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Stable - Growth
Organisational Type
Dichotomy
This dichotomy explores whether an organisation offers a stable or growth environment by investigating the flexibility, prestige, and size of an organisation.
Stable
You prefer structure and stability, and you appreciate a clear outline of your potential career path. You value a career with a clear application of defined skills.
Growth
You prefer an organisation that gives you a blank canvas to excel in your company and you are excited by rapid development opportunities within a role.
Learning - Earning
Value
Dichotomy
This company culture dichotomy explores where an employee derives their value from, and explores how organisations seek to provide their employees with valuable rewards. This dichotomy weighs up the benefits gained from on-the-job skills development and learning opportunities, with the tangible rewards of monetary incentives.
Learning
You are more likely to derive value from the skills that you learn while performing in your role. You are more likely to forgo some financial incentive for skills development and exposure to responsibilities above your pay grade.
Earning
You derive value from direct forms of praise from your superior. This could be in the form of monetary incentives, employee of the month nominations, or tangible benefits. You are less likely to focus on skill expansion, and more focussed on skill refinement.
Process - Results
Work Style
Dichotomy
The work style company culture dichotomy investigates an organisation’s approach to processes and task completion. It assesses one’s affinity for following processes, compared with achieving results, when given assigned tasks.
Process
You assess the quality of your work based on how well you follow defined company processes. As an employee, you would prefer a work environment that appreciates a more structured approach to thinking and problem solving.
Results
You assess the quality of their work by the outcomes that you produce rather than how closely you followed protocol. Therefore, you prefer a work environment that facilitates freedom and creativity in problem solving, and allows for free thinking in approaches to work.
Modern - Traditional
Corporate Mindset
Dichotomy
The corporate mindset dichotomy investigates how company culture permeates in the workplace policies set by an organisation. Here, we investigate how an organisation embraces movements in workplace dynamics in a macro sense, aligning either to modern or traditional workplaces. Work-from-home policies, dress codes, and the integration of the work-life spaces of employees will dictate where one would sit in the corporate mindset dichotomy.
Modern
You recognise that the workplace is a integral part of your day-to-day life, and therefore value an organisation that puts more care into facilitating their employees' comfort in that workspace. Generally, you appreciate the flexibility that modern companies allow.
Traditional
There is often a stronger degree of separation from your work and your personal life than a modern-oriented employee. You prefer your organisation to be a vessel for your career rather than an environment meant to fit in with your personal preferences.
Open - Directive
Collaboration
Dichotomy
The collaboration style dichotomy maps how an organisation facilitates collaboration on a scale from open to directive. This dichotomy assesses the structure of the organisation, the flow of communication, and the degree of collaborative input that goes into decision making.
Open
You tend to prefer work environments that are more conducive to teamwork and collaboration. You generally feel most valuable in an environment where you can debate, discuss, and question methodologies laid out by an organisation.
Directive
You prefer a work environment where there are set lines of authority, with much more structure and process to decision-making. You are likely to get frustrated by slow decision making processes and feel that there is more value in ‘doing’ than in discussing.
What is Company Culture?
The traditional definition refers to Company culture refers to the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that define how a company operates and interacts with its employees, customers, and the community. It encompasses the shared goals, vision, and mission that guide the actions and decisions within an organization.
The non-corporate definition of company culture - the company's personality. Think of company culture like a way of describing what a company is like - the same as you would describe a friend. Except instead of using words like driven/relaxed you would use words like modern/traditional.
Some indicators of
Good
Company Culture
Bad
Company Culture
A company culture with high levels of employee engagement. Indicating employees are motivated, committed, and enthusiastic about their work.
A positive and inclusive company culture that fosters collaboration, respect, and trust among team members.
Low turnover rates and high employee retention, indicating that employees are satisfied and committed to staying with the company and its company culture.
A company culture that resists change, innovation, and adaptation to market trends, hindering the company's ability to stay competitive.
A company culture where there is a lack of transparency in decision-making processes, communication, and company policies.
A stagnant organisational company culture that fails to provide opportunities for career growth.
Company Culture Examples
Let's practically apply the above definition of company culture to get a better understanding of how it looks in practice. We'll be using our partner, Campus Connect, and Apti Itself.
Campus Connect's
Company Culture
Campus Connect's company ethos embodies youthfulness, vibrancy and resilience. Its triumph is attributable to its commitment to creating value for the students.
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Apti's
Company Culture
Apti's is a growth orientated company that favours learning and results over the underlying process. Apti is modern in its policies and prefers an open and collaborative communication style.
Why is Company Culture Important?
Company culture should be one of the most important, if not the most important factor in deciding where you want to work. If you're planning on doing your SAICA articles you're making a three year commitment - that's over 1000 days of arriving to work.
Company culture is a good indicator of whether you'll be happy at work, whether you'll fit in and enjoy the company you work at. Your happiness matters and should be factored into the decision of where you decide to do your articles and eventually where you decide to work.
What other factors should you consider? One should also take into account their long term career aspirations, the remuneration structure, and their interest in the actual day-to-day work being done. Our articles aptitude assessment can assist with this.
What is your Company Culture?
This is a personal question and is something that requires reflection and thought. We've built out our company culture assessment to provide you with some good indicators of your company culture and the type of environment that you'll be happy in.
Keep in mind that there there will most likely never be a 100% perfect match for you. Unfortunately, like people, companies aren't perfect. The trick is finding a company that ticks the majority of your most important boxes and creates an environment where you feel supported, inspired and happy.
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