10 Best questions about corporate culture
- Corporate culture is very important, but it’s usually hard to define until one violates it.What is one thing an employee might do here that would be perceived as a violation of the company’s culture? This question reveals a sophisticated understanding of corporate culture as a force most easily observed in its violation. Typical responses are lying and other ethical breaches, but listen for other clues.
- How would you characterize the organization?What are its principal values?What are its greatest challenges? This profound question demonstrates your deep interest in the organization’s makeup.
- How would you describe the experience of working here? Here’s a question that goes to the interviewer’s experience of corporate culture.
- If I were to be employed here, what one piece of wisdom would you want me to incorporate into my work life? This is a strong question that not only asks the hiring manager what he or she considers most important but also assumes that you are already on board.
- What are a couple of misconceptions people have about the company? Every manager is frustrated by the way he or she thinks the world sees the company. Here is your chance get two pieces of critical information: how the hiring manager thinks the world perceives the company and what he or she believes to be the truth.
- Work-life balance is an issue of retention as well as productivity. Can you talk about your own view of how to navigate the tensions between getting the work done and encouraging healthy lives outside the office? On one level, you want to find out how workaholic your prospective manager and the company are. On another, you want a clue about how the company handles the important issue of work-life balance.
- How does the company support and promote personal and professional growth? This is another way to ask how the company culture promotes a healthy work-life balance.
- What types of people seem to excel here? This will engender more conversation about personality styles and attitudes that mesh well with the culture and those that don’t. You bluff your way through this question at your own risk. Why would you want to go to work where you would be at war with the prevailing culture?
- Every company contends with office politics. It’s a fact of life because politics is about people working together. Can you give me some examples of how politics plays out in this company? It’s a slightly risky question because “politics” has such a negative connotation. But the reality is that every organization is a political organization. The politics at family-owned companies is much different than the politics of large multinational companies. The issue is, with which are you more comfortable?
- What have I yet to learn about this company and opportunity that I still need to know? A great open-ended question for the interviewer to elaborate on an important point you might not have considered.