Determining Your Company's Corporate Culture

There are a hundred ways to describe the corporate culture of a company, which may make it difficult to characterize the corporate culture of your company.

I recently consulted with a company where a senior manager said, "The culture here is one where we eat our young and shoot our old."

Both of these comments provide big clues as to these companies' corporate cultures — desirable or not. But defining corporate culture can be a tricky business because the spoken and unspoken culture can vary widely. A company can brag about its employees being "empowered," and yet these same "powerful" employees may not be able to get a box of paper clips without filling out a form.

To get an idea about an organization's culture, listen to what people inside (and outside) say about the company. Corporate culture is created by what people say, how people treat each other and their customers, and why managers make decisions.

To get a sense of your company's culture, ask these questions:

• Does the company emphasize following established processes to complete a task, or does it just care about results?
• Is management hands-on or hands-off?
• What is the company's attitude toward technology?
• Are flextime and telecommuting acceptable?
• Do managers work side by side with their staff or do they work in offices?