Square organizational culture: a brief overview
Square organizational culture integrates the following 3 key elements:
1. Informal work environment. Work environment at Square is highly informal and this has a stark reflection the design of its offices worldwide. Moreover, “Square has designed its work spaces to be large, open and ripe for serendipitous collaboration”[1] In other words, Square organizational culture defies formality in the workplace through seemingly-casual, yet effective organization of workspaces.
2. Inclusion and diversity. Square organizational culture embraces and promotes diversity among employees at all levels. There are various employee communities in the company that cater for the interests of its members. These include Black Squares Association, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander Squares, Veterans at Square and others. These communities are employee-run resource groups that promote universal inclusivity through networking, development opportunities, and social events.[2] In other words, people belonging to minority groups do not feel alienated when they join Square with positive implications on their work performance and overall happiness.
3. Social and economic impact. Square positions itself as a challenger to traditional banks. Specifically, the company attempts to democratise a wide range of financial services to simplify them and make these services available for small businesses for a little cost. From this point of view, the financial services and digital payments company is set to disrupt banking sector in a global scale.
Such a challenger position attracts specific type of workforce, who are motivated by the perception of participating in and contributing to the worldwide change of banking services for the better. These types of highly motivated employees contribute to the formation of an advanced organizational culture at Square.
Square Inc. Report contains the above analysis of Square organizational culture. The report illustrates the application of the major analytical strategic frameworks in business studies such as SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain analysis, Ansoff Matrix and McKinsey 7S Model on Square. Moreover, the report contains analyses of Square leadership, organizational structure and business strategy. The report also comprises discussions of Square marketing strategy, ecosystem and addresses issues of corporate social responsibility.
[1] Swallow, E. (2013) “How Square Keeps a Connected Office Culture Amid International Growth” Mashable, Available at: https://mashable.com/archive/square-scaling-smarter
[2] Life at Square (2021) Square, Available at: https://careers.squareup.com/us/en/life-at-square