The evidence that makes up the corporate culture is manifested through symbolic productions (symbols, codes, rites, myths, etc.), languages or ideologies. The way in which offices are allocated is often very enlightening about the distribution of power within a company. Size, floor, number of windows, thickness and color of the carpet, furniture, type of lamps,… are symbolic manifestations of authority.
Symbolic manifestations carry meaning. Sometimes appearances deceive. At the end of its business plan, a company transcribes its values on a leaflet small enough to fit in the “pocket” of a jacket. What interpretation to give to this? For some it is clear. The gesture is very symbolic. Putting the leaflet in the “pocket” of your jacket is to carry the company to your heart. For others, the gesture is also very symbolic. Their business is definitely macho. Indeed, only men wear a jacket!
The company: a symbolic place
The logos, the architecture of the buildings and their decoration, the messages of institutional communication, the dress codes,… but also the festivals which celebrate the “big family”, the stories that are told in the starting pots, the account of the exploits of Mr. X who once saved the company from bankruptcy, the harsh remarks made about so and so pointed out by all for his way of behaving ("here, that is not done", "in twenty years of boutique, I had never seen that ”,…) are also manifestations of culture.
The company is a symbolic place. A thousand details need to be interpreted in order to go beyond the stage of appearances and understand the deep meaning of the organization of space, advertising messages, rites, myths, etc.
Culture is less on the walls than in the walls .
In this regard, the values appearing in a project or in a corporate charter often stem more from an ideology, that is to say from a manifestation of culture, than from culture itself. They reflect what employees should believe in order for the company to perform well rather than what they actually believe.
In this regard, we can distinguish the operative values, those which make up the culture and which intervene in daily behavior, and the declared values which, for their part, relate to the discourse and are more the values of the General Management than the values of the company, that is to say those shared by the majority of its members. Only the operative values are the obvious facts that make up the corporate culture. Declared values are part of an ideology. They are at best an illustration of operating values, one of their manifestations. Do not be mistaken in taking the map for the territory.