What is corporate culture

Corporate Culture

What Is Corporate Culture?

Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires.

A company’s culture will be reflected in its dress code, business hours, office setup, employee benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, treatment of clients, client satisfaction, and every other aspect of operations.

Key Takeaways

Corporate Culture

Understanding Corporate Culture

Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent of Google, is well known for its employee-friendly corporate culture. It explicitly defines itself as unconventional and offers perks such as telecommuting, flextime, tuition reimbursement, free employee lunches, and on-site doctors. At its corporate headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., the company offers on-site services such as oil changes, car washes, massages, fitness classes, and a hairstylist. Its corporate culture helped it to consistently earn a high ranking on Fortune magazine’s list of «100 Best Companies to Work For.»

History of Corporate Culture

Awareness of corporate or organizational culture in businesses and other organizations such as universities emerged in the 1960s. The term corporate culture developed in the early 1980s and became widely known by the 1990s. Corporate culture was used during those periods by managers, sociologists, and other academics to describe the character of a company.

This included generalized beliefs and behaviors, company-wide value systems, management strategies, employee communication, and relations, work environment, and attitude. Corporate culture would go on to include company origin myths via charismatic chief executive officers (CEOs), as well as visual symbols such as logos and trademarks.

By 2015, corporate culture was not only created by the founders, management, and employees of a company, but was also influenced by national cultures and traditions, economic trends, international trade, company size, and products.

There are a variety of terms that relate to companies affected by multiple cultures, especially in the wake of globalization and the increased international interaction of today’s business environment. As such, the term cross-culture refers to “the interaction of people from different backgrounds in the business world”; culture shock refers to the confusion or anxiety people experience when conducting business in a society other than their own; and reverse culture shock is often experienced by people who spend lengthy times abroad for business and have difficulty readjusting upon their return.

To create positive cross-culture experiences and facilitate a more cohesive and productive corporate culture, companies often devote in-depth resources, including specialized training, that improves cross-culture business interactions.

The current awareness of corporate culture is more acute now than ever.

Examples of Contemporary Corporate Cultures

Just as national cultures can influence and shape corporate culture, so can a company’s management strategy. In top companies of the 21st century, such as Google, Apple Inc. (AAPL), and Netflix Inc. (NFLX), less traditional management strategies such as fostering creativity, collective problem solving, and greater employee freedom have been the norm and thought to contribute to their business success.

Progressive policies such as comprehensive employee benefits and alternatives to hierarchical leadership—even doing away with closed offices and cubicles—are a trend that reflects a more tech-conscious, modern generation. This trend marks a change from aggressive, individualistic, and high-risk corporate cultures such as that of former energy company Enron.

High-profile examples of alternative management strategies that significantly affect corporate culture include holacracy, which has been put to use at shoe company Zappos (AMZN), and agile management techniques applied at music streaming company Spotify.

Holacracy is an open management philosophy that, among other traits, eliminates job titles and other such traditional hierarchies. Employees have flexible roles and self-organization, and collaboration is highly valued. Zappos instituted this new program in 2014 and has met the challenge of the transition with varying success and criticism.

Similarly, Spotify, a music-streaming service, uses the principles of agile management as part of its unique corporate culture. Agile management, in essence, focuses on deliverables with a flexible, trial-and-error strategy that often groups employees in a start-up environment approach to creatively tackle the company’s issues at hand.

Characteristics of Successful Corporate Cultures

Corporate cultures, whether shaped intentionally or grown organically, reach the core of a company’s ideology and practice, and affect every aspect of a business, from each employee to customer to public image. The current awareness of corporate culture is more acute than ever.

The Harvard Business Review identified six important characteristics of successful corporate cultures in 2015. First and foremost is «vision»: from a simple mission statement to a corporate manifesto, a company’s vision is a powerful tool. For example, Google’s modern and infamous slogan: “Don’t Be Evil” is a compelling corporate vision. Secondly, «values,» while a broad concept, embody the mentalities and perspectives necessary to achieve a company’s vision.

