You have found our list of great business culture books.
company culture books are works that provide advice on how to create attractive and high-performance work environments. These books discuss the organizational values, management techniques, and environmental elements that result in greater job satisfaction and fuller employee potential. The audience for these books are human resource managers, executives, and other organizational leaders.
You are reading: Books about company culture
These books are a subset of human resource books and business books, and are similar to employee engagement books and organizational behavior books. The content focuses on how to create a positive work environment, the role of a company culture committee, and creating core company values.
this list includes:
- organizational culture books
- company culture books
- culture change books
- workplace culture books
Let’s get to it!
list of business culture books
From bestsellers to new releases, here is a list of the best books on organizational and workplace culture.
1. work rules! (information from inside google that will transform the way you live and lead) by laszlo bock
work rules! It is one of the best organizational culture books. Author Laszlo Bock, a former head of people operations at Google, was one of the engineers behind the tech titan’s legendary work culture. The book shares personal learnings gleaned from Google practices as well as case studies from other industry greats and behavioral research. work rules! provides a practical guide to creating empowering and energized environments.
Featured Quote: “Does your boss trust you?” it is a deep question. If he believes that people are fundamentally good and if his organization is capable of hiring well, there is nothing to fear in giving his people freedom.”
buy work rules!
2. delivering happiness: a path to profit, passion and purpose by tony hsieh
Delivering happiness is a manifesto about meaningful work. tony hsieh explains how he built and scaled an authentic culture at zappos, a company famous for its positive spirit. Guided by the four C’s: Commerce, Customer Service, Company Culture, Community, Zappos created an organization that people wanted to work for and buy from. By making organizational happiness a priority, insisting that customer service is the responsibility of every employee, and paying $2,000 to encourage dissatisfied team members to leave, the company reinvigorated the idea of corporate culture.
the atmosphere at zappos lives on as an enduring legacy and testament to the power of productive positivity. Despite hsieh’s personal tragedy, business leaders can find wisdom in his words and professional practices.
Notable Quote: “For people, character is destiny. for organizations, culture is destiny.”
buy delivering happiness.
3. the culture code: the secrets of highly successful groups by daniel coyle
the code of culture is one of the best books on work environments. The book explores major organizations, both commercial and noncommercial, examining what conditions foster optimal unity and cooperation. The author uses a three-pronged approach: build security, share vulnerability, and establish purpose. Coyle outlines strategies that inspire fellowship, personal growth, and positive change. The Culture Code teaches readers how to fix harmful cultures and build workplace communities that encourage employees to thrive.
Notable quote: “The road to success is paved with well-handled mistakes.”
buy the culture code.
4. leaders eat last by simon sinek
leaders eat last on our list of leadership books and earns its spot in the company culture category. Advocating a servant leadership style, Simon Sinek argues that great cultures depend on generous leaders. Team members feel more valued and fulfilled when leaders put the teams’ needs before their own. Leaders Eat Last demonstrates that organizations with cultures that put people first have higher levels of cooperation and achievement. When employees feel cared for, they return the favor and commit to the company and the team.
Notable Quote: “Coming back from work feeling inspired, confident, fulfilled and grateful is a natural human right that we are all entitled to and not a modern luxury that only a lucky few can enjoy.” find.”
buy the leaders eat last.
5. no rules, rules: netflix and the culture of reinvention by reed hastings and erin meyer
No Rules, Rules is from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and business culture writer Erin Meyer. The book tells the story of how Netflix built a culture of flexibility and responsibility that encourages employees to innovate. The company is famous for the Netflix cultural platform, a showcase that shares the organization’s core values with employees, partners and brand supporters. Explaining this technique and other successful company practices, the authors outline a roadmap for building an inspiring, high-performing culture that sparks creativity.
Notable Quote: “My goal was to make employees feel ownership and, in turn, increase their responsibility for the success of the company. however, revealing company secrets to employees had another result: it made our workforce smarter.”
buy without rules rules.
6. powerful: building a culture of freedom and responsibility by patty mccord
patty mccord is one of the creators of the world famous netflix cultural platform. In Powerful, she elaborates on Netflix’s culture of freedom and responsibility. the author shares ideas such as “contributing to success is the greatest motivation,” “constantly communicating about the challenge,” and “making quick changes and being a great place to be.” The book focuses on managerial responsibilities and behaviors in creating powerful and inventive workplaces.
Notable Quote: “Great teams aren’t created with incentives, procedures, and perks. they’re created by hiring talented people who are adults and want nothing more than to take on a challenge, and then clearly and continuously communicate to them what the challenge is.”
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powerful purchase.
7. the cultural blueprint: a guide to building the high performance workplace by robert richman
the culture blueprint is one of the simplest books on creating a company culture. The author Robert Richman is a cultural strategist and co-founder of Zappos Insights, a program recognized for its innovation and excellent organizational health. The Cultural Blueprint explains how to design a workplace that attracts and retains top talent and motivates employees to achieve greatness. The book provides a formula to help organizations discover their core values and management advice to unlock the full potential of employees.
