Impact of Growth on Organizational Culture

Organizational growth and culture remain important issues in today’s businesses. Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education stated, “A poor workplace culture can negatively impact a person’s wellbeing. It can also significantly impact the company’s bottom line, leading to low productivity and high turnover” (Harvard Division of Continuing Education, February 2025, p. 1). However, as Forbes duly noted, growth is necessary and unavoidable (Forbes, January 2019, p. 1).

Most prior research has addressed how organizational culture affects various organizational features, including growth (Hofstede, 2011; Kotter & Heskett, 1992; E. H. Schein, 2010). This study takes a different approach and seeks to understand how organizational growth affects the organization’s culture in a particular organization. It explores how different components of growth, such as size and market expansion, might affect an organization’s culture and shift the lens through which one thinks about what is impacting what and what difference it makes to the organization.

With little scholarly research done on the topic of growth and culture, this study provides new data for the field of organization development and practitioners.

Research Setting

The setting for this research study was the Mortenson organization, which specializes in commercial construction within the health care and higher education industries, as well as the energy and infrastructure sectors, including wind and solar energy projects.

Founded in 1954 as a family-owned company, Mortenson has expanded over 71 years from a small business to an enterprise employing more than 7,000 individuals, with offices throughout the United States. During 2024 and 2025, organizational leaders engaged in discussions concerning company culture. The organization sought not only engaged team members but also those who experience a deeper sense of fulfillment. This initiative originated from Mortenson’s Chair of the Board, who is both the founder’s grandson and the son of the individual responsible for establishing the current organizational culture. The concept of fulfillment, defined as satisfaction or happiness resulting from the full development of one’s abilities or character, was deliberated and subsequently incorporated into the organization’s team member survey.

Currently, the organization faces a critical juncture, as it aims to diversify its portfolio and build resilience against economic downturns across construction sectors while preserving the culture established by M. A. Mortenson, who passed away in 2018. Concerns have arisen that rapid growth driven by increased sales may distance new employees from the founding vision. This raises the question of whether incremental departures from the founding cultural vision dilute the organizational culture and whether the company can sustain its unique culture amid business expansion.

Organizational Growth and Culture Definition

Creating and sustaining a strong organizational culture is crucial in today’s demanding environments. However, the definition of culture varies among researchers. Schein (2010) defines culture as a set of shared basic assumptions learned by a group. Cameron and Quinn (2011) define culture through their competing values framework, suggesting that every culture has a dominant type (e.g., clan, adhocracy, market, or hierarchical) with values that promote internal orientation and flexibility versus control. Most researchers agree that diagnosing a culture involves artifacts, norms, values, and basic assumptions (Cummings & Worley, 2013).

Schein (2010) argued that culture reflects unspoken basic assumptions that underpin acceptable behaviors and methods. These assumptions are embedded in training newcomers, not through formal methods. Few organizations explicitly discuss whether humans are fundamentally good or evil, yet organizational practices often reflect such beliefs.

Organizational norms are unwritten behavioral patterns that guide member conduct and are learned over time. Artifacts are visible symbols of culture, such as design features, space layout, and language, that embody organizational values. Organizational members may find it challenging to reconcile these discrepancies, but doing so is crucial for diagnosing culture.

Schein (2010) focuses on learned aspects of culture. Martin and Siehl (1983) add that culture is an emergent, socially constructed reality. Still, they agree that it can be challenging to obtain an objective view of a culture or subculture and avoid bias in observation.

Consistent with Cummings and Worley’s (2013) definition of culture as the behavioral norms and operational practices within an organization, this study aims to investigate the potential effects of organizational growth on Mortenson’s culture. It begins by outlining its purpose, followed by a review of the literature on culture and organizational growth. Subsequently, the research methodology is presented, followed by the results. Finally, the study discusses the findings, acknowledges its limitations, and offers recommendations for future research.

Literature Review

Organizational Growth

Organizational growth, defined as the stage at which companies can consider expansion and generate more revenue, depends on industry growth, the business stage, and owners’ goals. It can involve increased revenue, new products and services, expanded market reach, and increased employee hiring. Greiner (1998) identifies five key stages of growth based on an organization’s age and size, contrasting evolution with revolution. Evolutionary stages are steady and stable, lasting 4 to 8 years, while revolutions are turbulent and disruptive, often leading to significant upheavals in management practices. Greiner (1998) suggests that organizational challenges change with increases in employee count or sales volume, including coordination, new functions, growth in hierarchy, and more complex jobs.

