The Importance of Corporate Culture for Any Organization

Out of the many things done to start-up and maintain an organization, I find it surprising that the idea of corporate culture has been largely ignored and perceived as rather unimportant by various organizations.

I recently read an interesting article by Eric G. Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle titled, “Corporate culture, business models, competitive advantage, strategic assets and the bottom line.”

After reading this article, something that really stuck out to me was the idea that,

“…companies are increasingly recognizing that an “employee brand” (the branding of its culture) is a strategic asset or competitive weapon just as important as or even more important than other factors.” 

To me, this idea brings corporate culture full circle.

At a basic level, if one thinks about the way in which an organization works, they know that leadership roles largely set the tone and overall  level of happiness that their employee’s share. Furthermore, one also knows that the employee’s are primarily the people interacting with the customers or clients.

In any case, employees almost always make up a larger number of individuals, when compared to the group of individuals that fill leadership roles. Therefore, one can infer that in order to have happy customers and a good reputation, they must make sure their employees are happy by establishing a positive corporate culture.

The fact of the matter is that even if employees aren’t dealing with customers directly, they interact with a number of consumers outside the organization, daily. Therefore, despite the fact that their discontentment may not be directly seen by the customer, it will inevitably be seen by the larger body of consumers they interact with personally.

Whether it’s communicated through a tweet, text, Facebook message, or simply word-of-mouth, any large group of unhappy employees can, and most likely will, share their truth with a vast number of consumers.

In-turn, this will not only drive away customers, but it will destroy the company’s reputation as well.

Considering the fundamentally basic connections it holds to an organization’s success or failure, corporate culture is essential to establishing as successful business.