Organizational culture serves as the invisible yet powerful force that shapes the behaviors, attitudes, and values within a company. It is the established personality of an organization, influencing how employees interact, make decisions, and approach their work.
A strong, well-defined culture can be a catalyst for achieving organizational goals, driving innovation, and fostering employee engagement, while a weak or misaligned culture can hinder progress and lead to high turnover, low morale, and missed opportunities.1 For organizations striving to remain competitive in today’s dynamic business environment, cultivating an embedded and cohesive culture is not just a “nice-to-have” — it is a strategic imperative that directly impacts performance, customer satisfaction, and long-term success.
For HR executives and professionals, organizational culture holds particular significance because they are often the stewards of its development and maintenance. By recruiting talent that aligns with the company’s values and designing policies and programs that reinforce desired behaviors, HR plays a pivotal role in shaping and sustaining the cultural fabric of an organization. Moreover, as the workforce becomes increasingly diverse and employee expectations evolve, HR leaders are uniquely positioned to address challenges associated with culture, such as bridging generational differences, promoting psychological safety, and aligning culture with the organization’s strategic goals.
As organizations expand their reach and operate across borders, understanding culture on a global scale has become equally critical. The characteristics that make a culture thrive can vary across contexts. Conceptualizing culture through a model with distinct culture types allows organizations to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all definition of “right” or “wrong” culture. Instead, culture should align with an organization’s strategy, objectives, and the environment in which it operates.
Given the importance of organizational culture, SHRM Thought Leadership sought to understand the core components of organizational culture and how they interact to form distinct culture types, as well as how culture types manifest and operate across countries, industries, and organizational contexts. This report focuses on:
- Conceptualizing and measuring a global organizational culture model.
- Defining various organizational culture types based on the model’s dimensions and subdimensions.
- Examining characteristics and variations across organizational culture types.
- Highlighting characteristics, culture subdimensions, and outcomes for each culture type.
OUR PERSPECTIVES
Research Overview
To establish a foundational model that defines organizational culture, SHRM Thought Leadership undertook a comprehensive review of organizational culture and developed our global organizational culture model, the SHRM Workplace Culture Navigator.
Take the Workplace Culture Quiz to uncover your organization’s culture profile and inform your next steps.
The framework for the SHRM Workplace Culture Navigator was theorized through extensive research to define and organize various aspects of organizational culture into core dimensions and various subdimensions. A key feature of the theorized model is the use of contrasting subdimensions to indicate neutral but opposite orientations. For example, the decision-making subdimension ranges from distributed at one pole to centralized at the opposite pole.
SHRM then developed a 46-item assessment to measure organizational culture. The goal of the research was to validate the model, identify culture types, and examine how culture relates to organizational performance outcomes.
The survey included the organizational culture assessment as well as other key variables that allowed workers to describe their organizations and jobs, essentially allowing workers to respond on behalf of their own experience and on behalf of their organizations.
The survey was administered to 27,159 workers across 25 countries. Of the workers responding about their organizations, most had been with their organizations for an average of nine years. Most workers were individual contributors (41%) or managers and supervisors (33%). Nearly all of the workers reported that their organizations’ headquarters were in the same country they lived in (91%).
| Countries surveyed | Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States |
Organizational Culture Framework
Data from 27,159 workers were analyzed to determine the dimensions and subdimensions that make up the framework of the SHRM Workplace Culture Navigator. Through iterative testing — including factor analyses, review, and refinement — the assessment was condensed to 31 items, revealing the underlying structure of organizational culture.
The final model spans three dimensions (Strategic Orientation, Work Processes and Systems, and Interactions and Relationships), each with two subdimensions. These subdimensions represent neutral but opposing poles, such as Long-Term Growth and Short-Term Stability as the subdimensions for Strategic Orientation. The following table provides definitions for each dimension and subdimension, illustrating how they operate within organizations.
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The SHRM Workplace Culture Navigator
Defining Culture Types
Organizational culture types were classified from the culture model, based on interactions among the six subdimensions: long-term growth mindset, short-term stability mindset, flat and decentralized, hierarchical and centralized, open and collectivistic, and closed and individualistic. This determined eight potential culture types, which were then tested by assigning workers into the eight types based on their scores on each subdimension.
