Culture and values with zweikern Insights

Develop corporate culture. Anchor values in everyday work.

How are your corporate values actually experienced? With zweikern Insights you make experiences visible, derive concrete actions together and track how your culture develops.

From value to change
Fictional sample data

Value · ownership

OwnershipAspiration versus lived everyday work
Scale 1–5
  • Decision room known3.6
    Aspiration
  • Actual room to act2.4
    Experience
Voices

“I may decide — as long as my decision was aligned beforehand.”

Next stepClarify decision room together and check again later.

Your values are written down. What shapes everyday work?

Three tensions between aspiration and practice — and the starting point for culture development.

  1. Ownership — and many approvals

    Ownership is wanted. Small decisions still need several approvals.

    Rules and decision paths can override the stated value in daily work.

  2. Openness — silent in meetings

    Openness is part of the guiding principles. Critical feedback stays unspoken in meetings.

    Leadership behaviour and meeting climate decide whether openness is felt.

  3. Collaboration — rewarded by own unit

    Collaboration is a corporate value. Goals and recognition mainly reward one’s own unit.

    Incentives and goal systems shape what people actually prioritise.

Culture development starts by understanding these experiences and changing the conditions behind them.

One value. Different experiences.

Ownership from three angles — and in typical work situations.

Fictional sample data
Our aspiration

“Decisions should be taken where the knowledge sits.”

Choose a situation

Change priorities

Priorities should be adjusted where the work happens.

How ownership becomes lived practice

A value is known. Existing rules block putting it into practice. The organisation sees the contradiction and changes how it works.

Translate the value into behaviour

What should ownership look like? Example: people decide within agreed boundaries and get support when they need it.

Observable practice

OwnershipOwnership means for us
Scale 1–5

People decide within agreed boundaries and get support when they need it.

How we recognise it

  • Decisions inside the agreed frame without precautionary approval
  • Support arrives when someone needs it — not only after escalation
  • Corrections are explained factually, not quietly reversed

Sample item

It is clear to me which decisions I can take independently.

Capture experiences

Three separate statements on clarity, room to act and handling of consequences — plus an open question on situations that helped or hindered ownership.

Culture analysis · Scale 1–5

  • It is clear to me which decisions I can take independently.

  • Within my area of responsibility I can act without unnecessary approvals.

  • If an independent decision does not lead to the desired result, it is discussed with me factually.

Which concrete situation recently made ownership easier or harder?

Illustrative sample items

Understand the contradiction

Decision room is broadly known, yet many decisions are still secured in advance. Use Voices to cluster open comments: earlier decisions were later reversed without explanation.

Results · contradiction

OwnershipAspiration versus lived everyday work
  • 3.6

    Decision room

    Δ 1.2Contradiction
    2.4
  • 3.9

    Support

    Δ 1.1Context
    2.8
  • 3.5

    Consequences

    Δ 1.0Context
    2.5
Voices

“Decisions were later reversed without explanation.”

Change practice together

Clarify typical decisions (decide · inform · decide together), remove one approval in an agreed frame, and record when leaders correct — with owners and a review date.

Track development

Ask the same core items later. Mean, distribution, participation and open comments together show what changed — and where to adjust.

Two waves · Scale 1–5

Clarity, room and consequences

  • Clarity of decision room2.83.6
  • Room to act2.43.3
  • Handling of consequences2.93.4

Fictional sample data. A higher mean alone does not prove a single intervention.

Culture development needs a next look.

Try actions, listen again and adjust together: What was implemented? What feels different? Where do barriers remain? What do we change?

  1. Check progress on agreements

  2. Read mean, distribution and open comments together

  3. Adjust rules, leadership practice and workflows deliberately

Why lived values make the difference

Three compact references: perceived need to improve, lived integrity and credible leadership behaviour.

0%see need to improve

Peer-reviewed · executive survey

84% see need to improve

In a survey of 1,348 North American executives, 84% saw a need to improve their organisation’s culture.

The figure is a respondent assessment — region and sample belong in the reading.

Graham et al. (2022) · Corporate Culture: Evidence from the Field
stated ≠ livedPeer-reviewed · empirical study

Peer-reviewed · empirical study

Lived values deserve attention

A study distinguishes publicly stated values from the integrity employees experience in management. Perceived integrity was positively related to firm outcomes.

Associations, not a causal effect of a values programme — and not evidence for website values alone.

Guiso, Sapienza & Zingales (2015) · The Value of Corporate Culture

The figures describe study results. They do not prove an automatic effect of zweikern Insights.

That is why we connect stated values with what people experience daily — and with changes to rules, leadership and workflows.

How can corporate culture be measured?

A culture analysis examines how employees experience typical behaviours, decisions and rules — and how that changes over time.

  1. Statements and scale

    Short, observable statements make patterns and differences visible.

  2. Open feedback

    Voices and conversations explain the experiences behind the numbers.

  3. Repeated waves

    Ask the same core items later — development becomes traceable.

Which values do you want to anchor in everyday work?

Value, observable practice, sample item and possible starting point — editorial examples, not a finished scale.

The concrete survey must fit your values, goals and work contexts.

Value

Ownership

Observable practice
Take decisions within an agreed frame
Sample statement
I can decide independently within my area of responsibility.
Possible starting point
Clarify decision rights and approvals

How to start your culture analysis

Getting started, participation and confidentiality — so feedback becomes shared development.

  • Insights

    Start with a clear culture focus

    Pick a few values and everyday situations. Even if values are not final yet, you can begin with lived norms.

  • Insights

    Confidentiality and participation

    People need safety to answer honestly. Results are analysed and discussed so individual voices stay protected.

  • Insights · Consulting

    Optional: support in implementation

    Consulting helps clarify rules, leadership practice and workflows — Insights keeps the development process traceable.

We connect what your organisation wants to stand for with what people experience every day — and with the changes that follow.

Next step

How are your values lived day to day?

In the intro call we clarify which experiences you want to make visible and how you track change across several surveys.

You’ll talk to Andreas Kerneder, co-founder of zweikern.

No obligation · 30 minutes

Frequently asked questions

How else can we help?

  • Translate values into questions
  • Culture development with involvement