It's everywhere — at conferences, in articles, videos, profiles: the topics shaping the world right now. Several generations in the workplace, “the great man is dead,” diversity and inclusion, sustainability, and more. Every era brings something new. Look closely at these topics, and you'll see that today's world is so complex, and people's behavior is driven by such a wide range of beliefs, values, and norms, that setting “one dominant culture” for everyone working at a company is almost impossible. The world keeps changing, and so does how we think about organizing work and how people work. For example, according to consulting firm Dun & Bradstreet, a record 91,500 people applied for a trade license in the Czech Republic in 2024, and the highest number of new companies in six years were founded — 29,915 of them. I hope this trend keeps growing rather than stopping. People want a more flexible working environment, with values that align with their own.
Our own research also confirms that employees reach the highest levels of engagement and satisfaction in environments where the corporate culture reflects their personal values. In the Czech Republic, that's a clan culture — built on teamwork, close relationships, a leader with high emotional intelligence, and a psychologically safe environment with plenty of flexibility and support for growth and development.
I borrowed a line from Sir Attenborough: “Diversity creates stability.” Just as diversity builds resilient, hardy ecosystems, it also builds — and will keep building — resilient, hardy teams within companies. Just drive out to certain parts of our country and you'll see monocultures dying right before your eyes. It only takes a small bark beetle infestation, and something that grew for decades is literally flattened within a year.
The same fate awaits companies that demand order and discipline, one mindset, and Orwellian obedience. That's exactly why companies need to respond to this and start engaging with the principles of microcultures.
What is a microculture, and where might I encounter one?
In the traditional view, corporate culture is seen as a single, unified set of values, rules, and behaviors running through the whole organization. That's the dominant culture, which often correlates with national culture — people simply drink coffee differently in Italy than in the US. Microcultures have always existed, but they used to be manageable through process, because the market was stable, global logistics were stable, there was no AI, and no monthly paradigm shifts. Sales work looks different from delivery, and both look completely different from accounting. Innovative teams attract a different kind of person than auditors do.
Within a single company, different microcultures exist — specific ways of working, communicating, and sharing values within individual teams, departments, or geographic offices.
The benefits of microcultures and their positive impact on business results
Microcultures can bring companies a range of benefits, if they're properly managed and supported:
- Higher employee satisfaction, because people are “among their own”
- Better team performance, because instead of waiting on process, the team goes straight after the goal
- Faster innovation, because we know what the business problems are, understand their causes, and can fix them quickly
- Easier adaptation to change, because we support each other
- Improved employer branding, because we talk about our team and the people around us
On the other hand, there are risks too — but they can be prevented
While microcultures can be an asset, they can also carry risks that lead to a toxic work environment and destructive conflict between teams. The main risks include:
- Silo effect — Isolation between individual teams and insufficient communication across departments blocks collaboration and knowledge sharing.
- Erosion of corporate identity — if microcultures drift too far from the company's core values, it can lead to inconsistency and a weakened overall strategy.
- Inconsistent work standards — uneven implementation of processes across teams can lead to discrepancies in performance and efficiency.
- Emergence of conflict and rivalry — microcultures that position themselves in opposition to others can create tension, misunderstanding, and toxic conflict between departments.
- Excessive autonomy — without clearly defined boundaries, too much autonomy can lead to chaotic management and resistance to company-wide initiatives.
At Kogi, we've been working with microcultures for a long time — until last year, we just called them subcultures, a term that expressed their relationship to the dominant culture. Because once we define a strategy and a target culture (the environment that will make achieving the company-wide strategy possible), we always cascade both the strategy and the culture down into individual teams — translating it into “the language of their tribe.” Lately, we've increasingly been dealing with the opposite problem in companies: the dominance of certain microcultures that generate toxicity and become the biggest business obstacle to future success. The reason is exactly this shift in the market and in trends, combined with living in “the good old days.” These microcultures have anchored themselves in past successes and look for the problem outside themselves.
Leadership is facing a major challenge here — developing the skill to work with this trend, building a set of competencies for managing this phenomenon. One of those, of course, is the ability to prevent these risks in the first place.
So how do you do it?
- Set clear rules and shared values — Each team should have freedom, but within a unified company-wide framework of values and behavior.
- Encourage cross-team collaboration — Organize workshops, employee rotations, and team-building activities that foster collaboration across roles.
- Monitor the mood across the company — Regular feedback and surveys help identify toxic trends before they escalate.
- Train managers in managing corporate culture — Managers should be able to steer microcultures so they're constructive rather than destructive.
- Preserve flexibility, but also structure — Flexibility should go hand in hand with clearly set expectations and responsibilities.
Unfortunately, a recent PwC study found that only 5% of CEOs in the Czech Republic see changing corporate culture as key to the future success of the company they run. It's worrying how much Chief Culture Officers underestimate this critical topic, because this — just like strategy — simply CANNOT be delegated to HR.
If you want to tackle this topic — whether it's building a successful company through successful microcultures, or you need to get a particular microculture “back on track” — get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.
Filip Černý, Partner at Kogi CON