Body of Knowledge · Glossary
Culture
The accumulated pattern of what behaviour gets rewarded, tolerated and punished in practice. What leaders visibly do sets it far more than stated values, policies or announcements. Where behaviour and the stated values diverge, the behaviour is the culture.
Where the standard develops it
- CC-5Values, integrity, and ethical judgment under pressureWhat you do when the right call is the costly one.
Related terms
- Brilliant jerk
- A high performer whose behaviour breaches the team's values.
- Costly moment
- A situation in which a stated value and the pressure of the moment point in different directions, and people are watching the decision.
- Error budget
- The tolerable shortfall against a service-level objective, treated as a resource to spend that gates risk-taking.
Cite this definition
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Culture. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, GLO.culture). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/glossary/culture