DREIESKIVA​|Roald Kvam

It’s a common organizational myth: when a crisis hits—be it an economic downturn, a security breach, or a global pandemic—the emergency itself is what shatters morale, trust, and established norms. We often hear the phrase, «The culture broke under the pressure.»

But the reality is far more nuanced. A crisis doesn’t destroy an organization’s culture; it reveals it, tests it, and, most crucially, subjects it to the ultimate stress test of leadership. Strong cultures endure, and weak ones collapse, but the determining factor is almost always the decisions, communication, and empathy demonstrated by those in charge.

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Crisis as an amplifier, not an attacker

Think of organizational culture as the immune system of a company—the shared values and behaviors that dictate how work gets done. A crisis is not a direct attack on this system; it’s a powerful amplifier.

A crisis takes the existing flaws, weaknesses, and distrust simmering beneath the surface and throws them into sharp relief.

• If your culture already tolerated fear and silence, a crisis amplifies that fear, leading to vital information being hoarded.
• If your culture already struggled with empathy, a crisis amplifies that insensitivity, resulting in cold, impersonal layoffs or policy changes.
• If your culture already lacked trust in leadership, a crisis amplifies that skepticism, turning every corporate announcement into a source of anxiety and suspicion.

The crisis itself is a neutral event; it merely provides the environment for the underlying cultural health to be exposed.

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The leadership veto: How poor decisions erode trust

Culture is defined not by mission statements on a wall, but by how power is exercised and what behavior is rewarded. When a crisis demands fast, difficult decisions, poor leadership makes choices that actively contradict and dismantle the stated values of the company.

1. The Breakdown of Transparency

In a crisis, information is power, and fear thrives on the unknown. Poor leadership hoards data, delays communication, and provides only sanitized, minimal updates. This approach is often driven by a desire to «manage the optics» or avoid panic, but the result is devastating:

• It annihilates trust. Employees assume the worst and conclude that the leadership values secrecy over their well-being.
• It undermines collaboration. Teams can’t make informed local decisions if central information is withheld.

In contrast, effective leadership is radically transparent, sharing what they know, what they don’t know, and the criteria they are using to make decisions. This openness reinforces a culture of adult, informed collaboration.

2. The Failure of Empathy

A crisis always involves human costs—stress, job insecurity, illness, or personal turmoil. Poor leadership approaches these costs with a transactional, purely economic mindset, prioritizing spreadsheets over people. They may fail to acknowledge the emotional burden, refuse to offer necessary flexibility, or communicate difficult news through impersonal channels.

Leadership that upholds the culture does the opposite: it models empathy. It prioritizes the health and psychological safety of its people, knowing that stability and care for the individual are the best long-term investments in productivity and loyalty. This reinforces the core human values that employees fight to protect.

3. Abandoning Accountability and Fairness

During moments of peak stress, poor leadership often abandons established principles of fairness. They might engage in scapegoating, blaming middle managers or specific teams for systemic failures. They may reward favorites, exempt certain groups from difficult policy changes, or fail to apply executive accountability.

When employees see leaders acting arbitrarily or unfairly under pressure, the social contract breaks down immediately. They learn that the values the company preaches are merely aspirational and disposable when resources are scarce. This single factor can destroy years of culture-building in a matter of days.

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The true test of culture

A strong, resilient culture is not one that avoids crisis, but one that uses crisis to reinforce its core identity.

The response to an emergency must be viewed as an opportunity for cultural renewal, led by intentional, values-based leadership:

1. Reinforce values through action: If a company values innovation, it should encourage bold, rapid experimentation during the crisis, not paralyze projects with bureaucracy.
2. Reward collaboration: If a company values teamwork, leadership must publicly recognize cross-functional efforts that went above and beyond departmental lines.
3. Prioritize psychological safety: If a company values learning, leaders must ensure that failures made while adapting to the crisis are treated as learning opportunities, not reasons for punishment.

Crisis is inevitable. The destruction of culture is not. When cultural norms erode, it is because poor leadership prioritized self-preservation, financial metrics, or secrecy over the one asset that allows a company to weather any storm: the trust and unified commitment of its people. The leader’s job is not to manage the crisis, but to lead the culture through it.