Corporate culture

Strong and weak typology of organizational culture[edit]
Flamholtz and Randle state that: "A strong culture is one that people clearly understand and can articulate. A weak culture is one that employees have difficulty defining, understanding, or explaining."^[32] Strong culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their alignment to organizational values. In such environments, strong cultures help firms operate like well-oiled machines, engaging in outstanding execution with only minor adjustments to existing procedures as needed.
Conversely, there is weak culture where there is little alignment with organizational values, and control must be exercised through extensive procedures and bureaucracy.
Research shows^{[citation needed]} that organizations that foster strong cultures have clear values that give employees a reason to embrace the culture. A "strong" culture may be especially beneficial to firms operating in the service sector since members of these organizations are responsible for delivering the service and for evaluations important constituents make about firms. Organizations may derive the following benefits from developing strong and productive cultures:

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  Better aligning the company towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals
  
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  High employee motivation and loyalty
  
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  Increased team cohesiveness among the company's various departments and divisions
  
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  Promoting consistency and encouraging coordination and control within the company
  
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  Shaping employee behavior at work, enabling the organization to be more efficient
  

Irving Janis defined groupthink as "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."^[33] This is a state in which even if group members have different ideas, they do not challenge organizational thinking. As a result, innovative thinking is stifled. Groupthink can lead to lack of creativity and decisions made without critical evaluation.^[34] Groupthink can occur, for example, when group members rely heavily on a central charismatic figure in the organization or where there is an "evangelical"^{[citation needed]} belief in the organization's values. Groupthink can also occur in groups characterized by a friendly climate conducive to conflict avoidance.
Healthy[edit]
Culture is the organization's immune system. – Michael Watkins
What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care? – Harvard Business Review
Organizations should strive for what is considered a "healthy" organizational culture in order to increase productivity, growth, efficiency and reduce counterproductive behavior and turnover of employees. A variety of characteristics describe a healthy culture, including:

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  Acceptance and appreciation for diversity
  
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  Regard for fair treatment of each employee as well as respect for each employee's contribution to the company
  
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  Employee pride and enthusiasm for the organization and the work performed
  
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  Equal opportunity for each employee to realize their full potential within the company
  
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  Strong communication with all employees regarding policies and company issues
  
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  Strong company leaders with a strong sense of direction and purpose
  
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  Ability to compete in industry innovation and customer service, as well as price
  
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  Lower than average turnover rates (perpetuated by a healthy culture)
  
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  Investment in learning, training, and employee knowledge
  

Additionally, performance oriented cultures have been shown to possess statistically better financial growth. Such cultures possess high employee involvement, strong internal communications and an acceptance and encouragement of a healthy level of risk-taking in order to achieve innovation. Additionally, organizational cultures that explicitly emphasize factors related to the demands placed on them by industry technology and growth will be better performers in their industries.
According to Kotter and Heskett (1992),^[10] organizations with adaptive cultures perform much better than organizations with unadaptive cultures. An adaptive culture translates into organizational success; it is characterized by managers paying close attention to all of their constituencies, especially customers, initiating change when needed, and taking risks. An unadaptive culture can significantly reduce a firm's effectiveness, disabling the firm from pursuing all its competitive/operational options.
Healthy companies are able to deal with employees' concerns about the well-being of the organization internally, before the employees would even feel they needed to raise the issues externally. It is for this reason that whistleblowing, particularly when it results in serious damage to a company's reputation, is considered to be often a sign of a chronically dysfunctional corporate culture.^[36] Another relevant concept is the notion of "cultural functionality". Specifically, some organizations have "functional" cultures while others have "dysfunctional" cultures.^[37] A "functional" culture is a positive culture that contributes to an organization's performance and success. A "dysfunctional" culture is one that hampers or negatively affects an organization's performance and success.