5 Types of Corporate Culture: Which One Does Your Company Have?

Corporate culture influences every aspect of your business. From the way employees feel at the workplace, to the way customers interpret your brand, and everything in between.

Knowing what sort of corporate culture you have is essential. It will help you to understand where you fit in with the rest of the corporate world, your competitors, and your industry.

To some degree, the type of industry you work in will help shape your company culture. But the rest is typically decided by your company’s leaders.

With that said, no two companies have exactly the same culture. And corporate culture is something that constantly evolves.

Regardless, it helps to break company culture examples down into categories. Then, you’ll be able to identify which yours belongs to. Or at least which features of these your company has.

Here are the five most common types of company culture.

Team-Oriented Culture

Team-oriented corporate culture prioritizes employee satisfaction and employee engagement. The idea is that the happier your team members are, the more they’ll be willing to do for the company.

With this model, whether or not a candidate is a good fit for the team takes priority over experience and skills. Offering more work-life balance and vacation days is often part of a team-focused culture.

This type of culture is being embraced more and more by customer service-centric companies. Not surprisingly, customer service reps who are happier with their jobs tend to provide better service to customers.

Team-oriented companies tend to have a more social and friendly vibe, with things like team outings and get-togethers being frequent. Freedom of expression and autonomy in the workplace are encouraged.

This model can get trickier as a company grows, but having a designated strategy for company culture can help balance it and create a more scalable approach.

Elite Culture

Elite corporate culture is often a result of companies hiring the best they can find in each department to prioritize being as successful as possible. They’re typically B2B companies that hope to give off an air of excellence and take pride in being on the cutting edge.

Elite corporate culture often includes a somewhat strict set of guidelines and code of conduct for its employees, but that’s not always the case.

Google, for example, famously provides employees with the option to take naps during their shift. Although they certainly have an elite corporate culture, offering this luxury works well for them.

And like we mentioned before, not every company culture is uniform. Some corporations with elite culture encourage their employees to express themselves, dress in whatever they feel comfortable in, and decorate their workstations.

However, long workweeks and extended hours are common at elite corporate companies. But employees tend to take satisfaction knowing that they’re doing work for an important company.

In this culture, employees can become competitive and feel pressure to perform above par. That’s why employee recognition and team activities are super important for elite companies.

Horizontal Culture

Startups and younger companies often have executives working side by side with anyone and everyone else on their team. It makes for a collaborative culture that values each team member’s contributions equally.

Team members’ duties can fluctuate in a company with horizontal corporate culture, and job titles mean less. Their smaller size keeps them limited, and making their customers happy is paramount.

Each hire matters greatly, and horizontal companies often make changes to their products or services.

Having a set structure and clearly defined milestones is an important yet sometimes overlooked part of horizontal companies.

Conventional Culture

With conventional corporate culture, companies have a formal setup with long hierarchies. Traditionally, they’ve tended to struggle to incorporate new methods and can be bogged down with bureaucratic processes internally.

A strict dress code and long list of rules is common. Conventional companies tend to stick with the tried and true methods they’re used to, and don’t take risks where other companies might.

Maximizing profits tends to be the priority in most scenarios. These companies often have long-established brands with big reputations.

However, many of these companies are coming to embrace digital transformation and make use of modern tools. For example, SaaS is becoming common and as digital technologies become more popular in the mainstream, these large companies are beginning to adapt.

Millennials are taking over higher positions in these sorts of companies. And with them, they’re bringing newer and better processes, such as more open conversations and incorporating employee feedback more readily.

Employees can sometimes feel micromanaged though and frustrated with rigidity at conventional companies, but as they continue to adapt to newer and better practices and improved internal communication, team members will likely feel less marginalized.

Progressive Culture

Progressive corporate culture can often be seen by companies that are transitioning and are in uncertain times. Whether the future of the company is in jeopardy, they’re changing hands, or something else is causing a major shift, progressive culture is usually not where a company starts and ends. Rather, it’s something that happens within a company over a series of time due to changes that are often out of their control.

One of the most important things for companies with a progressive corporate culture to do is deter employees from seeking other opportunities. Ensuring that the team’s needs are being met and that they will still be met in the future is essential.

Open communication and setting clear expectations so everyone knows what needs to be done and exactly how moving forward is extremely important.

Conclusion

Understanding where your company is in terms of culture will give you a better idea of how your culture is perceived and what it needs in order to function best. Communication is crucial for any of the above company culture examples.

One of the best and most modern tools for that is digital signage. Check out TelemetryTV’s digital signage software with a free demo, or sign up for a free 14-day trial now and see for yourself how easy it can be to improve communications at your office or place of work.