 In this video, we're going to dig a little deeper into the specific types of organizational culture. We talked in a previous video about what we mean by organizational culture. We defined that, talked about the different components of organizational culture. And so for this video, we're going to dig more specifically into the different types of organizational culture, specifically those that are represented in the competing values framework, what's known as the CVF or competing values framework. The competing values frameworks developed by Robert Quinn and John Warbaugh, who are researchers at the University of Michigan. And then in 1981, they really were seeking to identify the criteria for what they would determine as organizational effectiveness. How would we measure that? How would we identify and determine what we mean by organizational effectiveness? And as part of their research, they came up with this, what we call competing values framework, which is really these two dimensions that then identified four types of culture as we'll look at here in just a second. We'll see what that is. Eventually, this led to what was called the organizational culture assessment instrument or OCAI, which is still in use today. It's a way to measure where an organization lines up within these four cultures. But again, it came down to these two criteria, two dimensions that they identified were the internal and external dimension, so internal focus and external focus. And then the other dimension was the stability and flexibility dimension. So the flexibility and freedom to act versus stability and control. And as you can see, then this creates four quadrants, so to speak. These four quadrants create then these four different types of organizational culture. We have clan culture, which as you can see is high in internal focus and and flexibility, as well as adhocracy. And you can see how these line up market culture and hierarchy culture. These are the four different types of cultures that were identified as part of the competing values framework then. So again, Quinn and Roarbaugh did this research. This is what they came up with these two dimensions and these four types of culture. So this is what we're going to spend some time on in this video. Let's take a look at each one of these cultures and examine how they're different. So we're going to start with clan culture. Let's take a look at clan culture, what's called clan culture to begin with. Again, you can see clan culture, for example, is high in internal focus and integration. As well as flexibility and freedom to act. So internally focused and high in flexibility. Some characteristics of clan culture include things like a collaborative orientation. They really value collaboration amongst people. They want people sharing ideas. They want people working together in teams a lot. So we have high collaborative efforts and orientation in a clan culture. They treat people as a priority, really treat people, the whole organization as a family. They want this sort of family operation or want it to operate as a family. So people are a priority. We try and keep people happy there, right? There's a real emphasis on teamwork, strong emphasis on teamwork. Nobody goes it alone. Everybody's working together. More heads are better than one. And so along those lines and then in terms of leadership and management, they really encourage partnerships and mentorships rather than strictly the top down organizational structure. They really want to look at partnerships and mentorships between managers and subordinates. So what does all of this mean to us? And we're going to look at each of these things for each of these different cultures. So the impact of clan culture then in terms of communication, what does that mean for very much team communication orientation, open and discussion based, a lot less formal language. There's not a lot of language of separation between management and and subordinates, for example, just a very open, informal language used lots of collectivistic attributes in terms of culture. So lots of what's going to be best for the group as opposed to what's going to be best for me, communication, considers all of that and lots of talk, which can be a good thing. It can also be a bad thing sometimes to get bogged down and all this talk because they want to give everybody the chance to speak as much as they want and say whatever they want. Sometimes these organizations can get bogged down. Meetings can get really long and really wordy. So sometimes talk is good and we talk things out and that's all wonderful. But sometimes we get to a point where we need to kind of cut off that level of communication and start taking some action then, right? So communication, a very open discussion based, all those types of things. As far as dress, what you can expect at an organization like this would be more of a casual dress code, right? They dress a little more casually. It doesn't mean you come in, you know, looking like a hobo or whatever, but you can dress a little more casual. You're not going to see as much of the suits and ties and things like that. You're going to see more casual dress code. In terms of autonomy and flexibility, you're going to see more trust in the individual, more individual accountability as a result of that then. So the idea that individuals are going to do their jobs, they're going to have the flexibility to do their jobs in the way that they see best within that group structure. But as an individual, you're allowed to, you know, take certain liberties with how you do your work and where you do your work and things like that. But at the same time, there's a high degree of accountability in terms of, you know, you have this freedom to do this work, but in the end, the work needs to be done. So as an individual, you can do it how you want, but in the end, there's this deadline and it needs to be met or whatever. So in terms of office space, the kind of office space you're going to see in an organization like this, probably more open of an open office layout to encourage that kind of collaboration. You're not going to see a lot of walls. You're not going to see a lot of cubicles and things like that. You're going to see a lot of open workspaces where