Can You Change Corporate Culture?

Corporate culture is stable

It develops over time, employees self select to be part of it, which in turn reinforces it.

Or at least Jeff Bezos thinks so

A word about corporate cultures: for better or for worse, they are enduring, stable, hard to change. They can be a source of advantage or disadvantage. You can write down your corporate culture, but when you do so, you’re discovering it, uncovering it — not creating it.

It is created slowly over time by the people and by events — by the stories of past success and failure that become a deep part of the company lore. If it’s a distinctive culture, it will fit certain people like a custom-made glove.

The reason cultures are so stable in time is because people self-select. Someone energized by competitive zeal may select and be happy in one culture, while someone who loves to pioneer and invent may choose another.

The world, thankfully, is full of many high-performing, highly distinctive corporate cultures. We never claim that our approach is the right one — just that it’s ours — and over the last two decades, we’ve collected a large group of like-minded people. Folks who find our approach energizing and meaningful. ~ Jeff Bezos

If he is right…

It would explain why culture is so difficult to change.  Is culture a prize worth working for?

Culture eats strategy for breakfast ~ Peter Drucker

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