What is corporate culture? Questions and answers
Culture is what happens when nobody’s looking. In the meeting after the meeting. In the coffee kitchen. In the question of who takes the blame for a mistake.
Everyone knows that. It gets difficult with three questions: How do you address what everyone feels and nobody says? How do you make visible what works in the dark? And how do you change it so the change sticks?
Here are our answers. From more than 20 years of culture work.
What is corporate culture?
Corporate culture is the sum of the shared values, beliefs and unwritten rules in a company. It determines how people there think, decide, work together and treat each other.
In short: culture is “the way we do things around here”.
Our definition at identifire: corporate culture is a company’s operating system. You can’t see it. You only notice it when it crashes.
Is corporate culture the same as organizational culture?
Yes. Corporate culture, company culture and organizational culture mean the same thing in everyday use: the lived culture of an organization.
“Corporate” sounds like big business. But it also means the twelve-person carpentry shop. It has a culture too. Often a very distinct one.
How can you recognize a company’s culture?
By everyday behavior: who gets promoted, how mistakes are handled, who speaks in meetings and who stays silent, what gets rewarded and what is merely tolerated.
Three quick tests:
- What happens to the person who brings bad news?
- Who can break a rule without consequences?
- What do people laugh about?
The answers say more than any mission statement.
How do you make corporate culture visible?
By putting the unspoken on the table in a structured way. identifire uses Eigenland® for this: a playful, multi-sensory culture analysis in which teams make visible within a few hours what carries them, what is open and what slows them down.
The hardest part of culture is raising it. Whoever says in a meeting “Nobody here dares to say no” is brave. Or soon silent.
Eigenland® turns this into a game with clear rules:
- Rate: the team responds to 30 to 60 pointed statements about leadership, collaboration and culture. After about ten minutes, the statistics are in
- Sort: what works becomes a diamond. What is ambivalent becomes a cloud. What slows things down becomes a storm warning
- Deep dive: the group works on the most important areas and develops ideas and next steps during the workshop itself
Gamification meets neuroscience: spreadsheet thinkers and heart people get an equal say. Groups of 8 to 10 people, up to 300 participants in total, on site, online or hybrid. One day is enough for a complete analysis.
At the end, priorities are on the table. The same day. The report for the drawer is cancelled.
Why does corporate culture matter?
Because it decides whether strategies get implemented, whether good people stay and whether a company can withstand change. Culture is the factor that influences all other factors.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast, they say. And change projects for lunch.
Can you change corporate culture?
Yes. Culture changes through behavior, decisions, rituals and role models, especially in leadership. That takes time, consistency and an honest look at where you stand.
Culture grows like a garden: you water, you weed, you dig over the bed. And then it takes patience.
At identifire this happens in three steps: getting to know the culture, for example with Eigenland®. Initiating change. Strengthening the culture. More: Corporate culture at identifire
Who is responsible for corporate culture?
Everyone, but not everyone equally. Leaders shape culture most, because their behavior becomes the rule. They set the tone. People & Culture designs the framework and develops the mindset.
If “culture is HR’s job” is in the air, that already says something about the culture.
What is the difference between company values and corporate culture?
Values are what a company says about itself. Culture is what it does. Good culture work closes the gap between the two.
“Appreciation” on the poster and emails at 11 p.m. in the inbox: that isn’t a values gap. It’s a credibility gap.
How do you measure corporate culture?
With a mix of surveys, interviews, workshops and observation, supplemented by metrics such as turnover, referral rate and internal mobility.
Numbers show that something is going on. Conversations show what is going on. You need both.
Eigenland® combines both: after ten minutes the statistics are in, and right after that the conversation about them begins.
What does AI do to corporate culture?
AI changes not only workflows, but also how people collaborate, learn and trust each other. Whether AI takes hold in a company is therefore less a question of technology than of culture.
We call the feeling that comes with it Angstfreude: wonder and unease at the same time. For our white paper Angstfreude, we spoke with ten People & Culture leaders from Austrian companies, including A1, ÖBB, Dynatrace and UNIQA.
How teams learn to think with AI instead of just typing: Workshop AI & culture
How does identifire work on corporate culture?
identifire® makes corporate culture visible, discussable and shapeable: with the Eigenland® culture analysis, workshops, LEGO® Serious Play®, support for leadership teams and the Corporate Culture Club, an open exchange for everyone working on culture and identification.
Since 2004, in more than 500 projects. And always with the same conviction: culture is hard. You notice it when you bump into it.