When people talk about stories behind companies, corporate culture and corporate identity are always two important topics people will refer to. Some worldwide well-known brands, such as Apple, Samsung, Nokia or Enron, corporate culture and corporate identity have an enormous impact on their way to big names or final bankruptcy.

This essay attempts to explain the background to organisational culture, the definition of corporate identity, and then to explore how does corporate identity affect and how is it affected by corporate culture in more detail via using Apple as an example. A summary and conclusion will be drawn at the end of this essay.

Background to organisational culture
Organisational culture is a complex and multi-facet conception. The notion of organisational culture has been explored by social scientists over the past decades.

Andrew Brown stated the definition of organizational culture in his book Organizational Culture as follows: “Organizational culture refers to the pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organization’s history, and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviours of its members.”1

According to Ravasi and Schultz, organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behaviour for various situations.2

Martins and Martins thought organisational culture as “a system of shared meaning held by members, distinguishing the organisation from other organisations”.3

In relation to the above definition, Arnold indicated that “organisational culture is the distinctive norms, beliefs, principles and ways of behaving that combine to give each organisation its distinct character”.4

We notice that values and relevant behavioural actions