Tags: Speak Up, Decision-making, Communication & Engagement, Employees, Ethical Values, Supportive Environment
Author Tobias Sturesson shares his insights into corporate culture leadership
From Organisational Trauma to Corporate Culture Leadership: A Business Ethics Imperative
My understanding of the vital importance of organisational ethics wasn't formed in a boardroom or business school, but from growing up in a Christian church that turned into a cult. I witnessed firsthand how an organisation with a compelling mission can deteriorate into a toxic, abusive system. I observed the incremental steps through which well-intentioned and charismatic leadership becomes destructive, and how organisational culture can shift from healthy to harmful with stakeholders overlooking the warning signs.
The organisation didn't begin as dysfunctional. Like many corporate environments, the community started with a clear mission and engaged stakeholders. The transformation happened gradually as the founder became increasingly manipulative, creating systems that prioritised loyalty over accountability and mission over people.
As the founder became more erratic and destructive he started to single out and demonise people. When he turned on my mother, who was one of the leaders, I became complicit in the psychological abuse. I should have spoken up. I should have walked away. But I didn't. Ultimately my mother attempted suicide several times to escape the terror and the trauma and ended up at a psychiatric ward for two years. Where she finally found the courage to leave the cult.
What I still wrestle with today is that even though I could see what was happening I remained in the cult for several years. My exit came only after a national media investigation exposed the toxic culture and destructive leadership patterns publicly and the inner dissonance finally grew too loud.
The Complicity Question: A Business Ethics Challenge
This led me to confront the uncomfortable reality that resonates across corporate environments: How do ethical, values-driven professionals become complicit in harmful organisational systems?
I do not believe that this is merely about individual moral failure. Instead, it is about structural and cultural dynamics that gradually normalise unethical behaviour. It's about incentive systems that reward compliance over integrity, cultures that punish dissent, and leadership models that concentrate power without accountability.
The questions I wrestled with as I was leaving the cult now form the foundation of my corporate work: How do we identify early indicators of cultural toxicity? What systems prevent a drift into harmful practices? How do organisations maintain ethical standards when facing pressure to deliver results? How do we build accountability structures that prevent leadership overreach?
In corporate environments, we often see similar patterns to what I experienced: charismatic leaders whose early success insulates them from accountability, cultures that prioritise short-term results over long-term sustainability, systems that silence dissenting voices in the name of unity, and mission statements that become disconnected from daily practices.
Why This Matters for Corporate Leaders
Modern businesses face increasing scrutiny around reporting, ESG commitments, workplace culture, and ethical leadership. Yet many organisations still approach these as compliance, tick-box exercises rather than fundamental business imperatives. Instead, I believe that organisations need to look closely to consider if there is a gap between stated values and lived culture. That gap is the space where organisational dysfunction takes root.
The business case is clear: toxic cultures drive talent away, damage reputation, create legal liability, and ultimately undermine business performance. But beyond risk mitigation, there's an opportunity: organisations that genuinely prioritise ethical culture and psychological safety outperform their peers in innovation, retention, and sustainable growth.
Building Cultural Health: Four Essential Habits
Through my research and work with organisations, I've identified four transformative habits that are crucial for maintaining cultural health:
Get humble – embracing vulnerability by admitting you're not immune to ethical drift, taking ownership of how you've contributed to cultural challenges instead of blaming others, and actively repairing broken trust through acknowledgement, explanation, and changed behaviour
Get clear – making values matter by identifying what you refuse to compromise even when costly, consistently celebrating behaviours aligned with mission and values, and directly addressing unhelpful or destructive behaviour rather than tolerating it
Get listening – soliciting feedback by asking for it rather than assuming people feel safe to speak up, creating conditions where people can have brave conversations about concerns and dilemmas, and exercising voicing values by speaking up yourself when witnessing issues
Get integrity – sharing authentic stories that embody mission and values rather than just stating them, designing regular rituals that foster connection and reflection on values, and ensuring your processes and incentives align with the values you claim instead of sending mixed signals
Real culture change cannot happen without beginning with humility, a willingness to look yourself in the mirror and see both your strengths and your challenges as a leader. This requires leaders to regularly ask themselves reflective questions: What is my gut reaction when people raise concerns or issues regarding my leadership or the culture? Do I struggle with defensiveness?
Leaders must then create the practice of reflection on a daily or weekly basis, embedding self-examination into their routine rather than treating it as an occasional exercise.
My dual perspective—as someone harmed by toxic organisational culture and as someone who participated in perpetuating it—provides unique insight into prevention. I understand both how leadership loses its ethical moorings and how organisational systems can either enable or prevent this deterioration.
The Path Forward
Corporate culture isn't separate from business ethics, it's where ethics are either lived or abandoned daily. It requires a daily commitment to building cultural health. My mission is to help organisations uncover root causes undermining their cultural health and build leadership habits that lead to a thriving and ethical culture. For a world free from unhealthy workplace culture.
Author
Tobias Sturesson
Author and Founder, Heart Management