Firstly, what is corporate culture? It can be looked at as a form of community values within a company. How do people act towards one another? What is considered normal in the context of the workplace? As coworkers come and go and events in the outside world take place, corporate culture evolves and changes. Sometimes it changes for the better and sometimes it changes for the worse. Sometimes, as the outside world changes, the corporate culture fails to change with it.
It is important to maintain high-quality corporate culture by encouraging good behaviors and turning away bad behavior. For example, recently the company Google has had some negative press due to women coworkers coming forward with complaints of sexism. Sexism continues in the outside world but it showed up in Google's corporate culture as a strong culture of inequality. As Kate Howe from The Drum News points out, "Employees change, your industry changes, the world around you and their expectations change. Culture is so interwoven in all of those elements, that it too will inevitably change."
The point is, corporate culture may have a mind of its own, but it can be cultivated to reflect positive values. Some of the ways to guide corporate culture in the right direction are team-building exercises, diversity training, training against sexism, and simply calling anyone out who acts inappropriately. Companies with positive corporate culture do better than those without it. As the world outside changes, the world inside the company must change, too.
Even the physical space and layout of a company can affect corporate culture. For example, cubicles and narrow hallways with only a few conference rooms may not be conducive to a respectful and thriving environment. Corporate culture may improve simply by having shared lounges with comfy chairs where coworkers can go to really listen to each other and swap ideas. For more information on this or to ask a question, please contact us here.
