A recent article compares studies on groups of monkeys with corporate culture.

"The office and the jungle are surprisingly similar," says the report. "Both are ruled by stringent hierarchies, they are grounded in the need for co-operation, and complicated by the drive to compete.


"Add in the risk of hostile takeovers, a marketplace of favours and favourites, brazen opportunism and a long-held tradition of brown-nosing, and you can't tell the savannah from a forest of cubicles."

The magazine sets out five "rules of the jungle" that would apply equally in the office:
1. Don't take credit for work done cooperatively.
2. Stay on your boss's good side.
3. Don't bear grudges.
4. Be a team player.
5. Be a good boss by carefully balancing control, leadership and motivation.