Similarly, «practices» are the tangible methods, guided by ethics, through which a company implements its values. For example, Netflix emphasizes the importance of knowledge-based, high-achieving employees and, as such, Netflix pays its employees at the top of their market salary range, rather than through an earn-your-way-to-the-top philosophy. «People» come next, with companies employing and recruiting in a way that reflects and enhances their overall culture.

Lastly, «narrative» and «place» are perhaps the most modern characteristics of corporate culture. Having a powerful narrative or origin story, such as that of Steve Jobs and Apple, is important for growth and public image. The «place» of business, such as the city of choice and also office design and architecture, is one of the most cutting-edge advents in contemporary corporate culture.

What Is Corporate Culture?

The term “corporate culture” refers to the beliefs and practices associated with a particular corporation. For instance, corporate culture might be reflected in the way a corporation hires and promotes employees, or in its corporate mission statement. Some companies seek to associate themselves with a specific set of values, such as by defining themselves as an “innovative” or “environmentally-conscious” organization.

What Are Some Examples of Corporate Culture?

There are many examples of companies with well-defined corporate cultures. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), for example, is known for its employee-centric culture and its emphasis on working in a creative and flexible environment, whereas Amazon (AMZN) is known for its relentless pursuit of customer service and operational efficiencies. Often, national cultures will play a role in determining the kind of corporate culture that is prevalent in society. For example, Japanese corporations are known for having markedly different corporate cultures as compared to those of American or European companies.

Why Is Corporate Culture Important?

Corporate culture is important because it can support important business objectives. Employees, for example, might be attracted to companies whose cultures they identify with, which in turn can drive employee retention and new talent acquisition. For companies focused on innovation, fostering a culture of innovation can be critical to maintaining a competitive edge with respect to patents or other forms of intellectual property. Similarly, corporate culture can also play a role in marketing the company to customers and to society at large, thereby doubling as a form of public relations.

corporate culture

Corporate culture is the collection of values, beliefs, ethics and attitudes that characterize an organization and guide its practices.

To some extent, an organization’s culture can be articulated in its mission statement or vision statement. Elements of corporate culture include the organization’s physical environment, human resource management practices and staff work habits. Corporate culture is also reflected in the degree of emphasis placed on various defining elements such as hierarchy, process, innovation, collaboration, competition, community involvement and social engagement.

A corporate culture that reflects the broader culture is usually more successful than one that is at odds with it. For example, in the current global culture, which values transparency, equality and communication, a secretive company with a strictly hierarchical structure is likely to have trouble recruiting and retaining workers and appealing to customers and partners.

However, some organizations create unique cultures that break from certain norms and expected best practices, a move that can define the organizations as trailblazers and help them succeed in the marketplace.

All organizations, whether they are for-profit companies or nonprofit entities or even government agencies, have a sense of self that can be called corporate culture.

This article is part of

Download this entire guide for FREE now!

Corporate culture is sometimes referred to as organizational culture or company culture.

Many organizations determine and then develop the type of corporate culture they want, formalizing it through statements of shared values and policies designed to effectuate those cultural values.

Others organizations see their culture evolve organically and by chance and circumstance over time. Such organizations, however, may end up with a poor or even toxic culture because they weren’t thoughtful or attentive about fostering a more nurturing environment.

An organization’s culture determines to a great degree the way workers behave and what they consider acceptable ways of interacting with each other as well as with business partners and customers.

An organization’s culture also greatly determines how it reacts to change, evolution and crises. It deeply impacts the organization’s ability to innovate and succeed in both the short term and the long term.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to establish specifically how the notion of corporate culture first took hold.

However, some credit Elliott Jacques, a corporate psychologist, researcher and consultant, for identifying the phenomenon and labeling it in his 1951 book, The Changing Culture of a Factory. The concept of corporate culture, and the study of it, evolved throughout the second half of the 20th century. It was influenced by related academic disciplines such as business psychology and societal trends such as globalism.

