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How humble is your company culture? And, why does it matter?

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  • Maldonado, Tiffany
  • Vera, Dusya
  • Ramos, Nichelle

Abstract

Humility as a virtue of leadership has attracted increased attention in recent years. We introduce the concept of a humble organizational culture and define it as a culture that promotes humility as a key success factor and a source of competitive advantage, and one that institutionalizes six values and norms: (1) employee development, (2) mistake tolerance, (3) transparency, (4) accurate awareness, (5) recognition, and (6) openness. We position a company culture of humility as key to extraordinary success in the marketplace. Humility in individuals includes a willingness to see the self accurately and a propensity to put oneself and others in perspective. In this article, we offer a set of recommendations to help executives build a company culture of humility that supports the six behavioral norms and values that create the foundation for a firm’s competitive advantage. We collected information on organizational cultures of humility for a sample of Fortune 500 firms using data from company mission statements, company websites, and news articles.

Suggested Citation

  • Maldonado, Tiffany & Vera, Dusya & Ramos, Nichelle, 2018. "How humble is your company culture? And, why does it matter?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 745-753.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:61:y:2018:i:5:p:745-753
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2018.05.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bowers, Melissa R. & Hall, J. Reggie & Srinivasan, Mandyam M., 2017. "Organizational culture and leadership style: The missing combination for selecting the right leader for effective crisis management," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 551-563.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dong Xuan Nguyen & Quyen Thi Ngoc Tran, 2026. "Corporate Culture and Firm Performance: Foreign Leadership Matters for Vietnamese Listed Firms," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Radosław Miśkiewicz & Agnieszka Rzepka & Ryszard Borowiecki & Zbigniew Olesińki, 2021. "Energy Efficiency in the Industry 4.0 Era: Attributes of Teal Organisations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Maldonado, Tiffany & Vera, Dusya & Spangler, William D., 2022. "Unpacking humility: Leader humility, leader personality, and why they matter," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 125-137.
    4. Guo, Feng & Li, Qing & Fan, Qihui & Zheng, Qiyun, 2026. "Does too much or too little entrepreneurial experience benefit crowdfunding performance? A social learning theory perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).

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