When we talk about an organization's culture, we often act as if there were a single culture. Yet within the same organization, the software team at headquarters and the regional production site, the sales team and the legal department, or ten-year veterans and new joiners may experience the organization very differently. A culture profile calculated for the whole organization is an average of these differences and may not closely resemble any single group. In this article we explain what subcultures are, which differences matter, and how to measure and interpret subcultures with a culture survey.
- A subculture is the distinctive set of values and behavior patterns shared by a department, location or employee group within the organization's overall culture. The company average often hides these differences.
- Subcultures are not a problem in themselves. What matters is whether the differences lie in the organization's core values or in ways of working that come from the nature of the job.
- To measure subcultures, breakdowns should be planned before the survey, the same items should be used in every group, and small groups should not be reported in order to protect anonymity.
- Results are best read with a heatmap. Looking at agreement within each group, meaning how similar the answers are, alongside the score difference shows the strength of the culture.
What is a subculture?
A subculture is a set of distinctive values, norms and behaviors shared by a particular group within the organization's overall culture. Subcultures form naturally in groups that share an experience: working for the same manager, dealing with the same customers, having the same professional training or working in the same building.
Edgar Schein describes three subcultures that emerge naturally in many organizations: the culture of the operators who run the daily work, the culture of the experts who design systems and technology, and the culture of senior executives focused on financial results. Although these three groups work in the same organization, they think differently about success, risk and people.
Common types of subcultures in organizations include:
| Subculture type | Source | Example difference |
|---|---|---|
| Functional | The department's work and professional background | Sales focuses on speed and results, finance on control and accuracy |
| Geographic | Location, region, country | Decisions are debated at headquarters while the field waits for instructions |
| Hierarchical | Level and authority | Senior leadership sees the culture as open and participative, employees see it as hierarchical |
| Tenure and generation | Time spent in the organization | Long-tenured employees value stability, new joiners value speed and growth |
| Work model | Office, field, remote or shift work | Remote employees feel they get information late and take part in fewer decisions |
| Merger-related | Acquired or merged companies | The former company's decision-making and approval habits persist |
Are subcultures a problem?
Not always. Some differences are a natural result of the work and are healthy. Strict adherence to rules at a pharmaceutical production site, or a culture of experimentation and risk-taking in a product development team, is a prerequisite for doing the job well. Forcing these units into the same culture can reduce the effectiveness of both.
When evaluating differences, it helps to separate two layers:
- Core values: Values expected to be the same everywhere in the organization, such as integrity, trust, respect, the attitude to mistakes and responsibility toward customers. Large differences here matter, because they show a fundamental problem in part of the organization.
- Ways of working: Characteristics that can vary with the demands of the work, such as decision speed, the balance between planning and flexibility, formality and risk appetite. Differences here are normal as long as they fit the unit's work.
Another situation where differences become a problem is at interfaces: if two units that must work together have very different cultures, for example sales expects fast decisions while operations runs every request through a long approval process, the difference creates constant friction between them.
Designing a survey to measure subcultures
Plan your breakdowns in advance
Subculture analysis depends on defining the right breakdowns at the start. Department, location, level, tenure, work model and, where relevant, the pre-merger company are the most common. Breakdowns can be pulled automatically from the org chart or asked in the survey. We explain how to choose and define breakdowns in detail in segmentation in employee surveys.
Ask everyone the same items
To compare groups, use the same items, the same scale and the same order across the organization. Extra questions for a specific location are possible, but comparisons should be based on this common core. If you use a model such as the OCAI, a separate culture profile can be produced for each unit.
Protect anonymity
Culture items, especially those about managers and senior leadership, are sensitive. Reporting results for small groups makes it easier to guess who gave which answer. Most organizations do not report groups with fewer than five to ten people; small units are combined with a higher-level group. We cover this threshold and the risk created by combining several breakdowns in anonymity in employee surveys.
Take group size into account
In small groups, a few people's answers change the result considerably. A 5-point difference in a 50-person unit is not as reliable as a 5-point difference in a 500-person unit. Keep sample size and margin of error in mind when interpreting differences.
How to read subculture results
Start with the big picture in a heatmap
The most practical way to see subcultures is a heatmap: culture dimensions or items are in the rows, groups are in the columns, and each cell is colored by how far it differs from the company average. Below is a sample heatmap table:
| Culture dimension | Company | Headquarters | Production sites | Sales team | Regional offices |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Information sharing | 64% | 72% | 51% | 66% | 48% |
| Involvement in decisions | 58% | 69% | 42% | 60% | 45% |
| Openness to mistakes | 55% | 61% | 57% | 43% | 54% |
| Customer focus | 77% | 74% | 76% | 85% | 79% |
| Cross-unit collaboration | 52% | 55% | 50% | 41% | 58% |
The figures in the table are illustrative favorable scores.
