When employees feel supported in speaking up, they can more readily share ideas and adapt to change, because they feel included and valued. Office design and architecture can also communicate aspects of corporate culture. An open-plan office with industrial furniture, for example, communicates to employees that the company prioritizes modern innovation and collaboration between departments. An office space with executive offices and cubicles, on what is corporate culture the other hand, signals a more hierarchical and traditional workplace culture. Employees’ feelings of detachment align with how they believe their teammates and managers contribute to their organization’s culture.
- Job seekers often look for companies that prioritize employee well-being, empathy and meaningful work, so a company culture that reflects these values can be the key to bring in the best talent.
- Alphabet’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California offers on-site services such as oil changes, car washes, and a hairstylist.
- The company offers paid family care leave, fertility and adoption benefits, and transgender-inclusive healthcare, ensuring that employees from all walks of life feel welcomed and supported.
- You’ll want to consider companies like Google or Facebook when you think of an elite corporate culture, which is a culture in which innovation and forward-thinking are not only encouraged, but expected.
- The awareness and importance of corporate culture is more acute now than ever.
Examples of Contemporary Corporate Cultures
This approach, also known as “compete culture,” is highly focused on tracking key performance indicators, hitting goals, and continuously improving results and the customer experience. While a market culture can drive profitability and performance, it often leads to a high-pressure work environment, especially when targets are overly ambitious. Despite the importance of workplace culture, only 23% of surveyed US employees strongly agree they feel connected to their company’s culture, according to Gallup data from May 2024. Clearly, most businesses still have a significant opportunity to build a culture that resonates with their workforce and drives engagement.
Customer Retention
A horizontal corporate culture is typically more popular with small start-ups — as the name implies, it’s a culture in which everyone pitches in and collaboration is critical. Since the company is typically young, a horizontal corporate culture is flexible in nature and encourages employees to use market research to refine their strategy. A traditional corporate culture likely enforces a dress code and has a clearly defined hierarchy. Additionally, a traditional culture has an established practice, which makes it difficult to implement new technology. You might have an elite corporate culture if your company encourages each employee to think outside the box and push the boundaries of the status quo on a daily basis.
So, trying to assess organizational culture is complicated by the reality that you are trying to hit a moving target. But it also opens the possibility that culture change can be managed as a continuous process rather than through big shifts (often in response to crises). Likewise, it highlights the idea that a stable “destination” may never — indeed should never — be reached. It also focuses attention on the importance of symbols and the need to understand them — including the idiosyncratic languages used in organizations — in order to understand culture.
This helps employees feel their work is valuable and motivates them to go above and beyond to help the company succeed. Of course, the C-suite also has the power to decide whether company culture is a business priority or not. Having senior leadership buy-in is instrumental in getting the support and resources needed to launch meaningful culture initiatives and create an environment where employees thrive. A positive company culture can boost employee engagement, enthusiasm and dedication to their jobs. For example, employees who view their company culture as positive are 3.8 times more likely to be engaged at work. Plus, highly engaged teams outperform their peers by 10 percent in customer ratings, 17 percent in productivity and 21 percent in profitability.
Remember that building and maintaining a positive culture is an ongoing process that requires dedication and continuous effort from everyone within the organization. A strong company culture reflects the organization’s core principles and influences the business’s day-to-day operations, like how decisions are made, how teams collaborate, and how goals are set. These strategies, when executed thoughtfully and consistently, contribute to a more positive, productive, and aligned work environment that benefits both employees and the organization as a whole. Remember that cultural improvement is an ongoing process, and continued commitment is essential for long-term success. How managers create alignment, communicate, and give feedback all shape an employee’s experience.
The ‘March Madness’ Effect on Company Culture — Win or Bust?
These are the types of reviews you’d expect to see for a horizontal culture. Regardless of an organization’s starting point, our goal is to identify how quickly it wants to move and together create a road map to get there. Defining the culture you want is the first step — and probably the easiest — on the culture journey.
The Four Main Types of Company Cultures
50% of employees experience culture most strongly through their manager’s approach to performance. Your performance management practices matter—let them work for your culture, not against it. Our organizational culture research shows 65% of employees say their culture has changed in the past two years. While some organizations have successfully adapted to this new world of work, others have struggled to build, improve, and maintain company culture. In this article, you will learn the best ways to improve your company culture moving forward.
There can also be innovation of internal company systems, such as embracing new data management techniques or marketing platforms. These types of innovations signal a culture that responds to employee feedback and needs. People come next, with companies employing and recruiting in a way that reflects and enhances their overall culture. The people hired by a company are key to bringing corporate culture to life and obtaining the high-value performances that can lead to favorable business outcomes.