I classify it as follows. "The culture is toxic." : The problems are caused by one or more individuals, who may be insurmountably difficult to fire. Actually

I classify it as follows. "The culture is toxic." : The problems are caused by one or more individuals, who may be insurmountably difficult to fire. Actually firing the offending people is likely to correct the course quickly. "The culture is rotten." : The problems are caused by dysfunctional processes, which may be insurmountably difficult to amend. Firing people won't help, unless their replacements are an order of magnitude more competent, and empowered to enact changes. I don't think rotten can be fixed unless toxic is fixed first. In this sense, toxicity is the more immediate problem, in that it prevents detection of deep structural issues and potential repairs from being approached in a timely and constructive way.