About Company Culture

“Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/) is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.[1] Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location.

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A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change.[2] Thus in military culture, valor is counted a typical behavior for an individual and duty, honor, and loyalty to the social group are counted as virtues or functional responses in the continuum of conflict.”

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

Company culture, like culture generally, is a range of things from values to dress code. It is not only products or services – or lack of them – that can make or break a company, the culture can do it just as well. If the people providing those products and services are not interested in standing behind them, the whole thing can eventually unravel like a house of cards. People are the foundation of a company and it is in everyone’s best interest to make sure the foundation is solid. In the long run, even if you had the most brilliant and unique product if everyone in the company is thinking about leaving, it doesn’t matter. Success, in general, comes from passion and hard work, and neither one of those lives in a toxic environment.

“Teamwork makes the dream work”.

As more and more people become interested in the values of the companies they give money to, so does the number of companies doing something about it. While the number of B Corps and other companies with similar values is growing, we still have too many companies that are using any changes as a mere marketing trick.

When you treat values as tools that are only used when they might be useful for you, you have something closer to a sieve, rather than a container. It might hold for a while, but if you want to make it to the goal with something in there, you are better off with something that doesn’t leak all the way there. The foundation is built for long-term success when a company has solid values and sticks to those with everyone from manufacturers to customers and staff.

In the post-pandemic new work world order, more people will be hired regardless of their physical location. That, as well as growing a company globally, brings the challenge of; “Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location.“ Companies need to consider how to maintain a consistent company culture when it is spread to different locations and consists of many nationalities from various backgrounds. When looking for talent, how can you be sure they also share the company values? Is the message you want your staff to tell something that works in different cultures and markets the same way? How much of the company culture can be adjusted to be more local and what needs to be the same regardless of the location?

When staff and markets change, so does your company, whether you notice it or not. Company culture needs nurturing and it should grow together with the company and its people. If you would like to see if yours can be improved, don’t hesitate to get in touch.