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Beneath the surface – understanding organisational culture
Campbell Tickell's CultureScan tool enables companies to dig into every part of their organisation to uncover what truly drives their culture
PEOPLE & CULTURE
Tracey McEachran
Associate, Campbell Tickell
Tracey McEachran
Associate, Campbell Tickell
Issue 79 | September 2025
What really shapes the culture of an organisation? Is it policies and procedures? Leadership behaviours? Informal networks? Or something more deeply embedded in the day-to-day experiences of staff at all levels?
At Campbell Tickell, we’ve worked with many clients exploring these questions. By mapping the culture of different organisations, we’ve supported them to look beyond surface-level indicators and uncover what truly drives their culture, both the visible dynamics and the more hidden patterns of belief and behaviour.
Robust research
At the heart of our methodology is a robust survey designed to reach every part of the organisation – board, leadership, middle managers, and frontline staff. What’s remarkable is the consistently high response rates we see, often exceeding 70%, and in some cases over 90%. This reflects something important: people care about culture, and they want their voices to be heard.
The survey results provide a valuable snapshot, offering insight into seven core cultural attributes. But numbers alone are never the full story. The real value comes from what those numbers reveal, differences in perception and lived experience between teams or levels of seniority, unexpected alignment or disconnection, and areas of both pride and pressure.
One striking example from an early culture project showed strong alignment at the top and bottom of the organisation, with senior leaders and frontline teams broadly on the same page. But in the middle, alignment dropped significantly. Middle managers, often under pressure from both directions, felt disconnected. The result was a bottleneck in communication, in trust, and in cultural consistency. This wasn’t a new issue, but seeing it so clearly laid out gave the organisation the insight and momentum to act.
“Numbers alone are never the full story. The real value comes from what those numbers reveal, differences in perception and lived experience between teams or levels of seniority, unexpected alignment or disconnection, and areas of both pride and pressure.”
Deeper exploration
A typical assignment process doesn’t stop at data collection. We follow up with qualitative work in the form of focus groups to explore what’s sitting beneath the numbers. These sessions bring the data to life, adding texture, giving insights and meaning through stories, perspectives, and lived experience.
What’s always encouraging is the level of engagement we see in these conversations. Colleagues, especially those on the frontline, often approach the process with openness and energy. They’re not passive recipients of culture, they’re active participants in shaping it. And when asked, “What kind of culture do you want to create together?”, in our experience they respond with insight, honesty, and care.
This shared exploration leads to clarity. Our process doesn’t prescribe a single ‘ideal’ culture. Instead, it facilitates a conversation about what is wanted and needed in a particular context. It provides a map of the current landscape, highlighting the strengths that can be built upon, the challenges that need attention, and the gaps that may require support.
Pressures and priorities
In the current environment, whether in housing, the third sector, or beyond, organisations are facing significant pressures. Studies have consistently shown that organisational culture is a key determinant of employee engagement, performance, and retention.
A 2021 report by the CIPD found that organisations with a clear and intentional culture were more likely to experience higher job satisfaction and lower turnover. Similarly, research from MIT Sloan (2022) highlights that toxic organisational culture is the strongest predictor of attrition, 10 times more powerful than compensation.
This reinforces the importance of not just acknowledging culture but understanding it in nuanced and systemic ways. A recent McKinsey study (2023) also emphasised that companies which invest in cultural alignment during times of transformation are more than twice as likely to achieve successful outcomes.
The need to maximise resources, maintain focus, and deliver value has never been greater. Understanding your culture is essential to ensure efforts are aligned, energy isn’t wasted, and people remain motivated and engaged. Understanding your culture isn’t a luxury, it’s essential to ensure efforts are aligned, energy isn’t wasted, and people remain motivated and engaged.
Our culture work, built around what we call our CultureScan, has enabled organisations to align their cultural ambitions with practical action. The insights gained have supported targeted development, more effective communication, and greater cohesion. Over time, this will help to build a culture that is not only understood and articulated but genuinely lived.
Peter Drucker once said ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. We’d like show you what’s on the menu, and help you set the table for real, lasting change.
CultureScan testimonials
‘From January to June 2023 Campbell Tickell were commissioned to assist us with a comprehensive strategic review… This included a staff focused CultureScan, updates to our vision, mission and values and setting our new strategic plan for 2024-2028. The team at CT were very professional with a wide range of experience and knowledge. They worked closely with the Leadership Team and the Board throughout the process, achieving all requirements within the time frame.’
Martina Smith, CEO, Housing Association for Integrated Living (HAIL)
‘CultureScan is a unique and impressive organisational development/staff survey tool which is simple to use and with its well thought-out seven pillars of a positive culture and traffic light ranking, it is easy to understand. It gets under the skin to provide a true and accurate picture of the prevailing culture, warts and all. If you want to understand what’s really going on and what people actually think about your organisation, CultureScan will not disappoint. Its insight is priceless.’
Beth Furneaux, Chair, Eden Housing Association
‘Campbell Tickell involved managers, front line staff, commissioners and other key stakeholders to identify in a clear but meaningful way how much our culture had changed (24% on average). Most importantly CT left us with a tool to measure that change going forward, which we will use every two years. This work not only meant we could demonstrate the positive effects of our changes externally, including to regulators, but also brought together people internally as they realised how much the positive effects of their hard work had impacted on the St Mungo’s culture.’
Howard Sinclair, CEO, St Mungo's
