Defining Your Company Culture
What is corporate culture and why is it important? While organizational culture has existed as long as organizations have, the term “corporate culture” wasn’t widely used until the 1990s. Though corporate culture has been studied for decades — even before it earned its now well-known label — many professionals struggle to provide a concrete definition of the term.
The Meaning of Corporate Culture
One of the reasons a lot of people have a hard time defining corporate or company culture may be that company culture is the sum of many parts. As a whole, corporate culture refers to the vision, values, and behaviors that dictate how an organization’s representatives interact with each other internally and how they handle transactions with their external clients and vendors.
Company culture influences behavior at every level of an organization, and it’s normally evident in everything that’s involved with making a company work. Some factors that will directly reflect an organization’s company culture include the following:
- Answering Service
- Voicemail Greeting
- Dress Code
- Hours of Operation
- Employee Turnover
- Hiring Practices and Decisions
- Office Layout
- Client Relationships
- Customer Satisfaction
- Chain of Command
- Employee Benefits
- Public Image
In today’s increasingly global marketplace, corporate culture is rarely developed exclusively by a company’s founders, managers, and employees as it often used to be. Now company culture is influenced by both internal and external forces. Some of the external forces that have started to affect corporate cultures in recent years include national traditions, trends in the national and global economies, and international trade.
Creating the Best Company Culture for Your Business
According to the “Harvard Business Review,” a successful corporate culture has six important characteristics. Whether you’re purposefully crafting your company’s culture or you’re letting one take shape organically, you should ensure your corporate culture has the following traits:
- Vision: A company’s vision can take the form of a simple mission statement or a more detailed expression of your organization’s guiding philosophy.
- Values: The values your business has frame the perspectives your employees will need to achieve your company’s broad-based vision.
- Practices: Practices are the hands-on methods your representatives will use to act on your organization’s values.
- People: The individuals you hire should reflect and be able to augment and reinforce your company culture.
- Narrative: The story of how your business got started is critical to shaping your internal and public image. While your company’s tale of origin may not be as compelling as the story of Steve Jobs and Apple or Bill Gates and Microsoft, a narrative that explains how your business came into existence is still an important part of a successful corporate culture.
- Place: The location of your business as well as the design and layout of your physical workplace are also critical components of your company culture.
How a Business Phone System Can Help
Whether you’re an entrepreneur on the go who is just starting out or you run an established business with several employees, your business phone system is an important part of your company culture. That’s because your business phone system influences how your employees communicate with one another as well as with your clients and vendors. From the answering service you have in place, to your voicemail greeting and the phones you use to take and place calls, you need a business phone system that directly reflects your company culture.
We can help you identify the answering service that’s the perfect complement for your business, and we’ll set it up for you without having to install expensive, space-consuming equipment. Contact AccessDirect to learn more today.