During the past several decades, researchers began to study how certain traits influence an organization’s overall approach to work, the employees it attracts and public perceptions of the organization.

Researchers also started to explore why organizations with certain beliefs and practices tend to fare better on key metrics such as innovation, recruitment, employee retention, public opinion and financial success.

Experts have identified different types of corporate culture and established criteria for classifying them.

The authors of a 2018 Harvard Business Review article, «The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture,» built a framework based on a horizontal axis (for how people interact) that runs from independence to interdependence and a vertical axis (for how people respond to change) going from flexibility at the top to stability.

It listed two types of cultures in each of the quadrants. Starting in the upper right quadrant and moving clockwise, they are:

The authors described each of the eight classifications in depth, stating, for example, that a caring culture focuses on relationships and mutual trust while a culture of authority is defined by strength, decisiveness and boldness.

The authors cited online retailer Zappos as exemplifying a culture of enjoyment, the grocery chain Whole Foods as a culture of purpose and Disney as one of caring. Meanwhile, financial firm Lloyd’s of London is a culture of safety and pharmaceutical company GSK is one of results.

In contrast, Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor identified four types of corporate culture:

Still others have assigned other classifications, including one described as elite for its focus on high-achieving talent and trailblazing achievements; horizontal, with its collaborative, non-hierarchical structure; and conventional, with traditional hierarchies and dress codes that reinforce a risk-adverse approach.

However, organizational leaders who are strategic and thus seek to cultivate a culture that embodies certain specific values can do so by implementing policies and procedures that support the culture they desire or bring about culture change.

Experts advise such leaders to craft recruitment strategies, hiring practices and personnel policies that attract and retain workers who exhibit the values and traits they want in their culture, such as making customer service a priority. Hiring managers, for example, can seek out risk-takers at companies that want to have an elite culture. Managers can devise incentives that reward employees for taking risks.

Experts also recommend that business leaders establish workplace rules and encourage practices that support the culture they want. Executives who want a collaborative culture may want an open floor plan with flexible seating so workers feel free to move around and form teams. Likewise, managers who want a casual corporate culture will want a dress code that reflects that.

Executives and managers must also commit to sustaining their desired cultures by modeling the expected behaviors and values. They should adjust organizational policies and procedures as needed to support the desired corporate culture particularly during times of change, such as when integrating an acquired company and its workforce.

Culture can shape and influence almost all aspects of an organization, including organizational effectiveness, overall success and the bottom line.

Researchers have found that organizations that have well-conceived cultures supported with good policies that attract workers who fit well with the environment ultimately have more committed and productive employees.

Business partners, customers and the general public also often react to companies that are considered to have positive corporate cultures, which in turn helps organizations succeed over time.

On the other hand, research has found that organizations that lack a defined culture or that have fostered a toxic culture are at higher risk for poor economic results, higher employee turnover and even failure. In fact, experts have found that negative corporate cultures have caused or at least contributed to criminal corporate activity and other serious problems. For example, the late Edward Kennedy, the long-time U.S. senator from Massachusetts, blamed the implosion of the energy company Enron in 2001 on «a crisis of corporate culture.»

Companies that have been recognized for articulating the kind of culture they want and then building to those objectives include the following.

Corporate Culture

Definition: Corporate culture is the blend of sociability and solidarity in an organization. It can be understood as the ethics, values, perception, atmosphere, practices, attitudes and beliefs shared by the employees of a company to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

For Example; Let us take the instance of a world-renowned Swedish based furniture brand ‘Ikea’. The company’s positive culture has contributed to its success massively.

The employees themselves appreciate the company’s efforts to improve its culture continuously.

The company follows a culture of process simplicity, togetherness and teamwork.

Moreover, ‘Ikea’ values its employees as human beings and not just as resources, also they have freedom of speech and the right to express their feelings.