Notable Quote: “A less than optimal company culture is always the result of many factors working together as a system and often invisible.”
buy the cultural blueprint.
8. the best place to work: the art and science of creating an extraordinary workplace by ron friedman
The Best Place to Work takes a scientific approach to workplace culture. Drawing on principles from behavioral economics, neurology, and managerial psychology, Ron Friedman shows the subtle ways an office environment can affect the way employees think. The book explores topics such as the benefits of rewarding failure, the effect of office design on motivation, and hostage negotiator-inspired techniques for defusing workplace conflict. Balancing anecdotes and scientific statistics, The Best Place to Work is a fascinating look at the underlying influences of company culture.
Notable Quote: “The secret to happy workplaces isn’t spending more money. it’s about creating the conditions that allow employees to do their best work.”
buy the best place to work.
9. humanocracy: building organizations as amazing as the people in them by gary hamel and michele zanini
humanocracy shows leaders how to replace the barriers of bureaucracy with a less suffocating and more humane system. the book demonstrates how to make organizations more dynamic by offering more autonomy and flexibility. The result of these efforts is increased job satisfaction and creativity, as evidenced by examples of profitable companies that put people first. Offering a clear plan of action, humanocracy urges readers to persuade their colleagues to revamp outdated bureaucratic systems and replace them with more dynamic arrangements.
Notable Quote: “If our organizations are inhumane, it’s because we designed them to be, whether consciously or not. each institution is a set of choices about how best to organize human beings in light of some particular goal.”
buy humanocracy.
10. Fusion: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Best Companies by Denise Lee Yohn
Consumers demand authenticity from organizations in today’s business landscape. A company cannot advertise itself as caring and conscientious while allowing a hostile work environment to persist. On the other hand, companies that value employees win glowing reputations and lifelong fans.
merging shows how combining company culture with brand image makes organizations more loved, powerful and profitable. Using a combination of company case studies, executive interviews, and personal experiences, Denise Lee Yohn illustrates how the most admired organizations use brand and culture together. fusion provides an action plan to maximize the impact of internal and external marketing.
Notable Quote: “Regardless, culture and brand are powerful business drivers, often overlooked. But when you meld the two, when you create a mutually reinforcing and interdependent relationship between how your organization thinks and acts on the inside and how it is perceived and experienced on the outside, you create new growth that isn’t possible by simply cultivating one. or the other alone.”
buy merger.
11. the cultural question: how to create a workplace where people like to work by randy grieser, eric stutzman, et al
through amazon
The cultural question explores the factors that cause employees to engage or disengage from work.
According to the authors, healthy workplaces share six key elements:
- communicate purpose and values
- provide meaningful work
- focus the leadership team on people
- build meaningful relationships
- create high performance teams
- practice constructive conflict management
The book provides guidance for creating these conditions and building places where people like to work.
Notable Quote: “While organizational culture isn’t physical, you feel it every day in the way you work and relate to others. culture is represented in the language you use, the stories you tell, and your daily work practices.”
buy the cultural question.
12. the culture book: when culture clicks (how to create an amazing culture from 32 companies that have done it) by weeva and culturati, patty mccord, et al
the culture book is an anthology of the greatest successes of corporate culture. The book compiles information from leading individuals and organizations in the industry such as Patty McCord, Kim Malone Scott, Indeed, and Buffer. each contributor shares an essential element of successful company culture, imparting wisdom such as “practice the culture every day” and “leadership begins with listening.” the culture book offers a comprehensive approach to the topic of work environment by providing 30 different points of view on the subject.
Notable quote: “Culture is the operating system of our organizations. it’s the way our people work together. it is the collection of habits that reflect our real values and beliefs and guide decisions in the absence of explicit rules, the practices that turn experience into a competitive advantage. culture determines what our organizations are capable of.”
buy the culture book.
13. Courageous Cultures: How to Create Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates by Karin Hurt and David Dye
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Courageous Cultures explains how to create an environment where employees are not afraid to share opinions and ideas. While most organizations say they value employee knowledge, many fail to make employees feel heard and valued. Courageous Cultures shows how a culture of openness empowers employees to solve problems and make improvements that benefit company efficiency and bottom line. the book teaches managers how to make employees feel safe sharing new ideas or valid concerns.
notable quote: “a brave culture is a place where “people like us” speak. we share ideas. we solve problems. the default is to contribute. it is a culture where silence is not safe and effort is everything. Courageous cultures go far beyond employee engagement. people are energized. They give themselves completely to their work. innovation is not limited to the senior leadership team or research and development. everyone innovates, every day.”
buy brave cultures.
