Culture can enhance organizational commitment and increase the consistency of employee behavior. Culture is valuable to employees too because it spells out how things are done and what’s important. But we shouldn’t ignore the potentially dysfunctional aspects of culture, especially a strong one, on an organization’s effectiveness. Institutionalized organizations often don’t go out of business even if the original goals are no longer relevant. Behaviors and habits go unquestioned, which can stifle innovation and make maintaining the organization’s culture an end in itself.

Culture is a liability when shared values don’t agree with those that further the organization’s effectiveness. When an organization’s environment is undergoing rapid change, its entrenched culture may no longer be appropriate. Because diverse behaviors and unique strengths are likely to diminish as people assimilate, strong cultures can become liabilities when they effectively eliminate the advantages of diversity. In general, we’ve discussed cultures that cohere around a positive set of values and attitudes. This consensus can create powerful forward momentum.

Coherence around negativity and dysfunction can produce downward forces that are powerful yet toxic.