Content: Corporate Culture

Characteristics of an Effective Corporate Culture

Just like a family has some values and rituals which directs the family members, a company also has business ethics and practices which guides its employees.

To know more about the corporate culture, we must go through its following features:

Individual Autonomy: An influential corporate culture emphasizes on developing employee’s freedom of speech, high level of responsibility and ability to take initiatives.

Management Support: In a positive work culture, the managers are more friendly and co-operative and provides full assistance to the subordinates and guide them to achieve their goals.

Outcome-Oriented: The whole organization, including the employees and the management, becomes goal-oriented and focuses on deriving the required results.

Conflict Tolerance: There is an open communication system in such organizations where employees are free to discuss criticisms and conflicts in a stable work environment to resolve the specified problems.

Structure: The organizational structure refers to the company’s centralization or decentralization level. A company with a good work culture well defines the degree of control and supervision, along with specifying the organizational goals and expectations.

Identity: The level to which the employees relate themselves to the organization, instead of working for a particular group or team or person.

Risk Tolerance: The company’s culture determines the degree of patience required by the employees to handle the stress in the work environment.

People Oriented: The extent to which the top-level managerial decisions affect the people working for the organization sets their values, norms, opinions and beliefs for or against the company.

Performance Reward System: Another thing that impacts the corporate culture is the reward system of the organization, such as performance-based appraisal or favouritism and hierarchy based promotion.

Communication Patterns: The communication system followed in the organization, i.e. whether there is liberty of exchanging information informally or communicating through a formal hierarchical structure.

Elements of Corporate Culture

What all components come under corporate culture? Or What does corporate culture comprise?

To answer the above questions, let us know about each element of the corporate culture in detail below:

Corporate Values

The values of an organization comprised of the code of conduct and expected the behaviour of the staff, which when implemented, guides the day to day business operations and helps in better decision making and communication.

Workplace Atmosphere

The work environment in the company should be positive, encouraging and enthusiastic for creating a motivated and happy workforce.

Workplace Time

The work timings and duration of the company is a part of its culture. If the schedules are convenient, and the work duration is according to the universal standards, employee retention can be attained.

Political Action

The political favouritism may sometime create a significant impact over the corporate culture of the large organizations since they operate across the country or the globe. However, small organizations serving in a particular locality are not much affected by such factors.

Dress Code

The employee’s dress code, whether formal or informal, is a part of the organization’s culture. Usually, a traditional organization has a uniform, to promote discipline and uniformity.

Whereas, organizations with a new perception allow a casual dress code to ensure employee’s comfort and enhance their creativity and productivity.

Workplace Personalization

There is liberty in some organizations to keep the snapshots or collectables of the family members to add a personalized touch to the workplace, making the employees feel at home.

Employee Interaction

The companies where there is cut-throat competition among the employees lack a friendly interactive environment. Other organizations which demand teamwork and coordination between the workers, encourage more communication.

Religious Belief

In a large organization, there are many employees, and everyone has their own religious beliefs which may be deprived while determining the corporate culture. Whereas in small business units, these ethical values may be considered as of high importance.

Community Interaction

The organization also has some responsibility towards the local community in which it operates. This is a part of its corporate culture. It resembles how the company interacts with the community as a whole.

Leisure Time

The employees’ manner of spending the non-working hours, such as on weekends or holidays reflect the company’s culture. If free time is spent with colleagues cum friends, the organization has more of a camaraderie environment.

Social Cause Activism

For some companies, profit is not everything. They look forward to achieving contentment by contributing something to society.

Therefore, these organizations hold a culture promoting charity, donation and endowment for the various social causes like education, child labour, women empowerment, etc.

Types of Corporate Culture

The company’s culture is categorized under four different heads, based on two factors, i.e., sociability and solidarity.

The level to which the organization values its people or the tasks determines the following types of corporate culture:

Importance of Corporate Culture

An influential corporate culture resembles excellent management, an efficient workforce and a healthy work environment in the organization.

