What is Company Culture? – Definition, Types, and More

Company Culture Definition

Company culture is one of the essential concepts in the management of people within organizations and, therefore, any Human Resources professional should work on it.

It is, in a nutshell, the set of norms, values, thinking, and feeling shared by the members of an organization.

As we can see, the image of the company, customer service, dealing with suppliers, also enter into the company culture.

What are the elements of company culture?

Within the culture of an organization, we can find a group of fundamental elements that determine it. We will treat each of them thoroughly.

Beliefs

• The beliefs of a company bring together general ideas about the current situation, the mission, the origin, and future forecasts.
• And also, It bases on the belief, the members of a company determine their behavior.

Values

• Company values often define as the conception shared by all members of an organization of what is desirable.
• If beliefs underlie the culture of a company, values set the pace and the path on how the company has to act in the face of its regular and unforeseen activities.
• Within the values, we usually find comprehensive concepts that define a specific behavior, such as tolerance, respect, equality.
• From the sum of the two elements that we have dealt with so far (beliefs + values), we obtain what is usually known as ideology.

Symbols

• Symbols are often the role models of company members and embody ideology.
• Generally, when we talk about symbols in the corporate culture of an organization, we refer to people who have behaved or are behaving that demonstrate the potential of the literature and are a source of motivation for the rest.
• The symbols or heroes have the role of catalysts of the business culture, the reason why their communicative function, as in leadership, is fundamental.

Communications

• If the culture is truly shared, there must be a communication network that disseminates all beliefs and values, and that allows symbols to show themselves and shown to enable the culture to renew its worth.
• And also, Within this element, we would find all the formal and informal means used to transmit information.

Myths

• Myths are all the stories, anecdotes, or “fables” that sometimes told in the company about certain events of the past, specific actions of any of the existing symbols, and directly or metaphorically reflect the values of that culture.
• Many of the myths refer to the founders or to that stage, conveying original ideas about the beliefs, values, and exemplary behaviors.

Rituals

• They are the systematic and programmed activities that are carried out in the company to indicate certain vital moments.
• They constitute a form of communication of the values of culture, which have formalized in a formal expression, which can be repeated to better exercise its educational value.
• In the company, there are initiation rituals for those who join, ceremonies for the promotion of employees, or even employee dismissal rituals.

Language

• Learning a language is learning a part of the culture of the organization that uses it.
• And also, It considered as the crystallized thinking of a group. Therefore it is key to understanding their culture.

What are the Types of Company Culture?

Although, like each person, each company is a world, there are a series of low culture types that can include almost all performance models. There are four, although we want to emphasize that there are as many companies in the world.

Authoritarian culture

1. This type of culture found in companies in which the power of decision is highly concentrated.
2. If all the processes are to end in the choice of a specific person, the company finds a brake on its development in the capacity of this person.

Culture by objectives

1. It based on participating in competitiveness and success to achieve the objectives at the expense of other elements.
2. And also, The characteristic feature is the demand for results. The objectives considered to be the origin of the activity and, at the same time, its goal.

Motivational culture

1. This culture is a derivation of the culture by objectives. It aims to achieve motivation and, therefore, the happiness of the people who make up the company. Consider that motivated teams achieve the best results.
2. The determining factor in the success of this is the management style and how the employees are performing responsible tasks.

Why is company culture influential?

• When a business style is right, you have to try by all means to prosper over time.
• A good company culture ensures that departing employees take something of the company personally and new employees adapt to the organization does.
• In our opinion, company culture should always base on respect, tolerance, effort, meritocracy, trust, and motivation.
• Furthermore, customer management is the most definite external sign of company culture.
• The organization must continuously think about its customer, and bright and lasting business culture will turn customer relationship management into a successful strategy.

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