Corporate Culture

From the point of view of our corporate culture, what are the critical factors, dimensions, or characteristics that promote our success?

From a strategic and resource-based perspective corporate culture needs attention because it can be the most important source for sustained competitive advantage. This argument is based on the notion that a specific corporate culture is difficult if not impossible to imitate by competitors. So, the question arises, what kind of culture supports a firm’s performance and success.

Corporate culture can be defined as a pattern of shared tacit assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. The pattern is to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, act, and feel in relation to those problems (according to Ed Schein).

An example of a corporate culture model can be like this (according to Bolman / Cameron / Deal / Freeman / Quinn). The example shows four different frames of one specific corporate culture: