What is Organisational Culture?

Understanding what organisational structure is can help with making decisions about your business in all areas. Organisational culture is multifaceted, it consists of the shared values, beliefs and norms in the workplace, and determines employee interactions as well as customer interactions.

There are four types of organisational cultures.

• Clan Culture: Focussed on collaboration between teams to form a family-like relationship.
• Adhocracy Culture: Focussed on creativity and innovation and open to continual change.
• Market Culture: Focussed on achieving goals through competitive drive amongst employees.
• Hierarchy Culture: Focussed on formal procedures and guidelines and maintaining power structures.

The organisational culture reflects in all aspects of the business. It can help with determining which potential employees may be more suitable than others and the way that those in leadership positions communicate with employees.

The way a business communicates and interacts with their customers is also influenced by organisational culture. Businesses may desire friendly and informal relationships, or formal and reserved relationships. Communication methods may also change, such as preferring email interaction as opposed to utilising chat functions.

Of course, the culture of an organisation can have overlap of the different types. More important than focussing on one type of culture, is recognising what works best for your business and trying to foster values and norms that embody that.