Revolutions are necessary for long-term evolution in volatile environments, and organizational growth is rarely linear. Each successful revolution leads to an evolutionary growth phase, but solving a challenge during a revolution sows the seeds for the next. For instance, when growing organizations face excessive centralization, they must undergo a revolution of autonomy and learn to operate as a decentralized organization, entering the evolutionary phase of delegation. Delegation can be challenging, leading to the need for control. Each phase of revolutionary and evolutionary growth involves learning and shapes the organization’s culture.

Contributors and Constraints to Growth

As Greiner (1998) noted, various events can propel or constrain organizational growth. Constraints include maintaining an ineffective organizational structure or continuously scapegoating managers for inefficient processes. An outward focus on the market can also inhibit important internal questions about the organization’s past, present, and future. Organizational culture can be a constraint in such cases.

In contrast, increased demand for products or services, or ambitious leadership, can facilitate growth. The former creates a need for the organization to meet the demand, which can be achieved by hiring more people to increase output. The latter facilitates growth from leaders’ new ideas or visions, driving change that, in turn, leads to further growth. Examples include leaders setting new sales quotas or revenue targets, requiring the organization to implement changes accordingly.

Interventions for Culture Change

The literature agrees that, when culture change occurs, a key feature is C-suite leadership, which requires significant commitment, enactment, and communication to take hold (Cummings & Worley, 2013). For example, trying to elicit behavior change around meeting etiquette requires modeling and continued communication reinforcement by a project sponsor, usually someone in the C-Suite. However, Martin and Siehl (1983) suggest that managers also participate in the enactment of culture by exhibiting aspects of it that they agree with or disagree with.

Schein (1993) argues that dialogue, in the form of a mindful communication process distinct from regular conversation and focused on building shared understanding and facilitating organizational learning, is a key intervention to support cultural change.

Is Culture Changeable?

Cummings and Worley (2013) agree that culture change is easier to achieve with tangible norms and artifacts than with enacted values and assumptions, while also admitting that culture change does not truly happen unless all are addressed.

Schein (1996) notes that norms held by large groups of employees are more likely to change leaders than themselves. Cummings and Worley (2013) suggest that resistance to culture change stems from cultural assumptions that provide solutions to difficult problems and defend against uncertainty. They propose considering less costly alternatives, such as modifying the strategy or organizational design, first. However, if the firm’s culture no longer fits the changing environment, if the industry is highly competitive and evolving rapidly, or if performance is mediocre or worse, culture change may be appropriate.

Cameron and Quinn (2011) counter this perspective, arguing that improving organizational effectiveness requires changes to culture and other supporting features to maintain alignment. They emphasize that cultural change is crucial for improving organizational performance when structures, systems, and processes are also changing. Without changing values, thinking, managerial styles, or problem-solving methods, organizations quickly revert to the status quo, regardless of changes in strategy.

In summary, the literature suggests that growth can be achieved through multiple avenues and provides alternative definitions of organizational culture. It argues that culture can change, can be challenging, and often requires senior leadership involvement.

Enacted values and basic assumptions are more difficult to change than norms and artifacts. Organizational growth is managed through evolution and revolution as organizations age and grow in size.

Remarkably, the literature mainly focuses on the impact of culture on organizational growth, but has paid less attention to how organizational growth impacts culture.

Accordingly, this study aims to understand how organizational growth might affect culture, investigating how growth is facilitated in the context of a successful and expanding organization: the Mortenson Company.

Methodology

Research Purpose

The purpose of this study is to better understand how organizational growth affects the organization’s culture. Organizational culture is defined by “the shared values, beliefs, and norms that shape employee behavior and interactions within an organization” (Cummings & Worley, 2013, p. 216). Mortenson’s legacy of inspirational leadership, LeadBLU (2026), and a proactive approach to leadership and culture qualify it to explore the implications of cultural policies and growth further.

Study Method

A qualitative research method was chosen for this study for two main reasons. First, little research had been conducted at the time of this study on the relationship between sustaining organizational culture and business growth. Qualitative studies are often conducted in these types of situations because these methods allow continued exploration of topics that have not been fully researched or for which there is insufficient literature (Creswell, 2003).In this scenario, the research examined participants’ values, attitudes, and beliefs regarding their experiences of growth and culture at Mortenson.

Participants’ definitions of culture and growth are subjective and may differ significantly. This approach contrasts participants’ descriptions with the external definitions. In this study, the researcher probed for clarification and explored responses, highlighting where participants’ views aligned or diverged.

