Career Readiness · Workplace Culture · Lesson Plan

Organizational Culture

A free lesson plan introducing organizational culture in the workplace — defined as a set of values shared by a group that influences behavior. Students learn how company cultures are linked to wider social cultures, and why being aware of cultural variations matters in an era of increasing globalization. Free to read and reproduce.

Grades 9–12 · Adult Ed · Business Ed · College
Lesson + Worksheet
45 min
Free Lesson

What Students Learn

Learning objectives

What culture means — a set of values shared by a particular group that influences behavior
That the group sharing a culture might be a region, a nation, or an organization such as a company
How a company’s operating culture is typically closely linked to the wider social culture from which it originated
Why globalization has made organizational culture a more important topic — a company culture that works in one context may struggle in another
How we are all deeply affected by the norms and values of our own culture — mostly without realizing it
How awareness of cultural variation across the world is essential for anyone working in international business

For Teachers

How to use this lesson

Procedure: Print the lesson and have students read it, or use the material to lead a workplace-culture discussion. The lesson works equally well as independent reading or as the basis for a class conversation about how different companies operate differently.

Opening framing: culture is “a set of values shared by a particular group that influences behavior.” That definition is intentionally broad — it applies to a region, a nation, or a company. The reason it matters in career readiness is that students will work for organizations with cultures, and most students do not realize they are operating inside a culture until they encounter one different from their own.

Discussion prompts: have students compare two organizations they know (a school, a sports team, a part-time workplace, a religious community). What are the shared values in each? What behaviors are normal in one and would seem out of place in the other? The honest version of the lesson includes the observation that we mostly obey our own cultural rules unconsciously — we only notice them when they’re violated. Pair with Cultural Diversity as a workplace-culture sequence.

Free Lesson