This example shows two distinct subculture patterns. Production sites and regional offices lag clearly behind in information sharing and involvement in decisions; the further people are from headquarters, the more they feel left out of decisions. The sales team, meanwhile, has the highest score in customer focus and the lowest in openness to mistakes and collaboration, which points to a competitive subculture under strong target pressure. We explain how to build and read a heatmap in how to read a heatmap in employee survey results.
Look at agreement as well as the average
In culture research, the strength of a culture is measured by how far group members think about the culture in the same way. Two units can have the same average, but in one most employees say "agree" while in the other answers are split between "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree". The second case shows that there is more than one subculture inside the unit, often because different managers create different environments.
To see agreement, look at the share of favorable, neutral and unfavorable responses in each group together, or check the standard deviation. Groups with both a high favorable and a high unfavorable share, in other words polarized groups, deserve a closer look.
Which differences matter?
A heatmap can show dozens of colored cells. Instead of focusing on all of them, prioritize in this order:
- Large differences in core values: Groups clearly below the company average in trust, respect, integrity or openness to mistakes.
- Differences between units that work together: Large gaps in how two interdependent units perceive decision-making, speed or collaboration.
- Groups that differ on many dimensions, not just one: If a group lags behind on almost every dimension, the problem is probably not a specific topic but the group's management or working conditions.
- Strategy-related differences: If the organization needs a particular culture trait for a new strategy, the units furthest behind on that trait.
Understanding where subcultures come from
The survey shows where the differences are; it does not show why. For the main differences, ask these questions:
- Does the difference come from the manager? If teams under different managers in the same department also differ, the subculture is probably created by the manager.
- Does it come from the nature of the work? Groups who work shifts, do not work at a computer or work in the field may systematically score lower on information sharing and involvement. In that case, the solution is to adapt communication channels to how that group works.
- Is it historical? An acquired company or a unit that was managed separately years ago may keep its old habits.
- Does it come from systems? Different bonus systems, approval authorities or target structures produce different behaviors.
Running focus groups with the groups that stand out is the most effective way to answer these questions.
Common mistakes
- Settling for the company average: A good average can hide serious problems in some groups.
- Treating every difference as a problem: Trying to remove differences that come from the nature of the work can reduce units' effectiveness.
- Making units compete: Sharing subculture results as a league table pushes low-scoring units into defensiveness and changes how people answer in the next survey.
- Crossing too many breakdowns at once: Very narrow groups such as "senior women managers in regional offices" both put anonymity at risk and produce unreliable results.
- Not discussing differences with the groups: If only leadership knows that a unit stands out, employees in that unit never get the chance to explain why. For sharing results, see sharing employee survey results with employees.
What to do with subculture results
The aim of subculture analysis is not to force the whole organization into the same mold but to tell apart the differences that strengthen it from those that weaken it. Start targeted work on differences in core values; this work usually begins with the managers involved. For differences at interfaces, bring the units that work together into the same room and agree shared working rules. Accept the differences that come from the nature of the work, and avoid trying to dissolve them into a single "this is who we are" culture in internal communication.
Subcultures surface most clearly after mergers and acquisitions. We explain how to measure culture during this period in our article on cultural fit in mergers and acquisitions.
Frequently asked questions
What is a subculture?
A subculture is a set of distinctive values, norms and behaviors shared by a particular group within the organization's overall culture. It forms in groups with a shared experience, such as a department, location, tenure group, professional group or a company that existed before a merger.
Are subcultures a problem for the organization?
Not always. A fast-paced sales team and a meticulous finance team are a natural result of the work they do, and that is healthy. Problems start when differences appear in core values such as integrity or trust, or when they create friction between units that need to work together.
How do you measure culture differences between departments?
The same culture items are asked across the organization and results are reported by predefined breakdowns such as department and location. The breakdowns are placed side by side in a heatmap, cells that differ clearly from the company average are examined, and the main differences are explored further in focus groups.
What is culture strength and how is it measured?
Culture strength is the degree to which members of a group think about the culture in the same way. Similar answers within a group indicate a strong culture; scattered answers indicate a weak or fragmented one. It is measured by looking at the distribution of answers alongside the average, for example the standard deviation or the share of favorable and unfavorable responses.
What is the minimum group size for subculture analysis?
To protect anonymity, most organizations do not report groups with fewer than five to ten people. Because culture items, especially those about managers, are sensitive, it is worth keeping this threshold higher in subculture analysis.
