One of the most attractive features of start-ups for their employees is the company culture. In contrast to larger companies where employees may be more set in their ways, start-ups often encourage innovation and change. In fact, start-ups are often associated with Stephen McGuire’s Entrepreneurial Organizational Culture (EOC), in which innovation and change is a valued tenet.Other elements of EOC are: a focus on people and on empowering employees; attention to the basic elements of business; hands-on management (or feet-on, if you worked at Apple when Steve Jobs regularly toured the office barefoot); a commitment to ethics and to doing the right thing (as seen in the “not-just-for-profit” business model); freedom for employees, and the business as a whole, to make mistakes; an emphasis on personal responsibility; and a keen sense of the future.McGuire published his view of this model in his Ph.D Dissertation at George Washington University, Entrepreneurial Organizational Culture: Construct Definition and Instrument Development and Validation (2003). He claims that this model predicts revenue from new sourcesthe clear goal of all start-ups seeking to grow and expand. Obviously, the unconventional characteristics of this culture also increase the risk, but all entrepreneurial types know that only makes things more exciting.If you’re in charge of helping define the culture at a start-up company and don’t know where to start, relax. Creating a culture is a collaborative process, and everyone, from the CEO to the administrative assistants, should play some role in defining it. Remember, however, that continued communication is a key element of many of the features of the EOC modelotherwise, the freedoms granted to employees may spiral out of control, and the entire enterprise may fail. Make sure that different branches of the company network regularly, and follow up on any concerns.