Just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work every day, according to Gallup, and only 27% strongly agree that they “believe in” their organization’s values.

These findings should be alarming to leaders, as they raise fundamental questions about whether workers buy into their company’s values and culture — or what leaders say their company’s values and culture are.

Gaps Between Desired Culture and Real Culture

Part of the problem is that “organizational culture” isn’t easy to define. It has been defined in myriad ways, from broad descriptions of employee behavior to academic philosophies and perspectives.

Gallup has found that the most useful definitions of culture are simple and actionable. We define culture as how employees interact and how work gets done. Our research also shows that the ways that work gets done vary across companies — and this variance affects organizational performance.

Unfortunately, our research also shows that in many companies, gaps exist between the desired culture — the one leaders envision and strive to realize — and the culture that employees experience.

These gaps create inconsistency and confusion for employees and customers. The most successful companies identify these gaps and implement strategies, systems and processes […]