Corporate culture is known to improve levels of employee engagement and performance at work.

The values, principles, attitudes as well as the goals of a company are what constitute company or corporate culture.

Why this matters ranges from the ability to impact the success and overall welfare of the company, employees and clients at that.

A strong company culture is invaluable, according to Edouard Migambi, a content creator.

This is what truly defines and sets apart any company’s identity, he notes, adding that how an organisation carries out its business, how it treats or interacts with its clients can be one of the ways that reveal a company’s culture.

According to Author Corey Moseley, organisational culture is about living your company’s core values.

Your culture can be a reflection (or a betrayal) of your company’s core values. The ways in which you conduct business, manage workflow, interact as a team, and treat your customers all add up to an experience that should represent who you are as an organisation and how you believe a company should be run. In short, your culture is the sum of your company’s beliefs in action, he notes.

"But if your espoused values don’t match your culture, that’s a problem. It could mean that your ‘core values’ are a list of meaningless buzzwords, and your people know it. A strong organisational culture keeps your company’s core values front and centre in all aspects of its day-to-day operations and organisational structure. The value of doing so is incalculable.”

Joyeuse Uwamwiza, a production manager, says every organisation must have set guidelines in order to give its employees direction.

With organisation culture, there has to be distinct policies that guide employees. With it, everyone has a sense of direction and knows what exactly they are meant to do, she says.

"Since every single company has its exceptional style when it comes to its daily running of activities, creating a unique culture for the organisation is relevant. These beliefs and principles are what gearshift the way managers and their subordinates interact,” Uwamwiza adds.

"The organisation culture also acts as a common platform, where employees find their place in the company. It is how they relate and feel part and parcel of the organisation.” 

Moseley notes that a strong organisational culture helps you keep your best people, adding that it should come as no surprise that employees who feel like they are part of a community, rather than a cog in a wheel, are more likely to stay at your company. In fact, that is what most job applicants are looking for in a company.

Ask any top performer what keeps them at their company and you are bound to hear this answer: the people. It’s because a workplace culture focused on people has profound appeal. It helps improve engagement, deliver a unique employee experience, and makes your people feel more connected, one way to attract top performers that are natural culture champions is to hire for cultural fit, he writes.

The author also adds that your culture transforms your company into a team. A successful organisational culture brings together the people at your company and keeps them aligned. When your culture is clear, different perspectives can gather behind it with common purpose. The culture at your organisation sets expectations for how people behave and work together, and how well they function as a team.

In this way, culture can break down the boundaries between siloed teams, guide decision-making, and improve workflow overall. On the flip side, a toxic organisational culture has the capacity to do just the opposite.

For this matter, Migambi is of the view that company managers need to ensure that the type of culture they are building needs to be constructing a healthy environment for its employees and clients.

"It is the culture of the organisation that determines the kind of environment at work. With the right structure, company culture has a higher chance of increasing employee engagement. Where the environment is conducive and flexible for its employees, they are, in turn bound to have more passion, become more motivated and connected to their work.”