An organizational culture survey can focus on one of many different aspects of a company’s corporate culture, or even focus on organizational culture in general. Sometimes this information is used directly for business purposes, but some academics will look at this information to try to answer cultural (as in societal) questions by taking surveys and trying to determine if they give information that can be used to ask questions such as the gap between women and men in CEO positions, or other such questions.

Certain organizational cultures are still inhospitable towards minorities and women, some studies claim, but that isn’t necessarily because of racism or sexism. An inhospitable organizational culture for these groups may simply mean there aren’t any role models available.

Maybe everyone on up from a mid level position looks exactly the same, and without any diversity, it can make someone from an unrepresented group wonder whether they actually can work to success. The best companies obviously choose the best person regardless, but scientists’ have shown that almost everyone naturally has some degree of inherent bias towards what they’re comfortable with.

What is more likely the case for these feelings is that business can be a very aggressive cut throat area, and since for decades many corporations had only males, many organizational cultures tended to be built around very masculine traits.

Many of these traits, such as ambitiousness, decisiveness, status, and authority are often stereotyped as being “male,” even though this really isn’t true. Any individual of either gender can carry those traits, and those traits are not always a good thing.

While some companies may still lag behind others, good corporations have used organizational culture surveys to figure out how to set up a system where individuals in both gender groups can thrive. With the changes in education, and far more women now going to college than men, it only makes sense that you want a system where anything involving race or gender is completely irrelevant to employee’s job performance.

Companies that succeed in creating this type of an organizational culture are at a huge advantage over competitors since they are in a position to fully maximize the benefit of anyone’s specific talents.

This use of organizational culture surveys is nothing newâ€"it’s been going on for decades. First with many academics who were in business programs and commented on organizational culture for use within the actual business community (see Harvard Business School), and then later by others, especially from Europe, who attached how organizational culture worked and interacted with society’s culture.

Both methods go in depth as to reasons some organizational cultures are successful versus others that aren’t, though the reasons for study end up being different.

Different countries also have different methods of organizational culture, so even between different nations and different cultures a corporate model is most effective when it adapts to take these differences into consideration.

A good organizational culture in Japan is going to differ from Spain just as Spain will differ from the United States and the United States will differ from Brazil. The most successful international companies have learned how to adapt, and it’s a safe bet that the use of surveys and trusting local experts had a lot to do with that success.