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The Competing Values Framework

There are a lot of scholarly papers written about this model. If you have the time, I recommend reading some of the original research.

The Competing Values Framework came out of research into "What makes a company successful". The research gave us the insight that there are two main ways that companies differentiate.

  • Where do they fall on the scale between "Control", the need to be stable and plan and do things correctly, and "Flexibility" the ability to react quickly to changes and innovate?
  • Where do they fall on the scale between "Internal" the need to focus on the internal workings of the company and "External" the need to focus on the market and customers?

The Competing Values Framework puts these two scales together to give us a handy way to describe a company's culture.

Flexibility Control Internal External Clan Adhocracy Hierarchy Market
  • "Adhocracy" Flexible and External: These kinds of companies reward innovation and creativity. They are nimble and quick to react to market conditions. They do not have a strong hierarchy and can suffer from a lack of order and follow-through.
  • "Market" Control and External: These kinds of companies reward productivity and achieving goals. They are focussed on the bottom line and profitability. They are not *friendly* places to work and can suffer from a lack of humanity. Expect strong employee turnover.
  • "Hierarchy" Control and Internal: These kinds of companies reward following the rules and fulfilling agreements. They are focussed on quality and correctness. They are not very flexible and can suffer from a lack of innovation and creativity.
  • "Clan" Flexible and Internal: These kinds of companies reward loyalty and teamwork. They are focussed on employee satisfaction and wellbeing. They are not very competitive and can suffer from a lack of drive and ambition.

This model is called a "circumplex", meaning that traits on opposite sides of the graph are actually in opposition, they are "competing" with each other. You may have picked up on the fact that a company must adequately balance ALL of these traits to be successful. A company that is too focused on "Control" and "Internal" will not be able to innovate and react to market conditions, but a company that is too focused on "Flexibility" and "External" will not be able to maintain quality and consistency. An organisation needs to perform all of these, but the culture of the company will almost always lean in one direction or another. Does that 'lean' match with what kind of company you want to work in? (See the Organisational Culture Assessment test).

More broadly speaking, the CVF correlates very strongly with how you prefer to work (your Work Style) and how you communicate (your Communication Style). It can also express the results of other personality test frameworks and bring them into a unified model of behaviour in the workplace. This is why Adrift leans so heavily on the CVF and why many of the tests in here express their results in terms of the Competing Values Framework.

See the 'learn more' section of some of the tests on this site to see how they relate to the Competing Values Framework.