Culture Types

Culture Types refer to different categories or classifications of organizational culture, which can be used to describe the dominant values, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize a particular organization. There are several different culture types, including clan culture, adhocracy culture, market culture, and hierarchy culture.

1. Clan culture: This culture type emphasizes collaboration, teamwork, and employee involvement, and is often characterized by a family-like atmosphere. Clan cultures tend to value loyalty, communication, and trust, and often prioritize employee satisfaction and development over external measures of success.
2. Adhocracy culture: This culture type emphasizes innovation, flexibility, and adaptability, and is often characterized by a fast-paced and entrepreneurial atmosphere. Adhocracy cultures tend to value creativity, risk-taking, and experimentation, and often prioritize growth and change over stability and predictability.
3. Market culture: This culture type emphasizes competitiveness, achievement, and results, and is often characterized by a focus on external measures of success. Market cultures tend to value efficiency, productivity, and individual performance, and often prioritize financial performance and market share over employee well-being or development.
4. Hierarchy culture: This culture type emphasizes stability, consistency, and control, and is often characterized by a bureaucratic or rule-bound atmosphere. Hierarchy cultures tend to value formal procedures, rules, and protocols, and often prioritize stability, predictability, and efficiency over innovation or risk-taking.

One advantage of culture types is that they can help individuals and organizations to better understand and align with the dominant values and beliefs of a particular organizational culture. By recognizing the culture type of an organization, individuals can better navigate the expectations and norms of the organization and can tailor their behavior and communication accordingly.

However, one disadvantage of culture types is that they may oversimplify the complexity and diversity of organizational culture. Organizations may exhibit elements of multiple culture types or may have unique cultural characteristics that do not fit neatly into a particular category.

To illustrate some key concepts of culture types, consider the following example:

Example: A new employee joins a large multinational company and begins to observe the dominant values and behaviors of the organization. After some time, the employee identifies the culture type of the organization as a hierarchy culture, characterized by a strong emphasis on stability, consistency, and control.

Based on this understanding, the employee adjusts their behavior and communication to better align with the expectations and norms of the organization. For example, the employee may prioritize following formal procedures and protocols, and may avoid taking unnecessary risks or proposing disruptive changes.

In conclusion, culture types refer to different categories or classifications of organizational culture that can be used to describe the dominant values, beliefs, and behaviors of a particular organization. While culture types can help individuals and organizations to better understand and navigate organizational culture, they may oversimplify the complexity and diversity of organizational culture.

See Also

• Organizational Culture - A term that specifically refers to the culture within an organization; culture types often categorize different forms of organizational culture.
• Cultural Dimensions - Frameworks that describe the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior; provides another way to classify cultures.