The following are some of the benefits of developing a positive and productive corporate culture:

Addressing the Challenges Faced

When we talk about corporate culture, it is not something which can be implemented immediately in the organization. Instead, it is the values and ethics incorporated by the business over many years of successful operations.

The company faces multiple challenges while building an influential corporate culture. To resolve these problems, let us read further:

Resolving Leadership Flux

Many times in the urge of establishing an influential corporate culture, the top-level management faces issues related to turnover of the senior managers and even the CEOs.

Specify the Culture

The management perceives the company’s culture in its way. However, the employees have a different perspective on it. Thus, it becomes difficult to define corporate culture clearly.

Handling Pessimists

If the organization has some pessimist employees who always think of adverse outcomes, it becomes challenging to create a positive work culture.

Allure Cross-Generation Workforce

The corporate culture is expected to develop a multi-generation approach where consistent values are maintained to suit the perception of every age group, which is indeed a challenging task.

Integrating Culture and Values

In a multinational company, the senior management establishes values at the headquarters or head offices.

Thus, i t becomes quite tricky for a diversified company to keep its culture and values united and to communicate the same throughout its multiple branches.

Fighting Values Fatigue

The company faces difficulty in spreading the company’s culture and beliefs. Values which are emphasized only by releasing a subtle message, again and again, becomes monotonous.

Therefore, to develop an employee’s interest in knowing and adopting the corporate culture, it must be depicted through different communication channels, pictures, stories, content, formats, etc.

Extending Values in Mergers and Acquisitions

When a company absorbs or acquires another business entity, a new workforce with two different cultures is formed. It is a tough task to integrate and reinforce the required ethics and values in the modern business unit for its successful operation.

Conclusion

The companies which maintain a world-class corporate culture are some of the market leaders and hold a high reputation among the job seekers.

Since the people’s mindset is working with those organizations which value the employees and their contribution towards business success.

What is Corporate Culture and Why Is It So Important in 2021?

Author: Candace Coleman, Content Manager
January 19, 2021

After what seems like eons, 2020 is finally over and we’re cracking open new calendars with cautious optimism. But no one’s forgetting last year’s biggest lesson as we step over the threshold into 2021: anything really can happen. Now more than ever, we’re thinking about being prepared for whatever we may be facing ahead.

If you’re a business leader still recovering from 2020’s fallout, you’re probably experiencing a lot of uncertainty as you gear up for the new year. Standard Q1 concerns about profit, staff, and customers are now overlaid by new challenges. You may be asking yourself things like:

How will I regain/maintain profitability as the country recovers from COVID?

How can I effectively manage a remote workforce?

How can I retain the customers who are finally starting to come back?

If questions about concrete issues like these are swirling in your head, is this a good time to add something that sounds as intangible as “corporate culture” to your list?

The short answer is—absolutely. The timing couldn’t be better.

Why? Because a strong culture maximizes your ability to achieve success in any year. Having one in the unprecedented period we’re experiencing now is even more crucial. It’s the ammunition you need to tackle the questions that are keeping you up at night.

At CultureWise, our leadership team has helped hundreds of businesses build and operationalize culture that drives success. In this article, we’re going to talk about what a corporate culture is and why it’s a critical element for every company—especially now.

What Corporate Culture Is…Not

If culture’s that important, why doesn’t every CEO make it a top priority? Maybe it’s because many people have a hard time figuring out what it really is.

Some may associate culture with motivational posters that make everyone feel good about where they work—but don’t really impact what they do. For others, “culture” may conjure up images of freeform workplaces with pets, game tables, and a ban on formal business attire.

If this is what culture looks like, it’s easy to see why business leaders preoccupied with a thousand other things wouldn’t put it in the priority column—especially in 2021. They’re busy just trying to make their companies as good as they can be in uncertain times.

And that’s exactly what a great culture can help them achieve—it has very little to do with inspiring posters and cool perks.

