If your team operates without an organisational culture, it can lead to mixed results and ambiguous morale.
But the real dilemma for your business lies in more serious consequences – lack of cohesion, low productivity, and high turnover.
We have the remedy to these problems.
In this guide, I share the ultimate guide to creating an organisational culture that will help your team become stronger and more efficient.
Ready to decode, shape, and supercharge your team’s ethos?
Grab a seat and read away.
What is organisational culture?
Organisational culture is the expectations, values, and practices you want for your team members. It is your company’s beliefs, purpose, and attitude that influence your employees’ behaviour.
Organisational culture influences the behaviour of your employees.
Through organisational culture, you can set a guide to how your employees interact with each other.
Your employees’ behaviour shows the psychology and sociology of your organisation in front of your customers.
Now that you know what an organisational culture is, let’s learn its benefits.
Why do you need a strong organisational culture?
Here’s why:
- Increased productivity
- Improved employees’ health and wellness
- Reduced turnover rates
- Increased levels of innovation
- Enhanced employee engagement
- Increased retention rates
Are there examples of companies that have strong organisational cultures?
Let’s check out a few.
Examples of companies with strong organisational cultures
Below are examples of companies and businesses with strong organisational cultures.
1. Disney
Disney focuses on employee experience. But how does Disney make the employee experience great?
They built a culture that encourages creativity and growth among its employees.
Wondering what structure Disney uses?
It uses a multi-divisional organisational structure.
Disney uses this structure to focus on different types of businesses and handles all the diverse companies globally.
2. Zappos
Zappos is a famous American online clothing and shoe brand.
Along with shoes and clothing, Zappos sells accessories and has excellent customer service.
Zappos follows a decentralised organisational culture.
In their decentralised culture, they give no job title, no manager, and follow no hierarchy.
Their culture aims to enhance their employees’ decision-making power.
3. Netflix
Netflix operates a flat organisational structure.
They give employees the freedom to make quick decisions because part of their culture is their belief in freedom and responsibility.
They only want their employees to remain honest; in return, Netflix trusts them.
4. Google
When we talk about strong organisational culture, we can’t forget to mention Google.
Google operates in a cross-functional organisational structure. This means that staff with different skills and functions operate in the same group or work on the same project.
Google’s organisational culture prioritises employee happiness. They give their employees sleep pods, promote casual clothing, free food, and allow pets at work.
5. Quora
Quora promotes learning and improvement in their organisation. They assign mentors to every new hire to help them improve and grow.
Mentors also check new hire’s work and give feedback.
This means feedback is also a part of Quora’s organisational culture.
Wondering what makes an excellent organisational culture?
Find out in the next section.
What makes a great organisational culture?
Encouraging open and effective communication in your teams makes a great organisational culture.
You can achieve this by recognising your employees’ efforts and helping them overcome challenges.
The relationship, attitude, and understanding you create with your team make a great organisational culture.
You can pick and implement an organisational culture depending on your business.
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What are the four types of organisational culture?
There are various types of organisational culture. You can adapt any of these according to your team, project, and company.
All you need to know is which organisational culture suits your business the best.
Below, we’ve listed 4 types of organisational cultures with examples.
1. Clan culture
Clan culture allows you to create a friendly and collaborative environment. Every employee sees their coworkers as a family member.
How does clan culture work?
In clan culture, your company focuses on commitments and promoting the company’s mission. And the leaders and managers work as mentors to their subordinates.
Take the example of the online clothing and shoe company Zappos.
Zappos encourages a positive organisational culture to build a family spirit among employees.
What makes clan culture unique?
You can nurture your employees through clan and create an interpersonal connection with them.
Advantages of clan culture
- Promotes a joyful working environment
- Encourages team collaboration
See our guide to choosing a collaboration tool for your team.
Disadvantages of clan culture
- Unnecessary chatting
- Poor decision-making power (due to other person’s feelings)
2. Adhocracy culture
Adhocracy culture is about creating an ability among employees to adapt to changes quickly. Adhocracy also means flexibility, initiative, and employee empowerment.
For example, Google is all about improving search engines, introducing new launches, and encouraging innovation.
This makes Google a perfect example of an adhocracy culture.
And there’s more.
The primary focus of adhocracy is uniqueness, risk-taking, and innovation.
Advantages of adhocracy
- Accelerated innovation
- Increase in employees’ confidence
Disadvantages of adhocracy
- Too much investment in new ideas
- Risk of burnout
3. Market culture
Market culture is also known as competitive culture because it emphasises results.
Organisations that follow market culture simply want to win and complete their daily target.
In market culture, you keep your employees focused on the goals. This can lead to leaders that are demanding and tough.
In return, the employees are rewarded after accomplishing the company’s goals.
Market culture can make your organisational environment rough, but in the end, your hard work pays off.
Amazon – the world-famous e-commerce platform – follows market culture.
Amazon has simple expectations: to deliver, climb up, and win.
What makes market culture unique is that you focus on delivering results, and your company will never settle for less.
Advantages of market culture
- Increase in employees’ motivation
- Improvement in overall performance
- Result-oriented
Disadvantages of market culture
- Can lead to a toxic environment
- Can increase stress among employees
4. Hierarchy culture
Hierarchy culture is also known as control culture, which is process-oriented.
