Summary and Overview

This report will serve three main purposes:

  • In part, it aims to share our unique knowledge and data collected over 15 years of annual surveys and research. Specifically, in this report we present global data on corporate culture and talk about how to understand it in three dimensions:  Control, Communication, and Coaching. How do organizations, HR professionals, business leaders, staff, managers, coaches and consultants evaluate themselves and their organizations in terms of corporate culture?
  • Additionally, to understand and contextualize this global data, we will present real life examples of “corporate culture gone wrong.” We hope to demonstrate how an organization is broadly affected by leaders, managers, and staff struggling to confront different aspects of damaged or underdeveloped corporate culture
  • The third goal of this report is to identify specific steps that an organization or individual can take to address areas of concern within their corporate culture. Can one-on-one coaching help fix the problem? What should be the focus of coaching and who needs coaching? Or would team development or company-wide training programs address our problems? What about an organization that knows it needs to work on corporate culture, but isn’t sure where to start?

This report, structured around the Three Dimensions of Corporate Culture, will answer those questions, provide exclusive data, and connect the data to real life outcomes and a positive impact on business.

Where do we stand overall in terms of corporate culture? In other words, what global results do our surveys yield? Our queries involved statements that respondents could answer as occurring in their organization: Always, Usually, Sometimes, or Never. We can categorize ‘always’ or ‘usually’ as positive results, and ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’ as a negative result.

Here’s a taste of what we see this year:

  • 64% of people responded positively to the statement, “People in my organization are encouraged to ask questions.” Only a third answered ‘always.’ Is that good enough? How would your company fare?
  • A majority (71%) said that “People in my organization are allowed to challenge management’s judgement.” Would employees, staff, managers, and executives in your organization say the same thing?
  • Here’s a valuable question: Can confrontation be seen in a positive way? If so, solutions can truly be hammered out in a back-and-forth, open-minded culture. Our survey for 2020 found that 18% of organizations ‘never’ see confrontation as a positive. That seems like major room for improvement.
Already taken the survey? Check out the results that can help your corporate culture.