February 27, 2023
Organizational Culture
The Five Echelon Group
Business and marketing strategic consulting services for small and midsize companies looking for growth
Essentially, organizational culture is the values, behaviors, and shared vision that contribute to the environment of an organization."
Hubspot
What is Organizational Culture?
Organizational culture includes an organization’s expectations, experiences, philosophy, as well as the values that guide member behavior, and is expressed in member self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. Culture is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are considered valid (The Business Dictionary).
Culture also includes the organization’s vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits (Needle, 2004). Simply stated, organizational culture is “the way things are done around here.” (Deal & Kennedy, 2000).
Mission and Values
Built upon an organization's mission and underlying values
Solving for the Customer
Focused on providing value and solving for the customer
Diversity and Collaboration
Enhanced by team diversity and collaboration
Process and Communication
Facilitated by efficient and effective processes and communication
Words and Actions
Exemplified by the words and actions of employees and management
Organizational Culture defines your company
Most people spend more time at work than they do at home. They interact with their coworkers more than their spouse or their children. Yet many businesses put very little effort into designing their organizational culture.
In our view, Organizational Culture is the bedrock of a company. Everything is built on top of this foundational layer. Get this right and businesses find the other aspects of their business much easier to manage. (Find stat about how many hours people spend working versus free time) (Link to Wikipedia definition of organizational culture)
Organizational culture starts with a company's values and how those values translate into behaviors that define the social and psychological environment of a business. It's influenced by the company's mission and beliefs which guide the way people interact. It determines the flow of information and how communication is handled both up and down the management chain.
Many people think that organizational culture is all about perks and benefits. That's certainly part of the equation as they're part of what makes a company a great place to work. But organizational culture is much broader than that, it defines the soul of the company, what it stands for and how it values its employees.
Interested in learning more?
Contact us today to discuss how we can help your company!