All the activities in your team and decisions need to go through the existing procedure. No innovation and freethinking is allowed.
In a hierarchical culture, employees always ask leaders and managers for approval. There are leaders in the hierarchy culture to ensure that the team focuses on results, stability, and reliability.
The best example of a hierarchy culture is a government organisation.
Since government organisations need to go through many rules and regulations, they prioritise procedures over anything else.
What’s unique about hierarchy culture?
Simple.
You work by the books and complete your tasks when they are due.
Advantages of hierarchical culture
- Clear communication
- Sense of security
- Predictable
Disadvantages of the hierarchical culture
- No flexibility
- Less growth
Now that you have learned the types of organisational culture let’s find out what your organisational culture must consist of.
What are the components of organisational culture?
You can’t own an organisational culture, but an organisational culture can influence your whole company.
Here are 6 components of organisational culture. These 6 components can help you shape your company’s culture.
1. Leadership
To cultivate a healthy organisational culture, you must start with leaders.
Your leaders are the ones who can identify where your organisational culture is failing and what needs to be improved.
Organisational leadership is all about coordinating and directing team members.
The main attribute of leadership is to achieve organisational goals and mission
2. Purpose and value
Purpose and value are the main elements of an organisational culture.
Through purpose and value, you reflect the operations of your organisation.
A sense of the organisation’s purpose and value in employees means they’ll become motivated and productive.
3. Empowerment
Employee empowerment means you’re giving a platform to your employees to make an impact.
Every employee wants appreciation and trust from their employers.
And when you give them flexibility, respect, and room for creativity, they’ll feel empowered.
4. Professional growth
Many employees quit their jobs because they lack professional growth and opportunities.
Giving your employees a path and development support makes them more likely to stay.
Professional growth allows employees to become innovative and problem solvers.
5. Communication
Communication is the most important element of an organisational culture.
You can engage with your employees, share feedback, and build trust through communication.
If you encourage effective communication, you can keep your employees informed and engaged.
| Want to make communication within your team easy and fun? Use Talk Magnet’s simple but powerful team communication app. Get a free trial or schedule a demo. |
6. Healthy environment
Your employees will stay happy when your organisational culture prioritises a healthy mental and physical environment.
You can build a sense of “health comes first” among your employees and break the hierarchy.
Breaking hierarchy means opening up with employees, encouraging interaction, and creating opportunities.
Besides the benefits and elements of an organisational culture, you must also know about the factors that affect organisational culture.
All about this in the next section.
Factors that affect organisational culture
These factors can impact your organisational culture:
- Management: Your company’s management and employee handling can greatly impact organisational culture. For example, when you give all the decision-making power to your employees, they become attached. Their expectations rise, and your employees will start expecting a long-term association with your company.
- External parties: Your clients and management from other branches must not interfere in your organisation. If you involve external parties too much, you’ll eventually affect your organisational culture.
- Goals and objectives: Your organisation’s goals and objectives can also affect your organisational culture. When you design your company’s strategies and procedures, you must also consider your organisational culture because they are interlinked.
Armed with all this information, there is one burning question. How do you select the best organisational culture for your business?
How to choose the best organisational culture for your company?
Below, we’ve outlined 4 steps to choose the best organisational culture for your company.
1. Define values
An organisational culture thrives when you focus on your company’s core values.
So, to choose the best organisational culture, you need to define your company’s values.
2. Compare
You must create different organisational cultures after defining your company’s core values.
Compare your values with other companies’ values.
3. Evaluate
Once you have your comparison list, evaluate the pros and cons.
This is because every organisational culture comes with advantages and disadvantages. And the right organisational culture will be the one with the most advantages.
At least for your company.
4. Take insights
Last but not least, take your team’s insight.
Ultimately, the organisational culture you’ll choose is for your team.
You can share your evaluation with your team and take their feedback.
Choose an organisational culture that will empower your employees.
Let me show you how to build a strong organisational culture.
Tips to build a strong organisational culture
Below are four useful tips that can help you build a strong organisational culture.
1. Identify ideal organisational culture
The ideal organisational culture for your company will help you build a healthy environment in your company.
Also, the best organisational culture promotes your company’s values, mission, and purpose.
So, spend a sufficient amount of time in your planning phase. You can follow the steps I shared in the preceding section of this guide.
2. Compare the new with the existing one
The moment your business went from a one-man show to a small team, an organizational culture is already evolving. Whether you know it or not.
But as your team grows, you can’t leave your culture to fate or natural evolution. You have to make the right changes to fit the kind of team you want to build.
3. Take employees’ feedback
Your employees are the ones adapting to the new organisational culture. And they are more likely to have opinions about the organisational culture.
So, ask them. Ask what they think, like, and dislike about your chosen organisational culture.
4. Work-life balance
If your employees’ mental, physical, and spiritual health is good, they’ll be productive and motivated.
While building a great organisational culture, consider your employee’s work-life balance.
Effectively implement your organisational culture with Talk Magnet
Once you’ve selected an organisational culture, it’s time for implementation to ensure its success.
A seamless internal communication process is crucial for this journey.
Our guide to the best team communication app can help you make the right choice.
Our pick is Talk Magnet – a simple yet powerful team communication app for your business.
Schedule a free demo or sign up for free to get started with Talk Magnet today!