SHRM Thought Leadership developed a detailed model to define each culture type based on their makeup of cultural subdimensions. These eight culture types capture the range of organizational culture types validated in the global data. The following table lists each culture type and its description.
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Understanding the Differences Between Culture Types
Overall, the culture types show similar patterns in their organizational culture scores across the subdimensions, but no two cultures are exactly alike. This indicates that there are nuances in which cultural subdimensions resonate most strongly or weakly within culture types, even as overarching cultures clearly fall into separate and distinct pattens within the organizational culture model. For example:
- Growth Collaborator cultures score high in Long-Term Growth Orientation, Flat and Decentralized Systems, and Open and Collectivistic Relationships and low in Closed and Individualistic Relationships.
- Ambitious Maverick cultures also reported high scores for Long-Term Growth Orientation and Flat and Decentralized Systems, similar to Growth Collaborator cultures. However, Ambitious Mavericks scored high for Closed and Individualistic Relationships.
- Both Steady Collaborator and Resolute Maverick cultures scored high for Short-Term Stability Orientation and Flat and Decentralized Systems. However, in a nod to their culture type name, Steady Collaborator cultures scored high for Open and Collectivistic Relationships and Resolute Maverick cultures scored high for Closed and Individualistic Relationships.
Key Takeaway: The culture types show distinct patterns, with subtle differences, in cultural subdimensions, thus making each organization’s culture unique. Understanding these nuances is essential for aligning culture with strategic goals, enhancing employee engagement, and designing tailored strategies that support both business objectives and the specific dynamics of each workplace.
Global Prevalence of Culture Types
Across all culture types, Growth Collaborator was the most prevalent, representing 37.2% of organizations, followed by Strategic Architect at 16.8%. The least common types were Ambitious Maverick (4.5%) and Resolute Maverick (3.3%). While a few types dominate, the data also show substantial variety, with all eight culture types represented across organizations globally. This diversity reflects that organizations take different approaches to structuring work, decision-making, and relationships, even within similar industries or regions.
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Characteristics Across Culture Types
Culture types are distributed across countries, regions, industries, and organization sizes. Culture types are also fully distributed across all the industry sectors and organization sizes provided in the survey.2 The distribution of culture types across countries and organization types (by industry and size) reflects the prevalence of all culture types rather than suggesting any pattern tied to a specific characteristic. For example, it is not the case that all Efficient Achiever culture types are based solely in the U.S. Instead, culture types appear to be organization-specific, shaped by factors each organization seeks to cultivate and align within its workplace and workforce.
Key Takeaway: Growth Collaborator was the most common culture type, but all eight types were represented globally across countries, industries, and organization sizes. This diversity shows that culture is largely organization-specific, reflecting the unique ways that organizations structure work, make decisions, and shape relationships, rather than being determined by geography, industry, or size alone.
Culture Types Drive Different Outcomes
Culture types demonstrate differing strengths across organizational dimensions, which are reflected in distinct profiles for outcomes. Differing scores on outcome variables continue to indicate the distinct differences among culture types, in that some cultivate cultures to support a focus on expanding the business while others cultivate cultures toward structured decision-making for dependable results. Some highlights across culture types include:
- Growth Collaborator, Ambitious Maverick, and Strategic Architect cultures are most likely to report that their organizations met their financial objectives in the past year.
- This aligns with their strong Long-Term Growth Orientation, suggesting that a forward-looking, innovation-driven mindset may contribute to stronger financial performance.
- Growth Collaborators and Steady Collaborators are most likely to foster a sense of belonging and inclusive environments in their workplaces.
- Consistently high scores on Flat and Decentralized Systems and Open and Collectivistic Relationships reinforce how structural and relational practices enable belonging and inclusion.
- Growth Collaborators, Steady Collaborators, Strategic Architects, and Ambitious Mavericks are most likely to have workers recommend working at the organization to colleagues and friends.
- Consistently high scores on Long-Term Growth Orientation, Flat and Decentralized Systems, and Open and Collectivistic Relationships reinforce how empowering and collaborative environments can build organizational pride and loyalty.
