Types of Corporate Culture

Company culture originates from the management and then goes down to different employees in an organization. As such, the company culture takes care of most of the employee activities, interests, and behaviours.

If you as a business owner take efficient managerial decisions and recruit people who can best suit your requirements, you are bound to have a productive and healthy corporate culture, just the way you want.

Here’s a list of distinct types of corporate cultures evident in different companies across the globe. Whether you manage a small, medium or large company, you will be able to notice some similar core values and also cherry-pick some others to integrate them with your current managerial strategy.

1. Strong Leadership

The foundation of this corporate culture lies in the hands of leaders – both existing and upcoming. Leadership training, coaching programs, and mentorship programs are adapted and focused upon.

Existing leaders invest their time and effort in fostering subordinates to become the next leaders. Employees who perform well are given the opportunity to rise and take leadership positions of their own.

It may seem that a strong corporate structure is important for a foundation of strong leadership. However, this is not necessarily true.

An organization where each individual is trained and motivated to be a competent leader can successfully operate on the culture of leadership.

2. Role-Playing

When the corporate culture is that of role-playing, the focus is laid on specialists. What is important is the skill you possess.

Every employee is trusted to be responsible for the project they are appointed to take care of.
Hiring in organizations that adopt role-playing culture is very selective.

This is because only those who possess exceptional skills are hired. Wages are also high because the selected employees have been thoroughly tested and trained for a particular activity, carefully evaluating the mastery of their craft.

A role-playing culture is generally observed in teams with web and software developers since they are capable of writing specific codes for computer programming.

3. Excellence in Customer Service

As the name suggests, this corporate culture focuses on the customer. The ‘customer is always right’ approach is adopted by all teams across and each employee, whether facing the customer or not is bound to keep customer satisfaction in mind.

Product manufacturers focus on the ease of use, website developers ensure that the website is user-friendly, sales teams frequently conduct customer surveys to understand feedback, and customer ratings and reviews are regularly monitored.

Marketing teams are active on social media to respond to customer queries and the phones lines are always available.

Amazon is one such example with its focus on customer satisfaction and customer service excellence.

4. Sales

A sales culture concentrates on accomplishing quarterly sales targets and goals. Every team member must have working product knowledge and must strive to perform activities that help to generate revenue and profits for the company.

A combination of the customer service and sales culture approach can prove to be extremely fruitful for the growth and success of a company.

5. Empowerment

As part of this corporate culture, the employee is given utmost value. Be it a senior-level employee or an employee of lower ranks, each one is made to feel that their contribution is vital for the organization.

Wages and reward schemes are prepared generously keeping the demands and requirements of the employees in mind. In times of a conflict, employees can easily reach out to their superiors and discuss their issues.

Salary increment, medical leaves, and position change requests are considered with genuine understanding.

6. Power-driven

Here the focus is on intense competition among employees. Each individual is devising their own strategy to acquire power. The entire focus is on – the survival of the fittest. Such organizations don’t intend to accomplish company goals since power culture is dominant.

A typical example of power-driven corporate culture can be noticed in insurance sales, financial consulting agencies, and investment banks where individuals are constantly battling for self-growth.

7. Innovation

When conventional ideas take a back seat and a constant attempt is made to stay in line with the changing trends and demands of the society, it is an innovation-based corporate culture. Each one is challenged to think out-of-the-box and create something magical for the organization.

Hierarchies and routes of formal communication are abandoned for sharing ideas that can make a difference.

8. All-Stars

This one is a stricter version of the role-playing culture and is often seen in startups. Employees are selectively hired purely on the basis of exceptional skills and job positions are created only when 100% necessary.

The team size is generally smaller and every individual is an all-star or all-rounder employee taking care of several activities at one time.

9. Task-Oriented

A task-oriented organization focuses on smaller teams handling specific goals and activities. These teams must smoothly function with each other and carry out the tasks assigned to them in an efficient manner.

The hiring process also involves an interaction with several team members and most of the day-to-day operations are tackled in conference rooms with specific team allotments.

10. Mission-Based

A mission-based corporate culture is popular amongst not-for-profit organizations and startups. These employees are passionate about what they do and sometimes neglect personal commitments and work-life balance on account of company goals.

They devote their time and effort to the activities they have been assigned with and ensure that work is completed to utmost satisfaction. Communication with clients, partners, associates, shareholders, and investors is extremely strong in such mission-driven culture organizations.

While it is pretty obvious that the workplace culture you adopt in your organization will be of your own choice, educating yourself on the different types of corporate cultures is a good idea.