Corporate culture is undergoing a transformation. As organizations evolve and reinvent themselves in response to societal changes, new technologies, and competitive disruption, they’re finding that hierarchical cultures of the past must change as well.
And while the shape and impact of corporate culture is changing in the 21st century, the role it can play as a determinant of success is not waning anytime soon. As the researchers of the MIT SMR/Glassdoor Culture 500 put it, “To survive and thrive in today’s market, a healthy corporate culture is more important than ever.”
My company, Gapingvoid, helps businesses of all sizes design, build, and update their cultures. (Full disclosure: MIT Sloan School of Management is a client.) Unfortunately, my colleagues and I often find that, despite all the talk about culture, many business leaders remain confused about what it really boils down to. Some mistake culture for a set of lofty statements or goals made by executives. Others try to project a certain kind of culture externally that is at odds with what employees inside the company experience.
Culture runs deeper than that. As a 2012 study defines it, organizational culture is “the shared basic assumptions, values, and beliefs that characterize a setting and are taught to newcomers as the proper way to think and feel, communicated by the myths and stories people tell.”
Read the full article @ MIT Sloan Management Review
