Company culture is a living thing. It varies inside the organisation throughout its’ teams and levels. It also changes through time. Do you have the right one for your current needs?

Let’s get through a brief description of four types of organisations based on the proportion of two defining qualities: sociability and solidarity, the structure proposed by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones in their article “What holds the modern company together?”

Networked Organisation:

[ high sociability, low solidarity ]

Signs:

• People stop to talk in the hallways

• They wander in each other’s offices with no purpose

• People have lunch in groups

• After-hour socialising is common 

• Birthdays, promotions and farewells are celebrated

• Sports activities may be shared

• Presence of internal jokes and nicknames

• Blurred roles and responsibilities

Benefits:

• High levels of flexibility inside the company

• No bureaucracy

• The working environment is enjoyable

• Strong morale and loyalty to the company

• High levels of creativity

• People go beyond the formal requirements of their job

Problems:

• Poor performance is tolerated

• Exaggerated concern for consensus

• Lack of purpose

• Behind the scenes, networks may harm processes of the company 

• Hierarchies may be ignored

Mercenary Organization:

[ low sociability, high solidarity ]

Signs: 

• Relationships are based on common tasks or shared goals

• Labour unions are present

• Clear separation of work and life

• Common for workers to prioritise work over private life

• No outside of work mingle unless organised around business

• Clear roles and responsibilities

Benefits:

• A high degree of strategic focus

• Swift response to competitive threats

• High-performance standards

• Strong sense of trust in the organisation

• Meritocracy thrives 

Problems:

• Low loyalty

• If the strategy is chosen wrong, it can lead to corporate suicide

• Cooperation occurs only when individual benefits from it are clear 

• Employees don’t like sharing information

• Internal competition is present

• Workers may be overly focused on measurable targets

Fragmented Organisation:

[ low sociability, low solidarity ]

Signs:

• Low consciousness of organisational membership

• People believe they work for themselves or with occupational groups

• Employees work in their rooms or at home

• No extracurricular rites and rituals

• Employees are secretive about their work progress

Benefits:

• Good for people who prefer to work alone

• Suitable for highly trained individuals who have idiosyncratic work styles

• Suitable for virtual organisations

• Little interdependence in work required

• Once properly hired, employees self manage their work

Problems:

• Employees rarely agree on companies goals, success factors and performance standards.

• Leaders feel isolated and disempowered.

• Personal benefit is carefully considered before acting

Communal Organization:

[ high sociability, high solidarity ]

Signs:

• A typical small, fast-growing start-up or mature organisation

• Employees or founders have strong friendships

• Long work hours

• High perception of organisational membership

• Social events are high in significance

• A high value of fairness and justice within the company

• Leaders command respect and affection

Benefits:

• Goals and values are clearly communicated 

• High loyalty and high productivity 

• A clear image of competition

Problems:

• The tension between sociability and solidarity relationships

• Strongly depended on the presence of the founder or a particular leader in the company

• May be problematic in situations where massive and complex change is required

To know more about organisation’s cultures in modern age, which one you belong to and how to change it, consider reading the source of this information: 

What holds the modern company together? By Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones. Harvard Business Review.

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