Short answer: both. But not equally, and not at the same time.
There’s a constant feedback loop between the two. The real question is: which one is driving right now?
1️⃣ When the Workplace Controls the Culture
This is the “top-down” model.
Leadership, structure, policies, incentives, and symbols shape behaviour – and behaviour shapes culture.
Examples:
- Promotion systems reward long hours → overwork becomes “normal”
- Leaders model psychological safety → openness becomes safe
- Bonus schemes reward individual wins → collaboration dies
- Slack at midnight gets praise → burnout becomes heroic
Culture is not what’s written in the handbook.
It’s what gets rewarded, tolerated, or punished.
In your world – especially with psychometrics and implicit measurement – you’ll know this better than most: explicit culture statements often don’t match implicit emotional reality. You can say “we value wellbeing,” but if the implicit signals are stress and threat, that’s the real culture.
Workplace structures create emotional climates.
And emotional climates become culture.
2️⃣ When Culture Controls the Workplace
This is the “bottom-up gravity” model.
Sometimes the existing human norms overpower leadership intention.
For example:
- A deeply cynical workforce can neutralise even strong leaders.
- A high-trust team can survive mediocre management.
- National culture shapes workplace behaviour (hierarchical societies vs flat ones).
- Generational norms influence expectations around feedback, flexibility, and authority.
In this case, leaders don’t create culture – they inherit it.
And inherited culture has inertia.
You can introduce new policies, but if the unwritten rules remain:
- “Don’t speak up.”
- “Don’t outshine your boss.”
- “Don’t fail publicly.”
…then culture is controlling the workplace.
3️⃣ The Truth: It’s a Dynamic System
Culture is:
Repeated behaviour under emotional conditions.
The workplace influences the emotional conditions.
People repeat behaviours that feel safe, rewarded, or necessary.
Over time, repeated behaviour becomes:
- Identity
- Norm
- Expectation
- Culture
Then that culture starts shaping future decisions, hiring, promotion, and even strategy.
It becomes self-reinforcing.
4️⃣ The Power Hierarchy
If we zoom out, the order usually looks like this:
- Leadership mindset
- Incentive structure
- Behavioural norms
- Emotional climate
- Culture
But once culture is established, it can jump back up the chain and shape leadership behaviour too.
That’s why cultural transformation is so hard.
You’re not changing behaviour.
You’re changing identity and emotional safety signals.
5️⃣ A Brutally Honest Take
In most organisations:
- Structure wins in the short term.
- Culture wins in the long term.
You can impose change for a quarter.
But if the emotional reality underneath hasn’t shifted – the old culture will reassert itself.
That’s why many “culture change programmes” fail.
They target behaviours.
They don’t target underlying emotional drivers.
6️⃣ If You Want a Strategic Answer
For someone building psychometric tools and advising leaders (which you are), the more useful framing is:
The workplace creates the conditions.
Culture is the accumulated emotional memory of those conditions.
Change the conditions consistently enough, and culture shifts.
Ignore the emotional data, and culture will quietly override you.
