The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer cover art

The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer

The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer

By: Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation
Listen for free

About this listen

 The world of work is a work in progress, from keeping remote teams engaged to integrating new AI tools to fostering feelings of belonging among all employees. UC Berkeley Haas Professors Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava—experts who have dedicated their careers to studying and advancing workplace culture—answer questions about the most vexing problems your organization is struggling with today. Jenny & Sameer share insights and tools based on evidence from the latest research, and offer concrete steps you can take to fix your company’s culture. Listen and subscribe to The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer wherever you get your podcasts. The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is produced by UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and Professors.fm. Economics Management Management & Leadership
activate_mytile_page_redirect_t1
Episodes
  • Work as Play: How Gaming Culture Can Power Your Career

    Work as Play: How Gaming Culture Can Power Your Career
    Mar 25 2025

    With so many shifting rules and cultural norms, career success can feel like mastering a complex game.

    Jessica Lindl, Vice President of Ecosystem Growth at Unity Technologies and a Haas MBA alum, shows how a gaming mindset can be an advantage in today’s workplace.

    Her new book, The Career Game Loop: Learn to Earn in the New Economy, launches April 29.

    Jessica joins hosts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava in the season 3 finale of The Culture Kit to discuss the gamer mindset, strategies for job crafting, and how leaders can build game-inspired workplace cultures.

    3 main takeaways from Jenny & Sameer’s interview with Jessica Lindl:
    1. Embrace chaos and uncertainty: Learn how to find opportunity in moments of change.
    2. Build durable skills: As AI integrates into the workforce, it’s more important than ever to have durable skills such as problem-solving and collaboration that make you a fundamental asset to your organization.
    3. Look for opportunities to job craft and continually evolve your role: This can spur innovation at the company as well as new opportunities in your career.
    Show Links:
    • Pre-order link for The Career Game Loop: Learn to Earn in the New Economy
    • Jessica Lindl on LinkedIn
    • View the full transcript of this episode.

    For more information about this podcast and a full written transcript, please see http: haas.org/culture-kit.

    *The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

    Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

    Learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at www.haas.org/culture-kit.

    *The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. It is produced by University FM.*
    Show More Show Less
    22 mins
  • Meet Your New Boss: An Algorithm

    Meet Your New Boss: An Algorithm
    Mar 11 2025
    From ride-hailing services to warehouses to hiring platforms, algorithms are increasingly taking on the role of manager. What does this mean for worker autonomy and meaningful engagement with work? On this episode of The Culture Kit, hosts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava interview Lindsey Cameron, assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, about the research insights she gained from getting behind the wheel as a ride-hailing driver. Cameron discusses the cultural aspects of gig work, the “good bad job” paradox, and strategies for fostering equity and worker dignity in an increasingly algorithm-driven world.Main takeaway from Jenny & Sameer’s interview with Lindsey Cameron :Keep humans at the center. Rather than optimizing solely for efficiency, use human-centered design to consider worker well-being throughout their lifecycle with the company.For more information about this podcast and a full written transcript, please see http: haas.org/culture-kit.*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*Show Links:View the full transcript of this episode.Lindsey Cameron’s website“The Making of the “Good Bad” Job: How Algorithmic Management Manufactures Consent Through Constant and Confined Choices.” By Lindsey D. Cameron, Administrative Science Quarterly, 2024.“How Microchoices and Games Motivate Gig Workers,” By Lindsey D. Cameron, Harvard Business Review, 2024“‘Making Out’ While Driving: Relational and Efficiency Games in the Gig Economy,” by Lindsey D. Cameron, Organization Science, 2021.“Expanding the Locus of Resistance: The Constitution of Control and Resistance in the Gig Economy,” By Lindsey D. Cameron, & Hatim Rahman. Organization Science, 2022.“Heroes from Above But Not (Always) From Within: Gig Workers Responses to the Public Moralization of their Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” By Lindsey D. Cameron, Curtis K. Chan, and Michel Anteby. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2022.“Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s.” By Arne L. Kalleberg, 2011.“Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism,” By Michael Burawoy, 1982.“A Numbers Game: Quantification of Work, Auto-Gamification, and Worker Productivity,” by Aruna Ranganathan and Alan Benson, American Sociological Review, 2020“Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society”, by Tressie McMillan Cottom, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2020.Own This! How Platform Cooperatives Help Workers Build a Democratic Internet, by R. Trebor Scholz, Penguin Random House, 2023.Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy, by Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, University of California Press, 2019. Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!” Learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at www.haas.org/culture-kit.*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. It is produced by University FM.*
    Show More Show Less
    29 mins
  • The Dishwasher Divide: How to Decode Tight and Loose Cultures

    The Dishwasher Divide: How to Decode Tight and Loose Cultures
    Feb 27 2025
    Why do some workplaces enforce strict rules while others never seem to start a meeting on time? What happens when a rule-following “Order Muppet”—think Kermit the Frog—pairs up with a “Chaos Muppet” like Cookie Monster? And what does how you load the dishwasher reveal about your cultural mindset?In this episode of The Culture Kit, hosts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava welcome Dr. Michele Gelfand, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and pioneer of the “tight-loose” framework for analyzing culture. Gelfand, a cross-cultural psychologist, reveals how invisible cultural forces shape behavior across nations, organizations, and even households, offering a powerful lens to understand why some groups thrive with structure while others flourish with freedom. The conversation unpacks how companies navigate cultural challenges during crises like the pandemic, mergers, and the remote work revolution. Gelfand shares tools for leaders to identify when their organization has become too rigid or too lax, and strategies for achieving “tight-loose ambidexterity—a balance of accountability and empowerment that drives success.3 main takeaways from Jenny & Sameer’s interview with Michele Gelfand:Cultural tightness and looseness exist on a spectrum. This pattern appears at all levels from nations to organizations to families, often developing in response to external threats or coordination needs.Both extremes can be problematic for organizations. Companies that become too tight risk stifling creativity and adaptability, while those that become too loose might lack accountability and coordination. “Tight-loose ambidexterity” balances empowerment with accountability for sustainable success.Leaders can strategically adjust cultural tightness. By identifying which specific domains need structure versus flexibility, organizations can adapt to changing circumstances. This includes using "flexible tightness" in safety-critical areas while maintaining looseness in creative domains, or implementing the "tight-loose-tight" model with clear expectations, freedom in execution, and accountability for results.Show Links:View the full transcript of this episode.Michele Gelfand's website“Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World,” By Michele Gelfand, 2018.“The relationship between cultural tightness–looseness and COVID-19 cases and deaths: a global analysis.” By Michele Gelfand, et al. The Lancet Planetary Health, 2021“Organizational Culture and Firm Performance Under Environmental Volatility: The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” By Jennifer Chatman, Michele Gelfand, et al. 2024“One Reason Mergers Fail: The Two Cultures Aren’t Compatible.” By Michele Gelfand, et al. Harvard Business Review, 2022.Michele Gelfand’s tight-loose mindset quiz“Duality in Diversity: How Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Cultural Heterogeneity Relate to Firm Performance,” by Matthew Corritore, Amir Goldberg, and Sameer Srivastava. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2019.Learn more about the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!” Learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at www.haas.org/culture-kit.*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. It is produced by University FM.*
    Show More Show Less
    28 mins

What listeners say about The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com.au reviews

Amazon Reviews
No Reviews are Available
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.