Blaming culture for every problem risks letting standards and accountability slide: HR exec
Culture has become one of the most overused words in business.
We celebrate it when organizations succeed and blame it when they don't. Engagement declines? Culture. Turnover rises? Culture. Performance falls short? Culture. Behaviours don't align with expectations? Culture.
Somewhere along the way, culture became the explanation for almost everything.
The problem is that when culture becomes responsible for everything, accountability risks becoming the responsibility of no one.
To be clear, culture matters. It influences how decisions are made, how people interact, and how organizations perform. The strongest cultures create clarity, alignment, and trust. They help organizations navigate change and sustain performance.
But not every organizational challenge is a culture problem.
Sometimes the issue is unclear expectations. Sometimes it is inconsistent leadership. Sometimes it is poor execution. Sometimes it is a reluctance to address performance concerns or hold people accountable for commitments they have made.
Calling every challenge a culture issue can distract from the real work required to solve it.
Too often, organizations invest significant energy discussing culture while avoiding more difficult conversations about standards, accountability, and execution.
Values are easy to communicate. Standards are harder to enforce.
Culture defined by practice, not words
Culture is not defined by what appears on a website, hangs on a wall, or is launched through an employee initiative. It is reflected in what leaders tolerate, what they reward, and what they are prepared to address. Managers are responsible for 70 per cent of the variance in team engagement, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 Report.
That reality also raises an important question about ownership.
HR plays a critical role in helping define, reinforce, and measure culture. We embed values into talent practices, support leadership development, and create systems intended to drive desired behaviours.
But HR cannot own culture on behalf of an organization.
Culture is created every day through leadership decisions, management actions, and individual choices. It lives in the gap between what organizations say and what they consistently do.
When leaders avoid difficult conversations, culture is affected. When managers fail to set clear expectations, culture is affected. When individuals choose not to take ownership of their responsibilities, culture is affected.
Culture is not separate from accountability. It is the result of it.
Perhaps it is time to be more disciplined in how we use the word. Before declaring a culture problem, leaders should ask a more direct question: What is actually causing the issue?
The answer may be culture.
But it may also be leadership, execution, decision-making, or accountability.
The distinction matters because the solutions are very different.
Culture is too important to become a catch-all explanation for every organizational challenge. It is the collective result of what we value, what we tolerate, what we reward, and ultimately, what we deliver. When we lose sight of that, culture stops being a competitive advantage and becomes a convenient excuse.
Janet Bray is the Vice President, Human Resources, at Pier 4 in Toronto.
