: they cannot
use green areas, time to eat is very short, after finishing work they have to
leave the company ASAP. Therefore, some of the workers prefer to leave
the company.
Pros
Some young people like the idea of
working in the company because it is
easy to meet new people.
The workplace is becoming the “new
plaza”.
Pros and cons of socialization in
the work places

10. Pros and cons of
traditional gender roles in
labor dynamics
Cons
Traditional families believe that young
women like to go to work to the company
because it is easy to meet men, therefore
family members are afraid of letting them go
to work.
1
Cons
For traditional families to be a man means to
work, therefore young men get into the labor
market as soon as possible in order to probe
they are already grown up men.
2
Pros
To be a man also means to migrate to the
USA at least once; it is a ritual, therefore
they quit their jobs. However, when they
come back from the USA even for short
periods of time they work again in MNC
because a “man” cannot be without work.
3

11. Work relations
· They are not an organic community.
· There is a lot of competitiveness.
· Prestige is gained in relation to work
performance.
Confidence
· They don’t trust in each other.
· They don’t trust in the blue-collar
workers.
Behavior
· They ignore blue-collar workers
· When they interact with blue-collar
workers they use diminutive language,
condescending adjectives and childish
words, as if they were referring to
children.
Work life in the
administration area:
the white-collar
workers

12. 1) Culture and non-culture in the work place
Model of
analysis
Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics proposed the paired concepts of
culture and nonculture in relation to the concept of semiosfera:
everything outside of the semiosfera belongs to the nonculture
realm. The main values of culture are better expressed in the center
of the semiosfera.
We consider the work place a semiosfera with its own rules and
cultural configuration.
2) Mythology of the work place
From a structural semiotic point of view, if there is a meaning to
be found in mythology, this can only reside in addition to other
myths and the way those elements are combined.
Workplaces in the region are immersed in a popular mythology
and this is an important determinant for people when they are
looking for work.

13. Semiosfera
Main culture
White-collar workers
we analyzed their core values
and contradictions
Semiosfera:
culture and non-culture in
the work place
Main values are related to
modern-urban way of life
· They don’t have to wear a uniform
· They avoid to interact with blue-collar workers
· They consider themselves part of the company
Semiosfera
Sub-culture
Blue-collar workers
Main values are related to
modern-urban way of life.
· They have to wear uniform.
· They see white collar-workers as non-friendly people
· They don’t consider themselves part of the company
Main values are related to
traditional–rural way of life
1 2

14. Main culture
White-collar workers
Semiosfera: the company vs. the community
Main values are related to
modern-urban way of life
· They don’t have to wear a uniform
· They avoid to interact with blue-collar workers
· They consider themselves part of the company
Semiosfera
Sub-culture
Blue-collar workers
Main values are related to
modern-urban way of life.
· They have to wear uniform.
· They see white collar-workers as non-friendly people
· They don’t consider themselves part of the company
Main values are related to
traditional–rural way of life
Semiosfera
Rural life
Main culture
· They have to wear uniform.
· They see white collar-workers as non-friendly people
· They don’t consider themselves part of the company
VS
We also identified that semiosfera 1 was no only opposing to semiosfera 2,
but also to the rural culture of the outer space; quotidian life and values
2Semiosfera 1 3
Main company´s culture represents the non-cultural space of rural life. Therefore, not only blue-collar workers, but also the older generations
living in the rural towns and traditional authorities are opposed to multinational companies that had set up in the region.
In response, people in the region have created a complex mythology around the multinational companies established in the area.
Rural life

15. The fact
That the company that we were working
with had an ambivalent status related to
a “mother/woman” opened a space for
innovation by using the positive values
associated with this figure in relation to
the reproduction of local values and
culture.
Workers in the region
Mythology related to
multinational
companies
Workers in the region identify the MNC as
anthropomorphic characters, and they assign
values to them in relation to their ”gender”, “age”,
and the parties they make for the workers; they are
evaluating MNC in the same way used to evaluate
people´s prestige in rural areas.
Main company
(ambivalent)
Women between 30
and 40 years of age
Pros
Patient, responsible, maternal, protective
Cons
Liars, hypocrites, unequal in the treatment
(there are some “favorite” children), parties are
boring, people with lack of formal education
work in this place

16. Furukawa
· Middle aged man
· Tyrannical
· Arbitrary
· Untrustworthy
· No parties
· People with lack of formal
education work in this place
Negative
Honda
· Old man
· Take care of workers
· Serious
· Very well behaved
· The best parties
· People with formal education
works here
Positive
Kostal
· Middle age
· No gender
· Polite
· Takes care of workers
· Protective
·Their parties are good
People with formal education
works here
Positive
Other
companies

17. Some of the
recommendations we
offered to the
company to create a
unified semiosfera.

18. Recommendations
In order to promote a better work environment and to create a unique coherent semiosfera in the work place
we made recommendations in two dimensions:
To talk
to the blue-collar workers the same
way they talk among themselves; they
are not children.
Body language
To promote better interaction between
white and blue-collar workers: making
eye contact, raising the hand to say
hello. Not ignoring them.
Uniforms
To generate a communication strategy
emphasizing the “we”.
E.g. We all are ***** we all work
together to achieve quality.
To pay attention to the quality of
food they offer
to workers; food is very
important in their culture.
Food
Green areas
To mimic the landscape of their
gardens to the real nature of the
area instead of a fancy one where
workers cannot even step on it.
Nature is very important in their
culture…
Community events
To make a series of events
celebrating the local culture inside
of the company, not only one big
party every year.
Materiality
Language
and communication

19. Thank you
semiosfera.com.mx
Fb. Semiosfera Consulting:
Disruptive Innovation