Performance culture sounds good. Who would argue with “performance culture”?
Well…let’s check how it is defined.
In the minds of many executives, it means higher loads, “ruthless” focus on results, gag orders, and getting rid of “B-players.”1 This is framed as the rejection of the “soft” management, even if “softness” never went beyond the performative empathy-washing.
Yet even Bain Consulting, which can hardly be accused of softness, defined performance culture as one where people are empowered, given the needed resources, and are safe to learn and make mistakes.2
Which is the “real” performance culture? The ruthless and silencing one, or the empowering one?
Both claim the label. Only one can back it up with research evidence.
After all, Enron claimed to have a performance culture. Then it turned out that engineering cutthroat competition among employees produces “creative accounting” banking on phantom profits.3 Wells Fargo claimed to have a performance culture. Then it turned out that combining impossible targets with the constant threat of termination produces fraudulent accounts opened without customers’ knowledge.4
As an organizational psychologist, here is how I disentangle reality from rhetoric.
Performance culture—evidence-based (EB) creates organizational conditions that the research consistently identifies as actual foundations of high performance. Psychological safety to learn from mistakes and point out potential threats. Intrinsic motivation. Mastery orientation supporting learning and exploration. Autonomy. Trust. Sustainable work.
Performance culture—EB cultivates human cognitive and motivational capacity. Edmondson’s psychological safety research shows its positive impact on learning, error correction, and honest information flow.5 Deci & Ryan’s intrinsic and autonomous motivation bring out innovation and creativity.6 Dweck’s mastery orientation supports learning and exploration.7 Trust holds organizations together.8
Performance culture—doublespeak (DS) is an Orwellian-style relabeling of management systems rooted in fear and control.9 Forced distribution rankings with regular “culling” of employees. Surveillance. Metric fixation. Coercive pressure as “motivation.”
Instead of cultivating performance, such conditions degrade it, particularly in the long-term.
Chronic stress measurably impairs the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for judgment, reasoning, creativity, and complex decision-making. The cognitive architecture required for innovation and everyday good work is the first casualty of fear culture.10
Pustovit et al.’s (2024) meta-analysis shows that fear diminishes task performance and organizational citizenship behavior, while increasing counterproductive work behavior like fraud, sabotage, and concealment.11 Just like Enron and Wells Fargo found out.
High-stakes evaluations produce caution, not excellence. People stop taking on growth challenges and instead optimize for short-term survival by prioritizing visibility over value. They focus on avoiding mistakes rather than on meaningful work.12
The Truth Test
How do we know if an organization claiming to have a performance culture actually has a performance-undermining culture?
Look for the signs of management by fear. And listen for silence. You can hear fear in silence.
A culture that punishes honesty, rewards metric-gaming, allows only one or two voices, and degrades the cognitive capacity of its workforce is not a performance culture. It is a fear culture.
A version of this article also appears in the Best Work for Your Brain newsletter.
