Recently, companies have started shifting away from its previous focus on fitting into a set of normalized and standardized practices towards its development of standing out and establishing its own unique culture. One of the new aspects that people focus on when looking for employment is whether or not their personality, style and work ethic will fit well with their company. A great definition of company culture can be taken from Inc. – “shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that characterize members of an organization and define its nature. (Company culture) is rooted in an organization’s goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to labor, customers, investors, and the greater community”. Thinking about which culture will be the best for you can be overwhelming and challenging, so here is a list of popular company cultures and its breakdown to help you find your perfect fit!

4 Types of Company Culture

Clan Culture: Characterized by a friendly, collaborative environment resembling a large family. These companies value loyalty, tradition and commonality. Examples of companies using clan culture include Google and Zappos.
Adhocracy Culture: Known for its dynamic and innovative environment, leaders act as an inspirational role model to encourage innovation and risk taking from their employees. They highly value fast paced change and adaptability. Companies that have adhocracy culture include Facebook and other tech companies.
Market Culture: The goal in these companies is to get work done, achieve results and earn as much profit to gain the biggest market share possible. The environment in this kind of culture is often very competitive. Examples of companies adopting market culture include Amazon and Apple.
Hierarchy Culture: Valuing process and procedure, employees are monitored and facilitated to ensure rules are being followed and costs and mistakes are kept low. Examples of hierarchy culture can be seen in government organizations.

Other broader cultures based on levels of flexibility, stability and interdependence in a company include Purpose-Organizational Culture, Caring-Organizational Culture, Order-Organizational Culture, Learning-Organizational Culture, Results-Organizational Culture, Authority-Organizational Culture, Enjoyment-Organizational Culture and Safety-Organizational Culture.

To give an example displaying how this applies in real life, a friend of mine just finished her summer internship in Annie’s Homegrown and highlighted how her company’s culture highly influenced her overall learning experience. She categorized Annie’s as having clan culture, placing high value on collaboration, friendliness and constant learning. She also highlighted that it’s not enough to just be able to identify the culture, but it is even more important to make the effort to immerse in it. She recommended participating in their socials and community activities, like Waffle Day, Tie Dye Day and Mac n’ Cheese Raffle Day, to get more insight into how people navigate and communicate with one another effectively. By knowing her company’s culture and realizing that it was the best fit for her, she felt that it made her more confident and comfortable. She really felt that it allowed her to grow to her fullest potential, resulting in a well-rounded and unforgettable experience.

Job searching is one of the most challenging and difficult things an individual will eventually have to go through. Knowing the different types of cultures and work environments that exist, and which ones you will thrive in, will definitely help ease the search for the perfect position and career for you!

Here are more resources if you are interested in reading more about company culture!

Fitting into the Company Culture

Written by Briana Salim