Beliefs: Can be described as the shared view of the company’s employees on how they perceive their company/organisation, their company purpose and how external relationships are maintained.
Values: Describes the priorities given to a company’s different objectives and their principles and beliefs. For example, maintaining a high value of loyalty within their staff and customers and, how they form and maintain these relationships when interfacing.
Norms: Can be described as policy and operating guidelines which govern how a company conducts its business. These principles are based upon its beliefs and values. For example “We will refund our customers their money for unused goods or dissatisfied with their purchase and in return they must provide a proof of purchase” and new employees joining the company are taught to accept and abide by these norms.
Behaviours: Describes employees’ behaviours and how they follow a company’s policy or order. While most company employees usually conform to the company norms, some employees may refuse to follow a company’s order and may be removed either by persuasion, pressure or formal dismissal.
A company’s culture, beliefs and values are often communicated in corporate mission statements, marketing campaigns and in senior management speeches and/or articles and can be used to assist with a competitive intelligence analysis.
Another viewpoint towards understanding and defining a company’s culture is the “Sociological matrix of an organisational culture” (Goffee and Jones, 1996). This theory believes that a company acts more like a family, local village or a sports team community. They each share similar values and beliefs (sociability and friendliness), which in turns attracts similar people to join this community. The Sociologist matrix plots the position of a company’s culture by Sociability and Solidarity. Solidarity is based more upon rational calculations, for example ‘what do we get out of this’. In a high solidarity company, employees ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’ to enable success for the group rather than an individual reward.
An example of this matrix is presented in Figure 5.1. Within this culture matrix, there are four types of principle cultures called Network, Communal, Fragmented and Mercenary (Goffee and Jones, 1996).
Figure 5.1 Sociological matrix of an organisational culture
Sociability 
Solidarity
Companies/organisations with both high sociability and solidarity elements can be described as a communal culture, where people are bound together both by friendship and a strong identification & commitment to the company’s success. Examples of types of this model, would include ‘Business startups’, where the owners are close friends and everyone is striving hard to ensure company success.
Everyone is very clear on who are their competitors and are highly motivated in trying to beat them.
When companies grow and become more mature, personal relationships become more diluted as head count increases and it becomes more difficult to maintain this environment.
Companies with a high solidarity and low sociability can be described as mercenary. The core focus is on achieving a common purpose, while ‘getting on well together’, employees are focused on getting results rather than enjoying themselves. Individual interests are subordinated to those of the company and underperformance is firmly measured and dealt with. Those working for this type of company accept these values, because the company’s success will benefit their personal interest. They also have a strong awareness of competitors and have a strong desire to beat them.
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