Key Takeaway: Patterns in organizational culture are closely linked to performance outcomes at the organizational and individual levels. Cultures with high Long-Term Growth Orientation tend to prioritize financial performance, while cultures scoring high on Flat and Decentralized and Open and Collectivistic dimensions promote a sense of belonging and inclusive environments. For organizations, these findings underscore the value of intentionally shaping culture to align with strategic goals, business objectives, and workforce dynamics.
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Growth Collaborator
Overview
Growth Collaborator cultures scored highest on Open and Collectivistic, followed by Long-Term Growth Orientation and Flat and Decentralized Systems (in the profile chart, darker colors = higher culture scores). This culture type combines a long-term growth mindset with flexibility and adaptability. Openness is prioritized, with candid feedback and emotional intelligence fostering trust and collaboration. Leaders focus on long-term impact and purpose while navigating change with resilience and calculated risk taking. Decision-making is decentralized, empowering teams and individuals to act with autonomy.
Key Takeaway: This culture is well suited for organizations seeking bold, impactful growth with open structures and strong collaboration.
At A Glance
Across workers, 37% classified their organizations into the Growth Collaborator culture type, making it the most common among all culture types. Growth Collaborator cultures are prevalent across various global regions, particularly south and southeast Asia and South America. The top represented industry sector is IT and data processing services and the top represented workforce size is 500-999 employees.
Key Takeaway: The top represented countries for the Growth Collaborator culture type, including Indonesia, Thailand, Colombia, and Brazil, feature upper-middle income or emerging market economies that show steady growth and rely on exports. This culture type is widely distributed across geographic regions, industries, and workforce sizes, highlighting its global and flexible appeal for organizations.
Performance Snapshot
In the outcomes below, eNPS refers to employee Net Promoter Score, a metric used by organizations to measure employee loyalty and satisfaction. It is adapted from the Net Promoter Score (NPS) concept, which gauges customer loyalty.
Compared to the overall sample, Growth Collaborator cultures are:
Steady Collaborator
Overview
Key Takeaway: This culture is ideal for organizations seeking to balance stability and immediate results with teamwork and open communication, creating a workplace in which employees are empowered, engaged, and connected.
At A Glance
Across workers, 10% classified their organizations into the Steady Collaborator culture type. Steady Collaborator cultures are particularly common in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia, with South Korea, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil as the top represented countries. The top represented industry sector is health care, and the top represented workforce size is 2-20 employees, followed by 500-999 employees.
Key Takeaway: These countries represent recovering economies weathering geopolitical uncertainties with policies to promote stability and resilience. This culture type is found across organizational sizes, particularly smaller ones. This suggests that this culture type can succeed in diverse and difficult contexts and across a wide range of organizational sizes.
Performance Snapshot
Compared to the overall sample, Steady Collaborator cultures are:
Ambitious Maverick
Overview
Key Takeaway: Ambitious Maverick cultures foster an environment in which initiative, independence, and competitive drive are central. This culture is well suited for organizations seeking to maximize individual contributions and drive innovation through personal accountability and entrepreneurial thinking.
At A Glance
Ambitious Maverick is the second-least common culture type with a prevalence of 5%. This culture is particularly represented in China, Thailand, Egypt, India, and Spain. Within countries, the top represented industry varies, with manufacturing being most prevalent. Workforce sizes of 500-999 employees are the most represented.
Key Takeaway: The top countries with Ambitious Maverick cultures represent resilient developing and emerging economies focused on robust growth while balancing global uncertainties. This culture type is relatively rare, though notably common in Asia and western Europe and with larger organizations.
Performance Snapshot
Compared to the overall sample, Ambitious Maverick cultures are:
Resolute Maverick
Overview
Resolute Maverick cultures scored highest on Short-Term Stability Orientation, followed by Closed and Individualistic Relationships and Flat and Decentralized Systems (in the profile chart, darker colors = higher culture scores). This culture type prioritizes immediate results, individual accountability, and adherence to proven processes. Leaders focus on achieving short-term wins and maintaining stability by making safe, reliable decisions. Decision-making authority is distributed across individuals and teams, allowing employees the freedom to determine how they approach their work. Work is primarily completed independently, with a strong emphasis on personal achievement and efficiency.
Key Takeaway: Overall, this culture thrives on balancing stability with a results-driven, independent approach to success and a distributed decision-making structure. Resolute Maverick cultures are well suited for organizations that aim to maximize efficiency and individual output through distributed authority, established processes, and a results-driven mindset while minimizing risk and prioritizing stability.
