BANKS' CORPORATE CULTURE: AN EXAMINATION OF ESPOUSED VALUES IN CROATIAN BANKING SECTOR

Organizations often publicly declare certain values that form part of their organizational culture; such values have been called espoused values. Although espoused values can be different from the enacted (true) values practiced by employees, they can still impact employee behavior and firm performance. This paper analyzes espoused values of all 20 banks operating in Croatia in 2020. Content analysis revealed that 45% of Croatian banks publicly declare its values, with an average of six declared values per bank. The total number of different values espoused by Croatian banks is 34. After clustering values in different value groups, it has been found that most often mentioned value group is focused on the bank itself and approach summarized as"doing the right thing". Most often recognized individual values are: integrity, speed and teamwork. When bank size is considered, it has been found that there are some differences between large and small banks. In addition, the Croatian banking system is significantly dominated by large, foreign-owned banks which have also contributed to the faster creation of corporate values within the domestic credit institutions. Although all banks with declared corporate values emphasize client orientation, it is more important for smaller banks than large ones.