Company culture is the set of shared beliefs, norms, symbols and behaviours that determine how decisions are made and how people relate to one another within an organisation. Edgar Schein, a leading academic in this field, defines it across three levels: visible artefacts (offices, rituals, language), espoused values (mission, code of ethics) and the unconscious basic assumptions that the group takes for granted. Confusing the first level with the third is the most common mistake: a company can paint its walls with slogans about trust while operating, at the same time, on deep assumptions of control and distrust. The real culture is the one that shows itself when no one is watching.
Building corporate values is not about drafting a nice list for the lobby. It is a piece of organisational design that connects the company's purpose with everyday decisions, incentive systems and the criteria for hiring and firing. In this article we set out a practical method, with the applicable regulations and the usual mistakes, so that culture stops being a poster and becomes a measurable asset.
What corporate values are and why they matter
A corporate value is a principle of behaviour that the organisation chooses to prioritise consistently, even when doing so costs money or time. That is precisely the acid test of an authentic value: if it never forces you to give anything up, it is not a value, it is decoration. Claiming to value "quality" while rewarding delivery speed exclusively reveals an inconsistency that teams detect immediately.
Values serve three concrete functions. First, they act as a decentralised decision-making heuristic: when a customer-service employee knows that "the customer closes the ticket, not us", they can resolve the issue without escalating to a supervisor. Second, they work as a selection filter: they attract those who fit and repel those who do not, reducing early turnover. Third, they are a coordination mechanism in distributed companies, where there is no manager physically present to arbitrate every conflict.
The academic evidence supports their economic impact. The longitudinal study by John Kotter and James Heskett, Corporate Culture and Performance, compared companies with adaptive cultures against those with rigid cultures over eleven years and documented notable differences in revenue growth and stock-market appreciation. The correct reading is not that "culture magically increases profit", but that cultures which value adapting to the customer and the employee make better decisions, compounded over the long term.
Cultural diagnosis: measure before you intervene
Before defining or changing values, you have to diagnose the existing culture. Intervening without a diagnosis is like prescribing without an examination. There are validated instruments for this. The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), based on the Competing Values Framework of Cameron and Quinn, places the organisation within four archetypes: clan (collaboration), adhocracy (creativity), market (competition) and hierarchy (control). The instrument measures both the perceived culture and the desired one, and the gap between the two signals where to intervene.
In-depth interviews and focus groups complement the quantitative diagnosis, bringing Schein's basic assumptions to the surface. One useful technique is to analyse the "stories that get told": which anecdotes veterans relate to newcomers reveals which behaviours the organisation rewards and punishes in practice. It is also worth reviewing the system's artefacts: who gets promoted, what is measured in performance reviews and how budgets are allocated. Culture lives in the systems, not in the speeches.
Designing and rolling out values: implementation steps
Once the current culture has been diagnosed, rolling out the values follows an ordered sequence:
- Define few values, actionable and not generic. Three to five values phrased as observable behaviours ("We say what we think in the room, not in the corridor") are infinitely more useful than ten abstract nouns. The rule of thumb: if a value would fit any company in the world, it does not distinguish yours.
- Connect each value to a real decision. For every value, identify a concrete dilemma it resolves. If you cannot find one, it is redundant.
- Align the systems. Rewrite the competencies in performance reviews, the promotion criteria and the incentive plans so that they reflect the values. Rewarding the opposite of what you preach destroys credibility in a single bonus round.
- Model from leadership. Teams imitate what they see, not what they read. A manager who turns up late to meetings dismantles the value of punctuality no matter how loudly they proclaim it.
- Communicate in both directions. Culture is not decreed; it is discussed. Value co-creation workshops, in which the teams themselves translate the principles into their own contexts, generate genuine ownership.
- Measure and adjust. Repeat the diagnosis (OCAI, eNPS, climate surveys) on an annual cadence and treat the results as one more KPI on the dashboard.
Regulatory framework: culture also complies with the law
Company culture does not operate in a legal vacuum. In Spain, Law 2/2023 on the protection of whistleblowers, which transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1937, requires companies with 50 or more workers to provide an internal reporting channel. A channel without a culture of psychological safety to back it up is a dead letter: if reporting is punished in practice, no one will use it. Culture is the substrate that makes compliance work.
Similarly, the processing of data from climate surveys and staff appraisals is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Spanish LOPDGDD. Surveys must guarantee anonymity or, when that is not possible, a legal basis and clear information. The Spanish Data Protection Agency has published guidance on data processing in the workplace that is worth consulting before launching cultural measurement tools. There is also the ISO 30414 standard on human capital, which offers guidelines for reporting culture and engagement indicators in a comparable way.
Comparison table: espoused culture versus lived culture
| Dimension | Espoused culture (sign of a façade) | Lived culture (sign of authenticity) |
|---|---|---|
| Promotions | Results are promoted at any cost | Those who embody the values and deliver results are promoted |
| Mistakes | Scapegoats are sought | Root causes are analysed without reprisals |
| Meetings | Only those in charge speak | Disagreement is voiced safely |
| Incentives | Bonus by volume even if it harms quality | Incentives aligned with the espoused value |
| Onboarding | A forgettable welcome leaflet | Mentoring and stories that convey the assumptions |
Common mistakes that destroy culture
The first and most lethal is inconsistency between the message and the systems: proclaiming teamwork while incentivising individual ranking. The second is copying another company's values; the values of a tech giant do not fit an industrial SME, and the pastiche shows. The third is treating culture as a Human Resources project rather than a responsibility of senior management. The fourth is measuring once and forgetting: without periodic reassessment, culture drifts. The fifth, especially during phases of rapid growth, is hiring for technical skill while ignoring cultural fit, which dilutes the values until they become unrecognisable.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to change a company's culture?
Visible changes in climate and behaviour can be perceived within 6-12 months if leadership models the values and aligns the systems with discipline. However, modifying the deep basic assumptions usually requires between two and five years, and it depends on turnover: sometimes culture truly changes when the people in key positions change.
How is culture measured objectively?
By combining validated instruments such as the OCAI with indicators of real behaviour: eNPS, voluntary turnover for reasons related to climate, effective use of the reporting channel, the rate of internal mobility and the results of 360-degree reviews. The qualitative material (interviews, stories) interprets the quantitative.
Should values be imposed from the top or built from the bottom up?
Both. Purpose and the framing principles fall to leadership, because they define the strategic identity. Translating those principles into the concrete behaviours of each team works better when co-created, since it generates ownership and avoids the rejection of anything imposed.
What do I do if a high performer does not respect the values?
This is the decision that defines the culture. Tolerating a "brilliant jerk" tells everyone else that results buy impunity and empties all the values of meaning. Serious organisations support the person, give them a chance to correct course and, if there is no improvement, part ways with them even though it hurts in the short term.
Conclusion
Company culture is not built with posters or with isolated team-building away-days: it is built in the hard decisions, the ones that cost money, promotions and comfortable relationships. A system of values works when an employee can resolve a dilemma without asking their manager, because they know what the organisation would prioritise, and when they see that those who embody those values prosper and those who trample on them do not. That alignment between message, systems and leadership conduct is what turns a slogan into a competitive asset that is hard to copy, because while a product can be replicated in months, a coherent culture takes years to build and just as long to imitate. At Summum Consulting we support the OCAI diagnosis, the redesign of incentive systems and the implementation of a reporting channel in line with Law 2/2023, so that your company's culture stops being an intention and becomes a measurable advantage.