people can work together in teams and collaborate on different projects. And the employee manager dynamic, as I said, is going to be more about mentoring and coaching as opposed to an authoritarian, you know, really top down hierarchical structure where there's a lot of discipline and things like that. This is going to be more of a mentorship and coaching type atmosphere where where this supervisor is going to be working alongside the employees and coaching them and encouraging them and doing things like that, as opposed to, you know, strictly just laying down orders and expecting people to fall in line. So that's what we can expect in clan culture. We see clan cultures in a variety of different organizations. Very common, like with Google, you know, not surprisingly with tech companies, you're going to see this type of culture a lot. We'll see it with Google. We'll see it with Twitter. You see with even with Southwest Airlines, though, which is an employee owned airline. So you see a lot of collaborative effort and clan culture, family dynamics in Southwest Airlines as well. So that's what we can expect in a clan culture. And maybe that's appealing to you. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a pretty foreign to you. I don't know. So let's take a look at some of the others and see if any of them bring any bells for you. In an ad hocracy culture, we see that there's a high degree of freedom and freedom to act and flexibility, but very much an external focus as opposed to the internal focus of a clan culture, which focuses more on their own people and their own internal things. Ad hocracy culture. You're going to have that external focus and integration, right? So when we look at ad hocracy culture, some of the characteristics that we're going to find is that they're very creation oriented, all about creativity and spurring that creativity and being as just as creative as they possibly can. Prominence is a priority for ad hocracy culture. They want to be the best. They want to be at the top there. Okay. So prominence is going to be very important to an organization that espouses an ad hocracy culture. They're going to be innovative, but also then a little bit chaotic because you encourage so much creativity and so much free thinking and so much just kind of doing things the way you want to and on your own. They're very innovative, but also that creates this sort of chaotic structure. Sometimes there's not a lot of discipline in terms of the communication and things can slip through the cracks. So that's an issue with ad hocracy cultures as well. And finally, they're motivated by being the next big thing. This is an organization that wants to be, again, prominence is important to them. They want to be known as being on the cutting edge and they want to have the next big thing and be known for that. So that's going to be their driving force is what can we do to stay ahead of the competition and to be creative and be innovative in that way? So the impact of an ad hocracy culture on the employees and things you can expect in an ad hocracy culture, as far as communication, it's going to be really free flowing. It's going to be multi-dimensional people using all kinds of different technologies to communicate. So you're going to have people that communicate face to face. You're also going to use the phone. You're going to use email and instant messages and and and use collaborative programs like Google Drive and all kinds of things. So communication is going to be very much multi-dimensional, very much independent in terms of what that person prefers. So, again, that has its advantages and disadvantages because you get people who, you know, maybe, maybe that's too, too many things to have to keep track of. And so things can get, can slip through the cracks in that regard. So as far as dress, it may be more casual. If there's any dress code at all, there may not be a dress code at all, depending on the organization. But if there is a dress code, it's probably going to be pretty casual. The creative expression is also going to be encouraged in your personal appearance. These are organizations that aren't going to be put off by, you know, people with wild colored hair, lots of tattoos and and piercings and things like that, because they encourage that kind of personal creative expression in the way that you, the way that you appear as well as the work that you do. So, so there's going to be a very lax dress code if there's any at all, and they're going to encourage that kind of personal expression. In terms of flexibility and autonomy, this is probably the loosest structure of the four. You, you may be based in an office. You may not be based in an office. You may be able to work from wherever you choose. Your work hours may vary, again, depending on what you prefer, they may not have a strict, you know, eight to five or nine to five or whatever work hour code. You could be able to work whenever you want. There's going to be a lot of, of, of freedom in, in terms of that autonomy and the ability to work the way you want and when you want, which again is very appealing in some sense, but it also can create, you know, what if I'm working eight to five and you're working five to midnight or whatever, because that's when you do your best work? How are we going to, that can make it more difficult for us to communicate on a project, right? So they're again, advantages and disadvantages of all of these things. So, so anyway, you're going to have a lot of flexibility, a lot of autonomy working in an adhocracy culture. And so as office space, there may or may not be offices that are used by all employees, may or may not be a central office location that's used by all employees. Again, people can work usually from where they want and how they want. And when they want that creative expression is encouraged there as well. So if you do have an office space, you do have a workspace, you're going to be encouraged to, to make it your own to personalize it, to, to do what you want there. So it's going to be pretty free flowing in that regard as well. And then in terms of employee, the employee manager dynamic, what you're going to see here is that leaders create this kind of mission and vision. And again, those