Corporate culture : differences between “general culture” and the “department culture”

A company is not only defined by size, number of employees and turnover. Corporate culture seems to be an important element when a company should be described. In the last decades, many studies and research were conducted in reference to corporate culture and a lot of literature was revealed. The available literature covers the different definitions of corporate and/or organizational culture and subcultures, as well as its impact on strategy, structure and performance. Some publications focus on the interrelation of values and leadership while others have the emphasis on the analysis of corporate culture. Studies of corporate culture referring to small and medium sized enterprises (SME) are scarce, especially in Germany. Dealing with that topic, an interesting question in regards to corporate culture and SME´s emerges: Is there still a holistic culture in such companies? To answer the question, research at the ept GmbH&Co.KG, a family owned SME in Germany, was conducted. For the analysis and assessment of the culture and the comparison, the OCAI method was used. The results demonstrate that there is a significant difference between the corporate culture of the whole company and the culture within the departments.