In 2025 the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) published a piece titled, “Can You Identify Your Organization’s Leadership Culture?”* The piece prompts me to return to my post of June 15 (2026) in which I defined how I use the term, “leadership culture.”
In CCL’s discussion of leadership culture, it is an aspect of, a subset of, organizational culture. I however define “leadership culture” differently, more broadly. According to my definition leadership cultures transcend organizations. Leadership cultures reflect more, far more, than the organizations of which, sometimes, they are a part. (Note moreover that not all human groups are organizations.)
Organizational cultures are themselves situated in larger cultures. These larger cultures might be, for example, national or regional, religious or educational, public sector or private. The point is that they impact, influence, and indeed shape the organizations located within them. Therefore, every organization’s leadership culture is derived in part from the larger cultures, or contexts, within which it is situated.
Alibaba’s organizational culture is described as a “blend of Eastern philosophical traditions and Silicon Valley dynamism.” In contrast, Amazon’s organizational culture is described as “an intense, data-driven, and highly competitive environment.” While there is, no doubt, some overlap between the organizational cultures of both, there are also very significant differences. Among these are some screamingly obvious ones such as Alibaba is a Chinese company and China is a communist state, while Amazon is an American company and America is a capitalist state. Further, China has an ancient history of autocratic rule and America a recent history of democratic rule.
Thus, the leadership culture of any organization in China, or in America, or anywhere else for that matter will be impacted not only by the organization per se, but by the larger culture of the country within which the organization sits.
As I define it then, a leadership culture is a manifestation of, an amalgam of, each of the contexts within which they are located. The leadership culture at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) reflects the history and habits, values and attitudes, patterns and practices of JPM itself. But the bank’s leadership culture is additionally derived from the capitalist, corporate, financial and national contexts within which JPMorgan Chase necessarily sits.
* https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/whats-your-leadership-culture/
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