Swing, Miss. Another Misconception about Culture

Perhaps you’ve already spent time and effort identifying your company’s culture because you understand that it can be an asset. You’ve written a wonderful “culture statement” that capsulizes what your business stands for. You’ve developed a set of values that you’ve shared with your staff and encouraged everyone to live up to them.

Culture? Check! You crossed it off your to-do list a while ago. This year, you just need to focus on staying afloat and getting things done.

You started off with good intentions, but if you want a culture that creates momentum and propels sustainable success, you can’t just define it and move on. The great values you outlined won’t drive your company’s culture while you tend to other issues.

The bottom line is that even the most carefully crafted culture won’t work unless it’s constantly influencing everything you and your staff do, especially during challenging times.

The Real Definition of Corporate Culture

Now that we’ve identified several things that won’t drive an effective culture, let’s concentrate on what will. A healthy culture provides the backbone that will support and sustain your business. No matter how good your product/service/technique is, if your company lacks the structure to sustain it, it can’t remain competitive.

An online search of the term “corporate culture” yields variations of this definition found on Indeed: “An organization’s values, ethics, vision, behaviors and work environment.”

This is a pretty good summary using five words to describe the components of culture. But can you pick out the most important part of the definition? Only one of the words relates to how culture is achieved instead of what it is “on paper.” Behaviors.

Taking this line of thought further, CultureWise founder and CEO David Friedman offers a more down-to-earth and realistic definition in his first book, Fundamentally Different.

In it, he states: “Culture is the commonly-held set of values and principles that shows up in the everyday behavior of the people.”

In other words, no matter what a company leader says about principles and regardless of what employees tell you they value or believe, what shows up in everyone’s behavior is the best indicator of the organization’s true culture.

Culture-Driven Behavior

According to research done by Terry Bacon and David Pugh, authors of Winning Behavior: What the Smartest Most Successful Companies Do Differently, quality products and competitive pricing are the minimum requirements to be in the game. These are big accomplishments for a company, to be sure, but they’re also relatively easy for enterprising rivals to copy.

To build a real and lasting difference into your company, one that competitors can’t copy, you must actively practice a culture that shapes your staff’s behavior. The authors call this “behavioral differentiation,” and it is a game-changer.

To take advantage of it, you need to acknowledge that how your employees operate is more important than what you sell or how much you charge.

Your carefully chosen team, coached to regularly work and act in ways that are rooted in the principles you think are most important, is the special sauce that can’t be matched by others. That’s your culture.

The Power of Corporate Culture

Earlier, we mentioned that an effective culture is the backbone of a business because it provides structural support, especially in stressful times. Let’s take the anatomical analogy a little further. As your culture becomes more intrinsic in the way your staff operates, it also adds muscle to everything your company does. Consistent culture-driven behavior will empower your people with stamina, confidence, and unity—an edge you’re going to want this year.

Now let’s get back to those worries swirling in your head and discuss how a strong culture can be your secret weapon as you navigate 2021.

#1: How will I regain/maintain profitability as the country recovers from COVID?

Many companies lost financial traction last year and business leaders have no way of knowing what 2021’s economic arc will be. Some people may just plan to put their noses to the grindstone and hope everyone on their team follows their example. But working harder doesn’t necessarily translate to generating enough income to turn that much-needed corner.

Working more effectively, however, does. A strong culture gives companies superior cohesion that helps them successfully adapt, pivot, and respond to challenges and changes. They’re able to tackle problems better because they work together better. Culture-driven environments reinforce a team’s ability to:

These are just a few examples of how a team is empowered by a strong culture. The many benefits afforded by an active, engaging, and ongoing internal culture increase your company’s ability to drive income. Your culture will help you reach and even exceed the goals you’ve set for 2021.

#2: How can I effectively manage a remote workforce?

When the pandemic pulled the rug out from under us last year, businesses suddenly found themselves operating with staff members performing their jobs at their kitchen tables. Your company may have been among the many that experienced setbacks with this model.

