When I first graduated I worked for Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL). VSEL's main activity was building submarines for the nuclear deterrent. It was a very traditional British engineering company with a 'role' oriented culture. This combination of industry sector and organisational culture matches the model of Handy , who predicts that long product life cycles and monopolies often adopt a 'role' type of culture. Having worked for the company for several months and completed my initial task, the next project was delayed for several months. In order to keep busy I suggested a temporary move to another department, where I knew they were short staffed and had a large amount of work outstanding. This suggestion however was not met with any enthusiasm by my line manager, in fact quite the opposite. It was perceived as a threat and I was literally shouted down with the statement that this was 'the most stupid idea and what was I thinking of'. I then spent the next few months at my desk with nothing to do spending most of my time reading the newspaper, until I finally resigned in frustration. With hindsight I concluded that my department manager was an empire builder who wanted to maximise the size of his department for personal gain. In this instance his approach was to the detriment of the company as a whole since it was clearly resulting in large amounts of inefficiency and the loss of skilled labour.