Corporate Culture: How to Build and Develop It?

Corporate culture encompasses all the values, beliefs, rules, and operating methods that characterize a company's identity and make it unique. In other words, it is the company's DNA that directly influences performance, employee engagement, and the ability to attract and retain talent.

Overall, 94% of executives and 88% of employees consider corporate culture essential to their organization's success. Yet, building and maintaining a strong and authentic culture remains a major challenge for HR professionals. How do you define, develop, and sustain an effective corporate culture? Intuition Software explains everything about corporate culture, its challenges, the different models that exist, and the concrete steps to implement it.

Corporate culture at a glance

• Corporate culture represents the unique identity of an organization, guided by its values, practices, and codes of conduct. It influences how employees work, communicate, and make decisions daily.
• A company's culture rests on four interconnected pillars: the company's history, strategic vision, core values, and the rites and symbols that embody them.
• For HR, corporate culture is a strategic lever for attracting talent, strengthening engagement, and creating a positive and productive work environment.
• Building a corporate culture requires five key steps: defining values, embodying them daily, integrating them into recruitment, using the right tools, and regularly measuring their impact.

What is corporate culture?

Corporate culture, also called organizational culture, is the set of values, beliefs, norms, rites, and shared behaviors that characterize a company. It represents the company's DNA — its personality that distinguishes it from competitors and guides employees' decisions and interactions on a daily basis.

Corporate culture shapes the way:

• Decisions are made
• Employees interact with each other and with clients
• The organization functions on a daily basis

This set of norms must be learned and accepted by new members for them to be fully integrated into the organization. It is also this organizational culture that ensures cohesion by creating a common and understandable framework for everyone. It directly influences internal communication, employer branding, and the company's ability to retain talent.

What is the difference between corporate culture and work climate?

Corporate culture represents the company's identity — the set of values, behaviors, and deeply rooted norms of the organization over the long term.

Work climate, on the other hand, refers to employees' perception of their work environment at a given moment. It reflects the atmosphere, team morale, and can change more quickly depending on events, management decisions, or working conditions.

For example, a company can have a strong culture focused on innovation but temporarily experience a degraded work climate due to a stressful reorganization.

What are the pillars of corporate culture?

A strong and authentic corporate culture rests on four pillars:

• History
• Vision
• Values
• Rites and symbols

Company history

A company's history is its founding narrative that explains where it comes from, in what context it was born, and why it was created:

• Past successes serve as references to motivate teams, as they show what the company does well
• Overcome failures, when acknowledged and explained, demonstrate the organization's resilience in the face of obstacles

History humanizes the company by making its journey concrete and understandable, allowing employees to envision themselves as part of it. For example, Steve Jobs' garage for Apple or the story of Airbnb's creation with air mattresses are narratives that give the company a soul. These stories create a sense of pride and belonging among employees who feel they are part of a collective adventure, built over time and driven by a shared vision.

Strategic vision

The vision is the destination the company wishes to reach in the medium and long term, guiding all employees toward a common goal. A clear and shared vision allows:

• Giving meaning to daily work
• Aligning individual and collective efforts
• Ensuring all actions converge toward a common ambition
• Maintaining consistency in decisions even during crises

For example, if the vision is to "become the leader in sustainable mobility in Europe," a recruiter will know to prioritize profiles sensitive to environmental issues.

Core values

Values are the fundamental principles that dictate behaviors, attitudes, and decisions within the organization. They constitute the code of conduct that defines what is accepted, encouraged, or prohibited in the company.

For example, if "innovation" is a key value, the company must accept the right to fail and encourage experimentation. If it's "transparency," information must flow freely between hierarchical levels.

To be effective, these values must be embodied at all levels of the hierarchy and serve as criteria for recruitment, evaluation, and promotion within the company.

Rites and symbols

Rites and symbols are the concrete and visible elements that embody culture on a daily basis. They are the details that constantly remind employees of their company's identity, for example:

• A dress code: suit and tie at certain consulting firms, jeans and sneakers in tech startups
• A welcome ritual for newcomers: mentoring, welcome kit, or presentation to the entire team
• Regular events such as end-of-week drinks, team building, or annual seminars
• Office layout: open space to foster collaboration, closed spaces for concentration

Why is corporate culture important for HR?

Corporate culture directly influences the organization's performance, its ability to recruit and retain talent, and contributes to employee well-being.

Corporate culture improves performance and profitability

A positive and engaging organizational culture has a direct impact on financial results, as employees who adhere to their organization's values are more motivated, innovative, and productive.

According to a Gallup study and its annual "State of the Global Workplace 2025" report, organizations with an engaging culture are 21% more productive, because an employee aligned with their company's mission is not just an executor but actively thinks about continuous improvement:

• They understand the meaning of their role
• They take initiative
• They actively seek to improve processes, products, or services

Corporate culture facilitates talent attraction and retention

Corporate culture often makes the difference when the most qualified candidates must choose between multiple offers. It is a recruitment argument that can be just as strong as compensation. Indeed, according to a Glassdoor study, more than half of respondents consider corporate culture more important than salary in their career choice, and 73% would not apply to a company if its values don't match theirs.

For HR, this means being able to clearly present the culture from the first exchanges and illustrate it with concrete examples to avoid losing the targeted candidate.

Corporate culture strengthens engagement and well-being

With only 13% employee engagement in Europe, companies face the fact that many employees do the minimum without truly investing themselves. A positive culture directly helps:

• Reduce stress
• Decrease absenteeism
• Improve well-being at work

Management plays a key role in transmitting this culture, as it is their role to embody the values daily and pass them on to their teams. A well-defined and properly embodied corporate culture not only attracts the right profiles but also reduces turnover by recruiting candidates truly aligned with the company.