are things we talked about in the previous video on organizational culture, mission being where we're at right now, vision being where we want to be. So leaders are going to create that mission and that vision. And then the employees are largely self driven to fall within that as long as they're within that framework, they're helping either, either maintain the mission or work toward that vision and or work toward that vision. Then they're going to have a lot of, you know, freedom to do so how they wish. They're going to be largely self driven. It's not going to be a real authoritarian situation where somebody's breathing down your neck. There's not a lot of micro management. You know, rules and rules though may not be clearly defined in that type of situation. So sometimes you get some miscommunication about what people expect and what the other person is actually doing because those things are a little more lax and a little looser. So again, positives and negatives with any of these types of cultures. So really just about finding the right fit. So where do we see ad hoc or see culture? We see it a place is like Apple, which encouraged that creativity. We see it at places like Adobe and lots of technology companies, creative technology companies like that. The next type of culture we're going to look at is what we call market culture. Market culture, again, as you can see as we move through the dimensions here, market culture is very externally focused, but also very concerned about stability and control more so than the freedom and the flexibility there. So in market culture, which is where we're heading now, the characteristics are that they're very competition oriented. They want to be the best and that's internally and externally. So they're striving to make a name for themselves and really present themselves as the best at what they do. And so individual employees are going to take that on as well and be very competition oriented internally. Results are prioritized. If you're getting things done, that's the priority. Less so about how you do it, whether it's creative, whether it's new, whether it's innovative and more about are you getting it done, period. The very goal focused and fast paced. You're going to find these places to be very energetic, very fast paced and very much focused on accomplishing what they set out to do. And this is a type of culture that's going to emphasize deadlines and targets and getting things done. That's going to be the main priority is getting those results. That's what they're looking for. So how does this impact or different aspects of culture and fitting in and thing? So for communication, this is going to be very top down communication focused on profit via customer service and satisfaction. So they're really focused on the customer, really focused on getting people what it is they want and serving the customer. So they have that mantra of the customer is always right. So in an effort to make that happen, to provide the best customer service and the best customer satisfaction, you're going to have very top down communication focused on how do we get that done and people then kind of expected to fall in line with that. As far as address in this type of culture, it's an image is really important to a market culture. So so address is going to be very important. It's possible that you may have a uniform depending on if you're working as part of an organization that has a quote unquote uniform, even that even if that uniform is just a polo shirt or something specific, but it could be something even more formal, then you may have that uniform. If not, then it's likely to be business attire because imaging in very important, they want to present that image of they want the customers to have that confidence in them that they know how to dress. And that starts with appearance and have that will help them build a confidence. And so address is important. It's going to be if not a uniform, then something a little more formal than the other cultures that we've talked about. In terms of flexibility and autonomy, you know, they're probably going to have a very specific set of hours that they're working because again, working in very customer driven market here. So you're going to have probably set hours and very specific hours of availability and when you're on, when you're off and when you're taking breaks. So it's going to be not as loose as some of the others that we've talked about. Again, some people like that routine. They like having the knowledge of where they're going to be and what time they need to be there and so forth. And when they can clock in and clock out, those types of things can be very appealing to people. As far as office space, it's going to be more professional and image oriented. Again, they're going to want to clean office space. You're going to want a modern office space. You're going to want something that they can base confidence within the customer base there. So so that office space is going to be more professional and image oriented. And as far as the employee manager dynamic, in this type of setting, organization and control are going to be prioritized in an effort to maximize and standardize that customer experience. Again, they want everything to be the same and they want everything to be at a high level for these customers. So they're going to they're going to be very organized and very in control of the message and in control of what employees are doing. Now, this can be demanding in pushing for a high performance. Again, some people thrive in that type of situation, though. And so so it can be very demanding. Again, very results based and you do have a tendency for managers to micromanage. So you you should be prepared for somebody to be kind of watching over your shoulder in a sense and making sure that things are getting done and getting done the right way. And again, all in an effort to really serve the customer to provide that high end service to the customer. Some places where we see a market culture at work, traditional organizations like Coca Cola, McDonald's, where they want things done, you know, the same way every time. Starbucks and places that are trying to build this global brand very much an Amazon as well, want things in a