At A Glance
Resolute Maverick is the least common culture type at 5%. This culture is most represented in China, Singapore, Canada, and Germany. Within countries, the top represented industry is finance, banking, and insurance. Workforce sizes of 500-999 employees are the most represented.
Key Takeaway: The top countries with Resolute Maverick cultures represent mostly developed or emerging market countries featuring robust and diversified economies. This culture type is relatively rare, though notably common in Asia and North America and in industries with larger workforce sizes.
Performance Snapshot
Compared to the overall sample, Resolute Maverick cultures are:
Strategic Architect
Overview
Strategic Architect cultures scored highest on Open and Collectivistic, followed by Long-Term Growth Orientation and Hierarchical and Centralized Systems (in the profile chart, darker colors = higher culture scores). This culture type balances strategic risk taking and long-term vision with a structured, centralized approach to decision-making and communication. Leaders take an enterprising mindset within a structure of key decisions made by a concentrated group of individuals. Processes and workflows are adapted only when necessary, ensuring stability while remaining flexible to change. Collaboration, open communication, and mutual support foster strong relationships, trust, and teamwork to achieve shared goals.
Key Takeaway: This culture thrives on combining disciplined structure with collective effort to achieve sustainable growth. Overall, a Strategic Architect culture provides a balanced environment in which innovation and calculated risk taking are supported by structured processes, formal communication, and a strong team dynamic.
At A Glance
Strategic Architect cultures are the second most common culture type at 17%. This culture type is most represented in Africa and South America, in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Argentina. The most common industry sectors are manufacturing and IT, and the most represented workforce size is 500-999 employees.
Key Takeaway: Strategic Architect cultures in these countries combine relational openness to foster trust, collaboration, and a growth mindset with centralized, hierarchical structures to provide stability, accountability, and strategic control — creating a culture capable of both innovation and sustainable execution in challenging, dynamic markets.
Performance Snapshot
In the outcomes below, eNPS refers to employee Net Promoter Score, a metric used by organizations to measure employee loyalty and satisfaction. It is adapted from the Net Promoter Score (NPS) concept, which gauges customer loyalty.
Compared to the overall sample, Strategic Architect cultures are:
Tactical Architect
Overview
Tactical Architect cultures scored highest on Short-Term Stability Orientation, followed by Hierarchical and Centralized Systems and Open and Collectivistic (in the profile chart, darker colors = higher culture scores). This culture type values consistency, teamwork, and clear communication while focusing on short-term results and maintaining stability. Leaders prioritize safe, proven strategies and make decisions with a focus on immediate wins and steady progress. Processes are adapted only when necessary, ensuring a reliable framework for operations. Decision-making, feedback, and recognition are centralized and formalized. Teamwork and mutual support are emphasized, with strong relationships and emotional awareness playing a key role in achieving success.
Key Takeaway: Overall, Tactical Architect cultures are ideal for organizations where centralized leadership, formal feedback, and strong interpersonal relationships create a productive and transparent environment. This culture thrives on balancing structure with collaboration to create clear communications and supportive environments.
At A Glance
The Tactical Architect culture type is fairly common at 11%. This culture type is most represented in Asia and western Europe, in countries such as South Korea, Australia, France, Italy, and Spain. The top represented industries are health care and manufacturing. The top represented workforce size is 5,000 and more employees.
Key Takeaway: The Tactical Architect culture type is found most commonly in highly developed countries and is prevalent in services and manufacturing sectors. These characteristics suggest this culture type thrives in large, structured organizations and in regions or industries that value collaboration, interpersonal relationships, and a balance between stability and adaptability.
Performance Snapshot
Tactical Architect cultures did not perform better than the average on any measures except for tenure. However, it is possible that additional outcomes not captured in this study could reveal further advantages.
Compared to the overall sample, Tactical Architect cultures are:
Efficient Achiever
Overview
Efficient Achiever cultures scored highest on Hierarchical and Centralized Systems, followed by Closed and Individualistic and Long-Term Growth Orientation (in the profile chart, darker colors = higher culture scores). This culture type is centered on efficiency, individual achievement, and strategic decision-making. Leaders drive growth by taking calculated risks and pursuing long-term goals while maintaining a deliberate approach to change. Decision-making is concentrated among a select group, ensuring control and alignment with organizational priorities. Communication flows primarily in a top-down manner. Work is largely independent, emphasizing personal accountability, outperforming others, and completing tasks effectively.