In support of an emerging definition of culture and growth, the qualitative research approach was defined as a phenomenological study. The purpose of the study was to gather data to provide a description and generate meaningful information that leads to new knowledge. The phenomenon was the experience and perception of growth’s role in Mortenson’s culture among recent and long-time employees.

In phenomenology, researchers avoid assumptions, reduce complexity, and use instruments that may influence the study (Creswell, 2003; Jeffries, 2002).

Both recent and long-time Mortenson employees were interviewed. The resulting data were analyzed through a reduction process that synthesized meanings and fundamental nature (Jeffries, 2002; Marshall & Rossman, 1999).

Interview Population and Sampling

The interview population consisted of all Mortenson employees. The sample consisted of two groups: adults aged 19 and over who had worked at Mortenson for less than five years, and adults aged 34 and over who had worked at Mortenson for more than 15 years.

The underlying purpose of the interview was to determine whether the two groups shared similar views of the organization’s culture and whether there were differences in their perceptions of how growth influenced that culture.

Participants were recruited via email, using the company directory to identify eligible team members based on tenure. 40 people from each group were contacted and, depending on their response, participated in the study.

Participants were informed about the research context, given the option to opt in or out, and informed of any risks associated with participation, such as fatigue. They could take breaks during the interview to mitigate these risks.

By design, the survey consisted of open-ended questions that did not necessitate a quantitative rating, which can lead to subjectivity and acquiescence bias.

The interviews comprised eight questions covering tenure, breadth of experience, growth assessment, and culture perception and were conducted in January 2025 via 60-minute Microsoft Teams meetings, which were recorded for transcription.

Interview Script and Data Gathering

The interview protocol began with questions about the interviewee’s tenure at Mortenson, including the number of projects, groups, functions, or departments in which they had participated. The next question asked about their perception of Mortenson’s growth and any impacts or changes they had noticed. The interview further examined how organizational growth influenced company culture, which aspects of the culture participants valued, and which elements they preferred to remain unchanged. Finally, participants were asked if they would alter any aspects of Mortenson’s current culture and, if so, to provide their reasoning.

Data Analysis Procedures

The interview data were transcribed using Microsoft Copilot AI and reviewed for accuracy shortly thereafter. The researcher then revisited each transcript, scanning for repeated words and phrases to mark as potential codes. Similar codes were grouped into themes based on language. The themes were documented as observations that supported or opposed hypotheses. At least a third of respondents needed to mention a theme for it to be reported.

Results

This section describes the qualitative, phenomenological study of the impact of organizational growth on culture. In-depth interviews with 28 Mortenson team members revealed four central themes. It is organized into five sections: audience sample description, varying definitions of culture, interview coding and analysis, themes, and summary.

Sample Description

Two groups of participants were studied: those with less than 5 years of experience at Mortenson and those with more than 15 years. These groups offered different perspectives on the organization’s history and culture. 11 fewer tenured interviewees and 17 more tenured interviewees agreed to interviews. In the less-tenured group, 82% were male, while in the more-tenured group, only 71% were male.

Note on Varying Definitions of Culture

Participants were asked what they love about Mortenson’s culture and wouldn’t want to see change. The two groups used different words to describe the culture, with one group’s words completely absent from the other. In other words, they had different vocabularies to describe the culture. Table 1 shows the descriptors of culture at Mortenson broken down by tenure.

The less tenured participants described the culture around the company’s DEI efforts and environments oriented toward teamwork. One said, “Their commitments to DEI have been really opening for me. At previous companies, we discussed it and tried to incorporate it into our recruiting practices. But Mortenson dedicates a lot of time and resources to it.”

The more tenured audience described the culture as having a family feel, caring among people, and becoming more corporate. One said, “Mortenson has gotten so big; I think it’s turning into more corporate.” They enjoy the family culture, feeling like a big family where people care for each other. When times are good, they reach out to each other. When times are tough, they really reach out to each other, which is a good thing.

While “care” and “family” may seem similar, their use was distinct enough to warrant separate classification.

Interview Coding and Analysis

Four survey themes were developed (Table 2). Each theme is described below.

Theme 1: Growth As Opportunity for New Experiences

Both groups mentioned company growth as an opportunity to gain new roles and experiences. For instance, a tenured member said, “New projects have opened doors for team members.” Company expansion into new markets or businesses created previously unavailable opportunities, which interviewees viewed positively due to their impact on culture.

Half of the interviewees (46%) mentioned this theme: six of 11 in the less-than-5-year tenure group and seven of 17 in the more-than-15-year tenure group, indicating that the longer-tenured group was less concerned with career growth.

