Today’s post is going to be a bit shorter because I am including a link to a video from Harvard Business Review that I came upon since writing last week’s blog post. The video discusses the findings of research done by the team of Groysberg, Lee, Price and Cheng in their book “The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture.”

 The video is under 5 minutes and can be found here:

https://hbr.org/video/5686668254001/the-8-types-of-company-culture

In last week’s post about motivators, I explored the notion of whether it would be beneficial for employees’ personal values to align with a company’s values. Apparently, I wasn’t alone in posing this question.

In summary, the video starts out by stating that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and that even the best strategic plans can be derailed when a company doesn’t understand the power and dynamics of positive culture. It defines cultural norms as the behaviors that are encouraged, discouraged, accepted or rejected within a group that can steer a team toward a shared purpose.

The dimensions of culture are divided into a quadrant of 4 dimensions: interdependent vs. independent (how people interact with each other) and flexible vs. stable (how people respond to change and where they place their emphasis.) As with personal motivators, environments will usually have a blend of the dimensions, and it is the proportions and combinations that are most important in defining each unique culture.

Below are the 8 styles or drivers of company culture as defined in the study. The percentages indicate the relative number of companies that ranked that dimension as the most prevalent:

  • Caring (63%): Warmth and collaboration.
  • Purpose (9%): Tolerance and compassion; working toward the greater good.
  • Learning (7%): Exploration and creativity; open-minded environment.
  • Enjoyment (2%): Lightheartedness, playfulness, high morale; Engaging and encouraging of creativity
  • Results (89%): Achievement, goal-orientation and winning
  • Authority (4%): Decisiveness, boldness, competitiveness; strong and confident leadership
  • Safety (8%): Predictability, realism, risk-consciousness; planning and caution
  • Order (15%): Structure and methodologies; playing by the rules

Looking back at the personal motivators, here’s how I see them aligning with these cultural styles:

  • Caring: Altruistic motivator
  • Purpose: Economic motivator
  • Learning: Theoretical motivator
  • Enjoyment: Aesthetic and Individualistic motivators
  • Results: Economic and Regulatory motivators
  • Authority: Political motivator
  • Safety: Regulatory motivator
  • Order: Regulatory motivator

What do you think? Is it important for a workforce’s personal value system(s) to be in congruence with the values of the company, and therefore its ultimate definition of culture?

I’ll be discussing different model of company culture in future posts. Until then, are there other cultural dimensions that you can think of that are important? I’d love to hear your feedback.