14. The Cultural Quotient: Ten Dimensions of a High-Performance Culture by Greg Besner
The cultural quotient describes the ten key qualities of organizations with high-performance cultures. The book illustrates these characteristics by telling stories from more than 40 industry-leading organizations such as Slack, Warby Parker, IKEA, and American Express. Author Greg Besner consulted with many of these companies throughout their company culture and was directly involved in creating his work environments. the cultural quotient shows how to recreate winning cultures in any organization by assembling the building blocks of dynamic environments.
Notable Quote: “Together, the mission and values make up the company’s unique identity and way of operating. In a company with a strong mission and values alignment, all employees know the mission and values, understand how they connect to their individual work, and see that the mission and values are consistently followed in daily operations.”
buy the culture quotient.
15. The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change: Creating a Workplace that Complies, Grows, and Adapts by siobhan mchale
Books on culture change teach readers how to adjust and rebuild existing work environments. The Internal Guide to Culture Change is a manual for diagnosing disconnects and improving underperforming cultures. The book shows how to bring the entire organization together, follow a plan of action, and sustain positive change. The Insider Guide to Culture Change explains how to understand the root causes of poor performance, persuade resisters, measure results, and enact policies that support desirable work climates.
Notable Quote: “In today’s hyper-connected world of instant global communication, massive market disruptions, the expansion of an all-powerful urban consumer class, conflicts within the multi-generational workforce, and laws and regulations With ever-tightening regulations governing corporate behavior in some countries, it takes more than pretty words to instill the values that will successfully steer a company through volatile and uncertain times.”
Buy the insider’s guide to culture change.
16. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick M. lencioni
if patrick lencioni’s name sounds familiar, then it might be because his “five dysfunctions of a team” made our list of team building books. Lencioni is a renowned author in the field of business management and ideology. In this work, the author directs his attention to corporate culture. The Advantage explains that strong, cohesive cultures give companies an advantage. Organizations with loyal, satisfied, and passionate employees and customers are the ones that embrace diversity and continue to innovate. The book lays out the steps to achieving organizational health through four disciplines: creating a cohesive leadership team, creating clarity, overcommunicating clarity, and reinforcing clarity.
Notable Quote: “The only way a team leader can create a safe environment for their team members to be vulnerable is by stepping up and doing something that feels right. insecure and uncomfortable first. By stripping down before anyone else, by risking vulnerability with no guarantee that other team members will respond in kind, a leader demonstrates an extraordinary level of selflessness and dedication to the team. and that gives you the right and the confidence to ask others to do the same.”
buy the advantage.
17. radical candor by kim malone scott
Radical Candor advocates an atmosphere of honesty and openness in the workplace. The book offers a framework for being a better boss and colleague by telling the truth. Kim Malone Scott argues that you have a responsibility to be upfront with your co-workers, but you don’t have to lose your humanity in the process. radical candor urges bosses to care for and challenge employees at the same time, being direct and compassionate. adopting this attitude will inspire staff to be direct and foster a more honest culture throughout the company.
Notable Quote: “When managers are too interested in everyone getting along, they also don’t encourage people on their team to criticize each other for fear of sowing discord. they create the kind of work environment where being “nice” is prioritized at the expense of criticizing and thus improving actual performance.”
buy radical candor.
conclusion
every leader has a different perspective on what makes a successful company culture. however, healthy workplaces share certain similarities, such as worker autonomy, open communication, clear direction, genuine relationships, and aligned values.
Creating, scaling and maintaining an authentic company culture is an ongoing and intentional process. As the business landscape and global climate change, corporate culture must grow to fit the needs and wants of workers.
Reading books on organizational culture helps professionals gain the skills and mindset to make their companies great places to work. The effort to support employees ultimately pays off, as companies with great workplace cultures see reduced turnover, inspire more brand loyalty, and are better equipped to face inevitable adversity.
For more information, check out our lists of books for CEOs, books on management, books on nonprofits, and books on teamwork.
We also have a list of event planning books, a guide to workplace toxicity, and this guide to remote work culture.
faq: business culture books
here are answers to common questions about company culture books.
what are business culture books?
company culture books are publications that explain how to create healthy and positive organizational atmospheres. These books delve into company values and priorities, management tactics, and employee engagement strategies. the purpose of work culture books is to teach people how to create environments that challenge and inspire employees.
what are the best business culture books?
The best corporate culture books provide examples and results of a productive corporate culture and offer guidance on how to achieve these ends. some good company culture books include work rules! by laszlo bock, delivering happiness by tony hsieh, mighty by patty mccord, and the advantage by patrick m. lencioni.
why should i read books about corporate culture?
Reading books on company culture offers multiple perspectives. each leader has their own unique point of view that can help inform their own approach. There is no one tactic that is right for your company culture, but the method that best fits your own organization. these books are packed with insights and lessons from the world’s leaders in corporate culture and provide valuable wisdom.
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