Quotes from either group include:

• “Growth allows people to enter new markets or start new businesses. It provides everyone with the opportunity to keep growing in their careers and has opened up a variety of opportunities.”

• “New groups and markets allow us to get long-term career opportunities that wouldn’t be available if we remained small.”

Theme 2: Need for Training As More Non-Construction Industry Hires Join

Both groups emphasized the need for improved training management, especially for hires from non-construction backgrounds. This theme emerged in 8 of 11 (73%) low-tenure group interviews and 3 of 17 (18%) high-tenure group interviews. In total, 11 of 28 interviews (39%) mentioned this issue, highlighting its prominence among low-tenure employees.

Quotes relating to this theme included:

• “Rapid growth in training creates more issues. New hires lack exposure to our processes and culture.”

• “Renewables is unique, with one project manager overseeing six projects and training four new hires per project. Managing and training these individuals while handling my own responsibilities is challenging.”

• “Project engineers in the field, lacking environmental backgrounds, manage environmental components. They need to become competent, but often arrive without relevant knowledge. Getting them up to speed on project compliance exposes a gap. New hires feel like they have to start from scratch whenever they join.”

Theme 3: Culture Maintenance Requires Intentionality

Both groups emphasized the significance of intentionality in fostering a culture that is cherished and valued. This theme was prevalent in six of eleven interviews conducted with the less-than-five-year tenure group (approximately 55%) and in four of seventeen interviews conducted with the more-than-fifteen-year tenure group (approximately 24%).

Overall, 10 of 28 interviews (approximately 36%) mentioned this theme. It occurred twice as frequently among individuals with less than 5 years of tenure as among those with more than 15 years.

Representative quotes from this theme include:

• “I believe we must be deliberate in ensuring the continued success of LeadBLU.”

• “I derive immense pleasure from my work here, and I am committed to preserving our culture through the individuals we bring into our organization.”

• “The familial ownership and small-company feel that have always defined our company have never wavered. Throughout our growth, I am acutely aware that maintaining these values remains our paramount priority.”

Theme 4: Generational Shifts in Workforce Affect Culture

Both groups indicated that as younger generations enter the workforce, work styles, norms, and preferences are undergoing transformations, thereby influencing the overall culture. This theme was discussed in three out of eleven interviews (27%) conducted with the less-than- five-year tenure group and in seven out of seventeen interviews (41%) conducted with the more- than-fifteen-year tenure group. In total, 10 of 28 interviews (36%) mentioned this theme.

Statements addressing this theme include:

• “Smaller groups of individuals gather instead of the entire team.”

• Another participant compared generations, stating: “The older generation was more family-oriented. Consequently, individuals tend to form groups and be more cohesive. However, the current generation is more self-reliant and prefers to work independently.”

• “Younger generations entering the workforce are not subject to some of these challenges (referencing the absence of female representation in the construction industry).”

The qualitative findings on organizational culture and growth from these interviews suggest that as an organization expands, it undergoes transformations that, whether intentional or unintentional, affect its culture. In this sample, individuals’ perceptions of the culture were influenced by their tenure within the organization. Furthermore, the presence of diverse generations within the workforce, as represented in the sample, suggests that the company’s growth experiences shape their perspectives on culture.

The themes identified include the necessity of training for individuals with non-industry backgrounds who join the organization and the intentionality behind preserving the company’s cultural legacy.

Lastly, the theme of growth as an opportunity underscores the current team members’ appreciation for growth and its positive impact not only on the organization but also on their personal and future success.

Discussion

The research question investigated is: “How does organizational growth impact the organization’s culture?” The study was driven by the inquiry into how various components of growth, such as size and market expansion, might influence perceptions of organizational culture. This was a significant question because, as the literature demonstrates, prior research had mainly focused on the impact of culture on growth, while being limited in its attention to the impact of growth on culture.

Furthermore, this researcher sought to ascertain whether the concern expressed by the Mortenson leadership regarding the preservation of organizational culture amidst substantial growth was valid or merely a perception.

Four themes were clearly identified that address how growth affects organizational culture: growth, training, intentionality, and generational shifts.

The two groups described the culture differently and, as a result, responded differently to the identified themes. The longer someone has experienced something, the more context they have to pull from. The low-tenured group was more likely to mention the need for training and to note that culture maintenance required intentionality; the high-tenured group was more likely to raise the theme of the generational shift.

