While the company and personnel will advocate for open and honest communication and a leadership at all levels philosophy; this has tended to not be the reality at the level where programs are implemented and people are impacted. It also seems as you get higher up the management hierarchy, the more disconnected the company is from the realities of lower level employees.
For instance, there will be agreed upon standards to openly communicate face to face or by phone to resolve issues or advance and implement programs, but then one will experience negative communication by a group E-mail complaint or by other roundabout communication methods. Bottom line is that individuals, in particular some of the managers, will simply not speak with you in a professional one on one manner in an effort to resolve problems and advance the business.
The company philosophy of leadership at all levels sometimes has led to a free for all in certain areas. You will sometimes have several individuals fighting to be the "leader" of a unit; despite the fact the unit does have a designated manager. This can lead to multiple direction and very confusing communication. Imagine a car full of people, all grabbing for the wheel, to be the driver.
Training programs, mostly computer or seminar based, are viewed as an end all and be all for the company. They are the gold standard and touted as the path to success. While these training programs are valid and relevant, it is a rare occasion where an employee will actually experience their manager SHOWING them how to do something. This is a mixed signal to the employee. Managers will TELL employees how important the training programs are, but do not SHOW them, on a consistent and ongoing basis, HOW to apply these programs in the day to day realities of their jobs.
Bottom line is that R J Reynolds managers have struggles similar to many sales companies that promote mostly from within. Good sales personnel are promoted into positions where they must now manage people; often having no experiance or training in managing people. They then tend to manage their personnel as an "all the same" group and not based on the personnel's need for guidance AND support in relation to both the individual and the task at hand. For a company that continually tells their employees they are their most valuable asset, R J Reynolds does very little to train their managers on the art of managing others.
