When do you start to believe your own spin?

Doing a placement in house has not come without its challenges.

During my placement, I noticed that many of the corporate employees have an almost deluded idea of the organisation. They don't see past the front door of head office and have no connection with the non corporate employees.

Yesterday I had a meeting with my supervisor and he wanted to know what my recommendations for the organisation were. I said that I was a little shocked that during there recent brand overhaul that they had no meetings with their staff to ask for their suggestions or any issues they had with the organisation. They only sought out the point of view of a selected group of members and potential members and readjusted the brand to suit the needs of the members, with not so much as a second thought about the staff.

I studied PR Corporate 360 last semester and during that time I learnt that having a happy organisational culture was arguably the most important factor in an organisation and that if employees were happy, it would be reflected in their dealing with customers. This has worked for organisations such as Virgin, where CEO Richard Branson goes out and chats with employees on all levels of the organisation and asks for their ideas and suggestions, many of which are later implemented. I asked if the CEO at my placement did this, he does not.

My supervisor seemed a little embarrassed by this and said that it was easy to think that all was perfect when you had been working at the organisation for quite some time.

My question is; Do those working in house start to believe their own PR or is it possible to have an objective point of view whilst working inhouse at company?