Maybe you observed your team not collaborating as effectively when they stopped operating under the same roof. Or perhaps you and your managers found it much more challenging to train, coach, and guide your staff. What’s the answer?

A clearly defined and understood company culture can make a huge difference as teams work remotely. It provides a common understanding of how things are “done around here”—even if “here” is technically all over the place. The culture eliminates operational inconsistencies and improves collaboration. It’s the glue that holds everything together.

While working from home has its downsides, doing it on such a large scale in 2020 revealed many benefits as well. We’ll probably see a lot of folks go back to their workplaces this year, but a remote/on-site hybrid workforce is likely to emerge as the norm. Having a defined culture that keeps people on the same wavelength, wherever they are, will be crucial for operations from now on.

#3: How can I retain customers who are starting to come back?

Let’s face it, 2020 was really tough for everybody, including your customers. You probably experienced some level of attrition because many of them suffered financial loss. They also learned they could do without some of the things they regularly purchased in the past. Regardless of the quality of products or services you provide, last year left your customers with an extra layer of caution and a low tolerance for mediocrity as they’re starting to stick their toes back in the marketplace.

When old customers resurface, or when new customers give your company a try, what will rebuild or create loyalty? Your people’s behavior.

Teams whose actions are guided by a strong core culture will do whatever it takes to provide exceptional experiences every time they interact with a customer. These experiences are what will differentiate a company from the competition and create lifelong customers.

Teams that don’t operate with this kind of cultural blueprint will be less consistent and therefore less successful. Remember, it only takes one bad or even ho-hum experience to lose a customer—and that will be apparent this year more than ever.

These three examples are just some of the issues that a strong company culture can help you overcome in this difficult time. The full list of advantages is much longer because practicing a dynamic culture literally affects every single aspect of your business.

Culture Works! How Do I Get One?

By now you may see the value of developing an organic corporate culture that will shape and improve how your team operates this year. But it may seem like a lot to take on, especially right now. Let’s start 2021 with some good news.

Despite the wide-ranging impact of a great culture, the work of establishing one needn’t be time-consuming or distracting. You probably already have many of the necessary elements—you just haven’t activated them in a way to maximize their impact. There are several ways to get the ball rolling.

Corporate Culture is not only important in 2021, it has more value than ever before for your company. Position your business to get the most out of the coming year by empowering your team with a high performing culture.

What are the Four Types of Corporate Culture? (And How to Choose Yours)

What is Corporate Culture?

4 Types of Corporate Culture

How to Choose and Build a Corporate Culture

What is Corporate Culture?

The term “corporate culture” is ubiquitous, it’s everywhere and anywhere. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to define, or defined correctly. Generally, it describes the overall environment within an organization.

Inc. magazine provided a commonly used definition: “Corporate culture refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that characterize members of an organization and define its nature. Corporate culture is rooted in an organization’s goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to labor, customers, investors, and the greater community.”

— Why is it Important?

Every business has its own vision for success. Executives and founders then develop a set of goals for achieving it. Employees bring their diverse skills and abilities to the mix. These elements make up the best types of corporate culture, which sets out how the company is going to do business and treat its customers. Ideally, the company culture brings employees together and helps to propel everyone in the organization forward so that the company reaches its goals.

— The Role of Corporate Culture

1. Companies with good corporate cultures have higher employee engagement ratings.

A healthy corporate culture makes employees feel that their contributions are valued. Engaged employees are more productive in their work, which has a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

2. A good corporate culture reduces turnover rates.

When employees don’t feel as though they fit in, they will start looking for work elsewhere. They may not feel welcome due to a negative environment at work or when the company culture does not fit with their values. A good company culture is inclusive and recognizes the value and contribution of each employee.

3. A positive company culture can help attract higher-quality candidates.

Job seekers will evaluate the corporate culture as part of making their decision of whether they want to work for a particular organization. When the culture is a positive one, it attracts top candidates and makes them excited at the prospect of working for the company.