The data suggest that growth influences culture in three prominent ways:

Career Growth or Tenure

Someone who remained with Mortenson for a while, especially during periods of organizational growth, may view the culture differently from newer employees. The longer someone experiences something, the more context they gain. The data show that longer-tenured groups’ descriptions of culture may not reflect their present-day perspectives, but rather result from their longer exposure to the organization. Therefore, to accurately assess present-day culture, the less-tenured team members’ descriptions may be more reliable, as they are less influenced by historical context.

Need for Training

Both the low- and high-tenured groups mentioned this concern, but it was much more prevalent in the low-tenured group. As more non-construction-industry people are hired, the need to train them and get them up to speed on the construction industry, how work is done, and the organization’s cultural history becomes more pertinent. The implication here is that training of any kind is an opportunity to inculcate new people in the ways Mortenson works, consistent with the views of Martin (2002) and Schein (2010).

Maintaining Culture Requires Intentionality

This was mentioned by both the low- and high-tenured groups, but more so by the low-tenured group. Outwardly, the theme of cultural maintenance was raised more by the higher-tenured group. However, the data show that the higher-tenured group was not concerned about maintaining culture. Possibly, their experiences of evolution and revolution (growth) had not deterred their perception of growth’s negative influence on culture as much as anticipated.

Recommendations for Future Research

Future research can focus on understanding the mechanisms that created the different perspectives reported by the longer- and shorter-tenured groups. While both groups want to maintain their cultures, the cultures they seek to preserve differ.

Mortenson was interested in collecting more data on this topic as it continues to grow and wondered about how that growth might impact the organization’s culture. A more granular approach that addresses “how” differing descriptors of culture emerged within the organization could begin to answer questions about how an organization can maintain valuable aspects of culture amid large-scale growth and further clarify the differences in desired culture between the two groups. This aids in better appreciating how generational change may influence future cultural shifts.

Implications for Practice

Based on the research and findings, two practical recommendations emerged that validate the objective of this research:

First, Mortenson should recommit to communication processes that describe and explain its culture, ensuring they are understood and consistently interpreted by all team members, contingent on leadership intention. If Mortenson’s goal is cultural “maintenance,” this approach helps them achieve a particular desired state. If Mortenson’s leaders are open to data showing that the description of culture evolves with workforce tenure and is open to interpretation, culture may be better maintained when it is in the hands of team members to make meaning for themselves.

Second, Mortenson must address its current growth and the excitement and concern this brings to team members. Clearly communicating the career opportunities that come with growth and emphasizing the need for everyone to teach existing skills to newcomers and to learn new ones themselves will benefit the organization and its employees.

Preserving the Mortenson organization is a shared responsibility. Encouraging everyone to actively shape and uphold the organization’s culture together is a winning argument for all involved.

Limitations of the Study

The terms growth and culture can be subjective and open to alternative interpretations.

People may not see growth and culture as mutually influential. Comparing experiences across participants when their definitions of growth or culture differ widely may obscure an objective analysis of the collected data.

This study can be improved by providing interviewees with guidelines or definitions for each word and its intended use to ensure participants respond to consistent prompts. Subjective definitions and uses of each word may have created nuances in responses to the researcher’s questions; this also speaks to the value and purpose of interviewing a variety of people and asking about their unique experiences.

Small sample sizes will always pose challenges in data analysis and interpretation. Given that the Mortenson organization has over 7,000 team members, the sample of 28 people represents only 0.4% of the total population. Although the researcher was diligent in randomly selecting two different tenure groups of team members, the sample still had a higher proportion of males than the overall population and may not accurately represent the organization.

Additionally, there was an underrepresentation of business service team members (e.g., accounting, human resources, Information Technology Services) in both the less-tenured and longer-tenured populations, compared to their company-wide representation.

Conclusion

The literature suggests that growth is not a neutral force. Culture undergoes a significant transformation as the company expands in size, maturity, product line, and market reach.

Mortenson’s culture has been at least implicitly impacted by this growth. In other words, growth has been a silent evolutionary force shaping how the company’s culture is interpreted. The data suggest that Mortenson has experienced and continues to experience many of these forms of growth.

This reinforces the need for leaders to articulate the desired cultural direction and explain how growth will affect staff. Clear messaging reduces ambiguity, aligns expectations, and helps retain the values that attracted talent in the first place. A clear cultural vision communicates the benefits and trade-offs of growth and safeguards the ethical resources that distinguish Mortenson from short-term, capital-driven competitors. The company can leverage its ethical stance as a competitive differentiator, attracting talent, partners, and customers who value long-term stewardship. Quantifiable evidence provides leadership with a factual basis to argue for continued investment in people-centric initiatives.