Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro starrer movie, “The Intern” is a depiction of strong

organizational culture. 

A culture is considered strong when there is cohesion around beliefs, behavioral rules, traditions,

and rituals. A strong culture is one which is deeply embedded in the ways a business or

organization does things. With a strong culture, employees and management understand what is

required of them and they will try to act in accordance with the core values. A company with a

strong culture provides clear expectations for employees about their jobs, behavior, and dress.

A strong organizational culture emerges only when the work setting makes sense for the

company and its people: the way they prefer to work, the amenities and design that impact their

employee experience, and whatever makes them feel most comfortable or productive. As we see

in the movie, ‘About the Fit’s’ start-up work space is an exciting work environment. The

working environment portrayed is inspiring. It’s a light, open plan space with high ceilings, with

artwork on the walls and the building is a beautiful, historic converted factory. Even with

conference rooms and designated work areas, the space is kept bright and open with glass walls

and polished floors populated with clean rows of white desks and gray chairs. It’s eclectic, a

mixture of traditional, mid-century modern with found objects as well as procured pieces. It’s

reflecting Brooklyn, e-commerce, start-up, fashion. The staff are convivial and sociable, inside

and outside of work. The working environment is relaxed but the teams are professional and

dutiful where appropriate. Jules is a leader by example, relaxed, (she rides a bicycle around the

office) dynamic and hardworking (she rides so that she can get everything done faster, and stays
in the office later than everyone else) but serious enough to be threatening even though she is

probably not a great deal older than many of them.

Another element of a strong organizational culture is open and effective communication above

all else. The Company ‘About the Fit’ represents a new-age organization in which horizontal

hierarchy exists, where communication is easier and smoother, every individual is approachable

including the head of the organization. This kind of a change came about with the rise of the

start-up culture, where young people started building their own organization, similar to Anne

Hathaway who plays Jules Ostin in the movie, who is the founder and CEO of a fast growing e-

commerce fashion start-up. And then we have Robert De Niro who plays Ben, a 70-year old

widow, who lands an internship in the company, finds himself helping the millennial-aged staff

with both their work and personal issues, including fixing relationships that sputter out in the

digital space

Connection is another essential component of a strong culture. The workplace is less about

developing close, familial connections and more about relating: to people, ideas, objectives,

perspectives, backgrounds, and values. A positive culture is one where empathy is front and

center. People who relate to one another, who get where the other is coming from and understand

pain points for different teams, are better equipped to step up and offer support to ensure that

shared goals are achieved.  Jules Ostin is the kind of boss in the movie, who always moves

around and motivates her employees every step of their way. She also believes in maintaining a

good relationship with her employees. This has led to smooth flow of work in the workplace. It

also shows how employees are satisfied in the organization. This behavior is influenced by Ben,
and Ben makes sure that Jules has a good relationship with her employees to maintain a good

work culture.

Building a great culture is about planning and developing real growth opportunities for people:

informal lunch-and-learns, more involved leadership courses, and an incentive to better oneself.

Because when your people grow, so does your organization. Although the team at About the Fit

are good, (we know this because the boys have beards and wear slogan tees, the girls have edgy

multi-colored hair and everyone drinks a lot of coffee) Ben ends up teaching them all a thing or

two and everyone steps up their game as a result. Married for 46 years and working for the same

company for several decades, Ben teaches one of the plaid shirted young men the value of

loyalty - both with a girl he’s dating, and for the company too. He watches Jules closely, learning

and listening for what will help make her job easier, and in turn, helping the business run more

effectively. He picks up tasks without ego, even if that does mean helping the mail guy sort out

the post, or cleaning up the desks. He calls Jules’ assistant Becky his “Boss”, not patronizingly,

but to remind the frazzled 20-something year old that she is in charge, and motivate her

accordingly.

A sense of community is a tremendously important part of an organization. A sturdy culture is an

engaged, interactive, collaborative culture that creates opportunities for everyone to get together

and simply learn about each other, or (better yet) work together to solve a shared problem. The

better the work culture the better the employees will respond to tasks. When Ben in the movie

influenced Jules to change her ways with her employees, the employees started to open up and
were more honest. The employees were happier and wanted to work better. This senior intern

teaches everyone that certain values of business are timeless: having a strong work ethic,

showing up on time, staying organized, dressing for success and always having a willingness to

learn new skills. Despite being seemingly outdated; Ben is presented as having a great deal to

offer to the young. Some of what he teaches is simple and gender stereotyped like the virtue of

carrying a handkerchief to be able to offer it to a woman who is crying. But other things -- like

the importance of communicating face to face with others rather than by text or email, are

significant. What’s more, Whittaker helps his younger cohorts appreciate emotional intelligence

in the workplace – compassion and understanding are all part of working in a team and achieving

success.

Publicly recognizing people for their achievements has a profound impact on your culture too. It

brings positive contributions to the forefront and turns your people into advocates for one

another. This brings your people closer and gives everyone an opportunity to shine in the

spotlight, so to speak. When Ben cleaned up the messy table, July was so happy and she praised

Ben for that. She said that was the best thing that happened around all week. Every employee

around also applauded Ben for his hard work. 

Another time July praised highly Ben and other her workers was when they breaked into Julie’s

mother’s house and deleted the email from her laptop which actually in return strengthened the

connection between them all and raised the morale of the employees. 
An organization with a solid culture is always iterating, getting better, and adapting to change.

And this requires listening to and acting on feedback. As we see in the movie, Ben and Jules

eventually understand each other and of course, develop a close, mutually beneficial friendship

Ben, as the personal intern assistant of Jules, devoted his efforts to perform the tasks given to

him through ways that his boss did not expect. He somewhat helps Jules by advising her in both

her work and personal life. Ben showed loyalty and respect to his boss because he believes that

she deserves more than what she was getting. Ben really gave his best to a certain degree just to

ensure that he is able to perform his tasks well to make his boss proud of him. On the other hand,

Jules also helps her new intern by personally mentoring him. She also informs and consults Ben

about the tasks of his job to be able to perform better and to be hired by the company. In the end

of the movie, Jules was really impressed about the things that had positively changed in her

company that was because of the efforts and performance of Ben, which eventually resulted in

the hiring of Ben in the company. Both of them exchanged positive actions to further improve

their capabilities as individuals. Because of this, Ben and Jules were able to improve their

personal and work-related performances.