Understanding Culture: Timeless and Modern Frameworks to Work With (Part 2)

As a master’s student in organizational psychology back in my twenties, I often found the theories abstract and far removed from real life. They were interesting but not yet useful. It took several years, and a few complex challenges at work, to truly see their value. I’ve realized that the power of those lies not in memorizing them, but in understanding how they explain what we experience every day and how that understanding can help us create better outcomes.

My hope is that this bonus episode makes that discovery easier for you. The frameworks shared here sit at the heart of organizational culture.

They will not solve your challenges on their own, but they can bring clarity.They give language to what feels intangible, to those moments when you sense something is off but cannot quite name it. They help you connect the dots, see patterns, and understand what lies beneath the surface.

And in HR, language is power. When you can describe what is happening systemically, you can explain it more clearly, and that clarity allows you to move to better influencing.

I invite you to explore these timeless and modern frameworks with curiosity. Think of them as a map that helps you see what is already at play.

What Is Organizational Culture, really?

The simplest definition comes from Edgar Schein, often called the father of modern organizational culture. He described culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration”. In plain terms, culture is how people learn to survive and succeed together.

Schein’s model identifies three levels of culture:

1. Artifacts – the visible ‘things’ you can see, hear, and touch (language, rituals, office layout, dress code). The power of artifacts is that they are tangible, real and as such, they can be seen, discussed and shaped more deliberately.

2. Declared values – what the organization says it believes in (organizational values, mission statements, leadership principles).

3. Underlying assumptions – the deep, often unconscious beliefs that truly drive behaviour (for example: “conflict is risky”, “speed matters more than accuracy”).

Most organizations operate at the surface of artifacts and values, but it is the assumptions underneath that explain why people behave the way they do.

When to use it: Schein’s model is invaluable when you sense a gap between what leaders say and what actually happens. For example, when “collaboration” is a core value or principle yet, departments compete fiercely. It helps you diagnose not just what people do, but why:

· What do we say we value, and what do we actually reward people for?

· What do we say we value, and what people do or don’t do? Where is the gap?

The space between those answers is where culture really lives.

Seeing Culture Through Values: The Competing Values Framework

Developed by Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron, the Competing Values Framework (CVF) is one of the simplest and most enduring models for diagnosing and discussing organizational culture. It helps leaders see that every culture is shaped by two core tensions.

1. Internal vs. External Focus – Does the organization primarily look inward (toward its people, processes, and cohesion) or outward (toward customers, markets, and competition)?

   • Internal focus emphasizes collaboration, trust, and shared identity.

   • External focus emphasizes competitiveness, results, and responsiveness to the outside world.

2. Flexibility vs. Stability – Does the organization value adaptability and innovation, or consistency and control?

   • Flexible cultures encourage experimentation, speed, and learning.

   • Stable cultures prioritize reliability, structure, and predictability.

These two dimensions create four cultural archetypes:

Most organizations are a blend of these archetypes, but there is usually a tendency of one to dominate. The CVF doesn’t label one type as “better” than another; it simply helps you see what kind of system you’re operating in and whether that system fits your strategy and stage of growth.

Why and When to Use It

It is particularly useful during times of change when a company has outgrown its culture and needs to rethink what will enable transformation and growth next.

When to use it

• During strategy shifts (for example: moving from control to innovation).

• When merging teams or organizations with different cultures.

• When a leadership team senses cultural friction but can’t name it.

Why it’s powerful?

It provides you the language and framework to turn abstract discussions to more practical ones, to align intentions to reality. If, for example, a company says it needs to be “more agile”, the CVF helps you explore what agility requires us to become: Does agility require more flexibility? More external focus? Less hierarchy? The level of discussion and direction gained from this exercise could be extremely valuable.

Put simply, the CVF helps you translate needs and ambition into a more tangible operational and cultural reality.

The Stories We Tell: Deal & Kennedy

Does your organization hold on to stories that are passed down, about how things used to be or about the heroes who shaped its early days? That is what this next framework explores.

In the 1980s, Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy gave us one of the simplest and most memorable ways to describe culture: “the way things are done around here”.Their work highlighted the power of shared stories, heroes, and rituals, the everyday signals that show people what is valued and how success is celebrated.

They identified four typical cultural environments, shaped by two factors: how risky the work is, and how quickly people see the results of their actions.

When and How to Use It

One way to use the framework is it to tailor your approach to each environment:

• In fast-feedback cultures, quick recognition and visible rewards matter most.

• In slow-feedback cultures, patience, storytelling, and progress markers sustain motivation.

