Towards a Corporate Cultural Theory Towards a Corporate Cultural Theory

Despite the significance and impact of corporate culture upon organisational performance, rigorous ethnographic techniques are relatively absent in the management literature. This won’t do – culture is too important to be left undefined and unrefined, and analysts need a deeper awareness of the anthropological and sociological frameworks that can clarify cultural analysis. There are many cultural factors that would appear to influence the functioning of a corporation, such as having common goals, employee loyalty and commitment, clearly defined roles, strong leadership, individual and joint accountability, innovation, effective incentive mechanisms, or tolerance toward alternative cultures. This article intends to outline the Grid/Group framework (which has subsequently become known as “Cultural Theory” (CT)) from the perspective of corporations, to demonstrate not only why culture matters, but also how it can be analysed. It will demonstrate the relationship between the cultural factors listed, to show how they complement and conflict with each other.