What are the different types of corporate culture?

There are 5 types of corporate culture:

• Clan and collaboration culture
• Adhocracy and innovation culture
• Hierarchical culture
• Market and performance culture
• Creative culture

These typologies help identify models and trends, but each organization develops characteristics and a personality unique to itself based on its history, sector, and objectives.

Clan and collaboration culture

Clan culture, very common in SMEs and startups, functions like a family. The hierarchy is flexible, communication is informal, and cohesion among members is very strong.

This type of culture is very effective for bonding teams during the startup phase, as it fosters mutual support and proximity. However, it can encounter limitations during the growth phase if it is not progressively structured with more formal processes.

Adhocracy culture

This category of culture focuses on challenge, risk-taking, and constant innovation, as it encourages experimentation and autonomy to stand out from the competition. Employees are encouraged to think differently and innovatively, which is beneficial for tech startups or creative agencies, as it stimulates creativity and agility.

Hierarchical culture

This is the most traditional corporate culture model, structured around a clear organizational chart with well-defined procedures centered on respect for authority.

This type of culture is optimal for heavily regulated or high-risk sectors such as aeronautics or finance, but much less so in environments requiring agility, creativity, or flexibility.

Market or performance culture

This type of culture focuses on results, competitiveness, and external performance, aiming to capture market share. The work environment around this culture is often intense, with strong pressure on targets to achieve.

It is a way to quickly gain ground against the competition, but it presents a high risk of burnout and turnover if not balanced with minimum employee well-being.

Creative culture

Collaboration and cooperation are at the heart of this model. The structure is flat, meaning it favors horizontal operating methods with a minimally hierarchical structure, in order to encourage the expression of ideas and everyone's involvement.

This type of culture creates an environment conducive to innovation where open exchanges, sharing of viewpoints, and questioning facilitate the emergence of new ideas. However, it can slow down decision-making at scale when too many people need to be consulted before moving forward.

How to develop a strong corporate culture?

Corporate culture is built methodically and by involving all company stakeholders:

Clearly define values and mission: it is essential to know what defines the company's identity and ambitions. Once these elements are established, they must be communicated to all employees. Various HR tools can serve internal communication purposes, such as a career page, intranet, or dedicated brochures.

Embody culture through concrete practices: this means having a strong EVP (Employee Value Proposition) that is translated into reality at the HR and management level. This is also what will encourage the best talent to choose or stay in the organization.

Align recruitment and integration: this means the recruitment process must evaluate skills but also cultural fit. Once the talent is hired, the onboarding process is essential to transmit the culture, share the company's codes, and ensure the new employee quickly becomes an engaged member of the organization.

Measure and evolve the culture: for culture to evolve with the organization, it is recommended to track its impact and adoption by teams through employee feedback via surveys and polls. A company that knows how to listen and question itself maintains a relevant and effective culture over time.

What are examples of successful corporate cultures?

Google

Google's culture is globally recognized for its attention to employee well-being, with relaxation spaces and the possibility of taking naps at the office. The company encouraged a rule allowing employees to dedicate 20% of their time to personal innovative projects.

The work environment is deliberately playful and open to stimulate encounters, exchanges, and foster innovation. This culture has contributed to the development of many successful products.

Netflix

Netflix built its culture on the principles of autonomy and responsibility. The company eliminated traditional constraints such as tracking vacation days or expense report ceilings.

In return for this great freedom, it expects total commitment and maximum efficiency from its employees, all within a culture based on mutual trust. This approach attracts autonomous and high-performing profiles.

Patagonia

Patagonia's culture is entirely focused on environmental protection. This commitment is not a simple marketing argument but the core of the company's identity. HR policies are directly aligned with this mission, and it is this consistency between stated values and concrete actions that strengthens employee engagement.

Decathlon

The brand built its culture around the values of accessible sport for all: Vitality, Responsibility, Generosity, Authenticity.

These values are reflected in management practices and in the opportunities offered to employees to test products and actively participate in innovation. This sports culture naturally attracts passionate and engaged profiles.

What are the pitfalls to avoid with corporate culture?

A corporate culture that is promoted but poorly applied, a culture that is too rigid, or employee feedback that is ignored can hinder the company's development as they affect its credibility and disengage teams.

The gap between discourse and reality

Proclaiming values without concretely applying them in management practices and HR processes can create distrust among teams.

Consistency between words and actions is the key to the credibility of a company's culture. Employees carefully observe whether leaders and managers truly embody the stated values, especially during difficult situations or important decision-making.

A culture that is too rigid

A culture that is too strong or too heavy can become a barrier to innovation and organizational agility. By imposing too strict a framework, it can stifle creativity and initiative-taking among employees.

It can also pose serious problems during merger and acquisition operations, where the "culture clash" between two entities can lead to the failure of the merger. A culture must remain flexible enough to adapt to market and organizational changes.

Ignoring employee feedback

A culture that doesn't listen to company members is bound to disconnect from reality and become obsolete. Not taking into account feedback, suggestions, or employee concerns leads to demotivation.

It also prevents the culture from adapting to new work realities, changing generational expectations, and emerging challenges. A living culture is one that knows how to question itself and evolve through everyone's contributions.

For HR professionals, corporate culture directly influences performance, innovation, and the ability to attract and retain talent so they work in a motivating environment.

Defining authentic values, embodying them daily, and integrating them into all HR processes are the keys to building a strong culture that can become a real competitive advantage in the employment and recruitment market.

Want to strengthen your corporate culture and improve your HR processes? Intuition Software supports you with JobAffinity, a recruitment software that helps you identify candidates aligned with your values and structure an integration process that effectively transmits your corporate culture.