This framework is also really useful for spotting subcultures within an organization. Most companies have a mix of these cultural types, and noticing the differences can open honest conversations about how people work, collaborate, and make decisions. We need to be careful not to fall into stereotypes, but paying attention to where friction shows up between teams can help us adapt how we engage and what we expect. It also explains why the same initiative can take off in one area and fall flat in another. Every part of the business experiences time and pace differently, and noticing those rhythms is often what helps us work with culture instead of trying to bend it, a theme I first explored in Episode 2, and one that can genuinely change how impactful we could be.

Connecting Culture to Performance: The Denison Model

Many organizations say they want a high-performing culture, but what does that actually mean, and how can they achieve it?

Daniel Denison’s model answers this by identifying four traits that consistently appear in organizations, that perform well over time. These four traits describe the cultural capabilities an organization needs to master in order to deliver results.

A Simple Way to Use This Framework

Think of these four traits as the cultural muscles that drive performance.

You can’t strengthen them all equally at once. The key is to know which one needs attention now based on your organization’s goals.

For example:

· If execution is strong but innovation is slow → strengthen Adaptability.

· If people are motivated but misaligned → clarify Mission.

· If teams are fragmented or inconsistent → focus on Consistency.

· If leaders are disconnected from the front line → build better Involvement.

One simple question can open a strategic discussion:“If these four capabilities were the engine of performance, which feels strongest in our culture right now, and which one is holding us back?”

That question brings laser-sharp focus to how culture drives or blocks performance.

Modern Perspectives: Seeing Culture as a Living System

In my first blog, Understanding Organizations, I described how every organization is a living system shaped by its structure, dynamics, and ability to learn. The same is true for culture.

While timeless models still offer valuable insight, modern frameworks allow us see culture not as a static construct to analyze, but as something alive and constantly reshaping, one that is interdependent, fluid, adaptive, and shaped by constant interaction.

1. Culture as a Network of Trust and Interaction

Modern research, influenced by complexity science, shows that culture is the pattern of relationships that keeps it alive: the quality of dialogue, the speed of learning, and the trust that allows people to speak up.

This idea connects to Amy Edmondson’s work on psychological safety, which got its moment of glory during the pandemic, and shifts the focus from a personal virtue into an organizational capability and the conditions created “on the ground” that allows curiosity, feedback, and innovation to flourish.

In this view, culture is less about control and more about connection. It is what enables people to respond to complexity together rather than alone.

For HR leaders and HRBPs, understanding these networks and how they operate: who trusts whom, who they avoid, and where ideas ‘fly’ or get stuck, often reveals the immediate opportunity to tackle.

2. Culture in Hybrid and Digital Workplaces

The move to hybrid work did not just change where people work; it changed how culture travels. It became clear during the pandemic that virtual environments reveal culture in new ways, through communication flows, digital messages, and meetings that happen across screens and time zones.

In this environment, artifacts, as Schein described, become tools that shape ideas and send signals what is important. The greater the distance, both physical and cultural, the more intentional these artifacts need to become, to represent who we truly are.

Global teams add another layer. Drawing on Erin Meyer’s Culture Map, we can see how communication, trust, and hierarchy are expressed and seen differently across national cultural contexts. And if left misinterpreted, can easily turn into misunderstanding.Shaping the dialogue, intentionally looking to create the right messages both physically and in writing can show more than anything that we are what we see.

3. Culture as a System of Meaning and Adaptation

Beyond relationships and technology, culture is also the shared story an organization tells itself; the way people make sense of what is happening and decide how to respond.

Think of early-stage startups that built their identity around grit: founders sleeping on the office floor, working through nights, doing whatever it takes.

As the startup grows, the same narrative deeply rooted in its foundation can quietly turn toxic, disconnected, or simply be irrelevant anymore.

When the world changes faster than the story, the story no longer holds the power it used to have.

That’s why culture is now seen as an adaptive advantage. It acts as a compass when there’s no clear map, helping people choose what’s right, fair, and consistent even in uncertainty.

The work for leaders and HR is to evolve those shared stories so they continue to serve the future, ones that shape the future and connect people to the next horizon.

· Does our story still make sense for the world we’re in today?

· Because when the stories evolve, the organization can move with it.

A Common Thread

If we take a step back, one theme repeats across all these models: Schein, Cameron and Quinn, Deal and Kennedy, Denison, networks, digital signals, shared stories, and modern complexity theory. Culture is both mirror and motor, an input to work with and an output to achieve. It reflects what already exists and propels what comes next.

Culture is never static. Every process, every leader’s tone, and every policy review send signals that gradually reinforce or reshape it. For HR leaders, this means culture is not the backdrop to the work but the work itself.

So, what does it mean for you? and how to work with those?Tune in for the next blog.

Limor