3 culture challenges companies face every year
- Aug 13, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 26
In the last year, we have witnessed a huge shift in the business landscape – again. Markets have felt the impact of warfare and tariffs, tech has accelerated, and customer expectations have evolved. Yet, for many organisations, particular cultural challenges continue to hold them back.
If strategy is your engine, culture is your traction. And some companies are still spinning their wheels in the same old ruts. At Culture Impact, we’ve spent years tracking the biggest cultural blockers across organisations – and in 2025, we renewed our culture strategy alignment research from 2017. Concerningly, the three top culture barriers remain the same among HR Professionals (Bureaucracy, agility & performance management) - not just because they’re hard to fix, but because leaders keep underestimating their impact.
1. Bureaucracy is still draining your momentum
Yes, bureaucracy. Still here. Still slowing everything down.
In our 2025 research, HR leaders cited bureaucracy as the greatest cultural barrier to strategic growth - the same as in 2017. Eight years later, many organisations still haven't cut through it; they’ve just digitised it. More platforms, more processes, more approvals.
But let’s be clear: more processes do not equal more progress. Every extra layer of sign-off, every meeting to decide the next meeting, is a tax on energy and pace. And in a world that rewards adaptability, bureaucracy punishes it.
Sound familiar? Uncover reasons why you are still falling victim to bureaucracy and how to overcome them.
Companies are not able to react to external change quickly enough
Despite the tech investment, in our 2025 research, agility is a non-mover, sitting as the second greatest blocker to strategic success, according to HR professionals.
While current markets will be magnifying organisations' ability to adapt to outside conditions, the data also suggests that the way in which businesses are set up internally may not be able to sustain an agile culture.
For example... are new approaches and tests encouraged, even if they fail? Do people at all levels feel they can give constructive feedback up and down the chain? Are mistakes seen as a learning instead of a punishment? Do people have the ownership to sign off on ideas without them being escalated to the top?
If the behaviours you encourage, discourage, or tolerate don't set you up for agility, your organisation will never have the resilience and psychological safety to adapt to change in a way that's needed.
Discover our tips to lead an agile culture.
3. Poor performance still goes unchallenged
High-performance cultures don’t tolerate mediocrity – they address it. But far too many leaders avoid the discomfort of tackling underperformance - and this is reflected in our 2025 report, with HR leaders stating that 'the lack of accountability' for poor performance is one of their top three barriers to strategic success.
What does that cost? Focus. Morale. Credibility.
Managing poor performance consistently ranks among the most frequently cited leadership development needed in Hogan 360 assessments - reinforcing how universally challenging this skill remains.
When poor performance is left to fester, it sends a loud message: we tolerate this. And culture is nothing if not a pattern of what’s tolerated over time.
It’s not just about ‘holding people accountable’ – it’s about coaching, feedback, clarity, and support, and where necessary, having honest conversations and ‘grasping the nettle’. When leaders ignore performance gaps, high performers disengage, and standards drop. And soon, you’ve settled for average.
Read about our top 3 steps to address poor performance.
So, are you still stuck?
We can help you understand where your greatest culture blockers are, and identify which shifts in behaviours are needed to unlock strategic success. Discover more about our culture assessment and culture change processes.
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