certain way and present a certain image and and and image is everything for these organizations. So and customer satisfaction very important to these organizations as well. So finally, we get to what we call hierarchy culture. Hierarchy culture. Hierarchy culture is going to be very much about control. They're going to have that control orientation. They're going to they're going to value structure, insistency and efficiency, all those types of things. They're motivated by doing things right, doing things right, doing things effectively, because that improves efficiency and productivity. And they're directed by procedures. There's going to be a standard operating procedure for everything. They want things done the same way all the time. They want things done the right way. They want things done the same way. And they want to make sure that that everybody's on the same page and and move it in the same direction. So the impact of hierarchy culture, first of all, communication, you're going to have a heavily top down communication. It's going to be very formal, very established channels. You're going to know how this information is going to get to you and and be able to identify where you could expect to find things like the standard operating procedure. So very, very formal top down heavy communication, not a lot of communication encouraged from the bottom up. They want information flowing in one direction only. As far as dress, it's going to be the most traditional of the four, typically going to be business or business casual at the very least business casual, but oftentimes a stricter dress code of businesswear like suits, ties, formal formal wear like that. As far as flexibility and autonomy, this is going to be you're going to have strict stop and start hour or start and stop hours. You're going to have tightly regulated breaks for for lunches and things like that and just breaks in general. You know, formal requests for taking time off or if you want to leave the office and run some errands, you're going to need to get formal permission for that type of thing. Decision making is virtually all top down. So it's a very structured and kind of rigid in that way. Again, some people thrive in that type of situation. They need that structure or they like to operate within that structure and have that sense of knowledge of where things are at and where things are coming from in general. As far as office space, you're going to see traditional office spaces, cubicles potentially, but certainly, you know, walled off offices, private areas of work in some sense, in that more traditional office spaces and cubicle spaces. Finally, the employer-manager dynamic is going to be very formal relationship between these managers and their subordinates. It's going to be highly structured, lots of micromanagement and just a lot more formal situation than you would have in some of the again, some of the other looser type organizations, which again, pros and cons, there's benefits and disadvantages and disadvantages to all of these. When you have this type of dynamic, this type of structured dynamic, again, you have a lot of clarity in terms of who's in charge, who you go to for this information or that information, who you go through to for permission, what channels of communication you should use. All of that's going to be highly regulated and very much clearly communicated in these types of situations, as opposed to the other where it could be less clear. So that can be confusing, especially for a new employee, can be very confusing in those types of situations. So again, it sounds bad in some ways, having saying, well, it's very formal and lots of micromanagement and so forth, but that can be very effective as well in a organization. So places where you see a lot of hierarchy culture, most major institution, universities and colleges have a strict hierarchy culture. And a lot of that goes on. And then certainly the United States government is maybe the most prevalent example of hierarchy culture. Everything there requires permission. Everything is chain of command, everything is not just military, but everything in the government is very much chain of command. Somebody's in charge of something else and someone else and so forth. So, anyway, so again, we've talked about all four of these different cultures, right, clan culture, ad hocracy culture, market culture, and finally hierarchy culture. The most important thing though, two important things to recognize. First, it's very rare for an organization to fit just neatly into one of those. There's usually some bleeding over. They may have one predominant culture, but they may have traits of the other culture as well. So don't go into a situation expecting it to be all one of these things and none of the other. There's probably going to be some crossover. Secondly, the most important thing though is that you find the right fit for you. Again, these cultures all have advantages and disadvantages. It's not that one is better than the other. It depends on that organization and what they're doing and what they're shooting for and what industry they're in. The most important thing is that you find the culture that's right for you. That's the right fit for you. So be considering as you're thinking about professional presence, what type of organizational culture is going to be the best fit for me? And keep in mind that when you're interviewing, when you're talking to potential employers, you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you. You need to understand who they are so that you can be sure that your work, you're walking into a situation that's going to allow you to do your best work. So be aware of the culture that surrounds these organizations and that works within these organizations and be on the lookout and find a fit that's best for you. If you have any questions about organizational culture, about the types of organizational culture, the competing values, framework, anything along those lines, feel free to email me. I'd be happy to chat with you via email about any of this. In the meantime, again, be aware of that organizational culture, be on the lookout for what type of culture you might be interested in and make sure you're finding the right fit for you.