Key Takeaway: This culture is suited for organizations seeking to drive innovation and growth within a structured, disciplined environment that prioritizes individual achievement, formal communication, and centralized leadership.
At A Glance
The Efficient Achiever culture type is less common at 6%. This culture type is most represented in Asia and western Europe, in countries such as Singapore, France, and Germany. The top represented industries are manufacturing and IT. The top represented workforce size is 5,000 and more employees.
Key Takeaway: Efficient Achiever cultures are most commonly found in high-income, developed countries with robust, diversified, and advanced economies and infrastructures. This culture type is a good fit for typically high-performance, growth-oriented organizations operating in competitive, fast-changing industries — organizations where risk taking and individual achievement drive success. This culture type is also common in extra-large organizations where hierarchical processes and centralized decision-making are important for efficient operations.
Performance Snapshot
Efficient Achiever cultures did not perform better than the average on any outcome measures. However, it is possible that additional outcomes not captured in this study could reveal further advantages.
Compared to the overall sample, Efficient Achievers cultures are:
Disciplined Achiever
Overview
Disciplined Achiever cultures scored highest on Short-Term Stability Orientation, followed by Hierarchical and Centralized Systems and Closed and Individualistic Relationships (in the profile chart, darker colors = higher culture scores). This culture type emphasizes stability, individual performance, and adherence to established processes. Leaders focus on achieving short-term wins and maintaining steady progress by making safe, calculated decisions. Processes and workflows are adjusted only when necessary, reinforcing consistency and reliability. Decision-making is centralized, with key choices made by a select group of individuals. Work is largely completed independently, with a strong focus on personal achievement and efficiency.
Key Takeaway: The Disciplined Achiever culture type thrives on stability, discipline, consistency, and a results-driven approach to success. It relies on formal structures and centralized processes to drive high-quality, reliable results.
At A Glance
The Disciplined Achiever culture type is fairly common at 11%. This culture type is most represented in Asia and western Europe, in countries such as South Korea, Germany, Argentina, and Italy. The most represented industries are manufacturing and education. The top represented workforce size is 5,000 and more employees.
Key Takeaway: The Disciplined Achiever culture type is most common in upper-middle and high-income developed countries and those that are actively engaged in international markets. The characteristics of this culture type suggest some regional specificity; it thrives in structured, process-driven environments as well as in extra-large organizations.
Performance Snapshot
Disciplined Achiever cultures did not perform better than the average on any measures except for tenure. However, it is possible that additional outcomes not captured in this study could reveal further advantages.
Compared to the overall sample, Disciplined Achiever cultures are:
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Recommendations
With these insights in mind, the following recommendations offer a road map for cultivating a culture that aligns with organizational strategy, goals, and workforce dynamics.
Treat organizational culture as a measurable, investible asset that directly influences business outcomes. Invest deliberately in interventions — programs, tools, and policies — that reinforce the culture traits most likely to deliver strategic advantage.
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CONCLUSION
The 2026 SHRM Global Workplace Culture research focused on building a more nuanced understanding of organizational culture and the role of culture in the future of the workplace, shining light on the intricate role culture plays in shaping business outcomes and employee engagement. By identifying and analyzing eight distinct culture types, the report highlights the diversity and complexity of workplace cultures across regions, industries, and organizational sizes. It emphasizes that there is no universal “right” culture; instead, organizations must align their cultural practices with their strategic goals, operational needs, and workforce dynamics to thrive in an increasingly competitive and dynamic global environment.
Culture is not static; it is a nuanced and evolving aspect of organizational life. Leaders and HR professionals are encouraged to take a data-driven approach to understanding their unique cultural identity, leveraging its strengths while addressing areas for growth. Whether fostering inclusivity, balancing stability with adaptability, or aligning leadership practices with cultural goals, organizations that prioritize intentional culture building will be better positioned to achieve sustainable success and create workplaces where employees and businesses alike can flourish.