It’s no surprise that British organisations have once again been warned to double the number of women in boardrooms within five years or face government sanction. It’s in all of our interests that this happens. But unless organisations embrace culture development as a core business essential it won’t.

The elephant in the room in the boardroom debate is that men like working with men because, in the main, they know the unwritten rules and like to know where they stand. It’s unwise to disrespect or deride them for, whatever your opinion, male ingenuity is undeniable.

Despite constant attempts to re-define masculinity in a post-feminist world, men and women still have inherent and subtly different codes of behaviour, unwritten norms both genders learn through their interactions with each other whether on the sporting fields or surviving the incessant status, deference and power-based pecking orders we all encounter in the nursery, at school or at work. And these codes aren’t always compatible unless they reinforce the desired culture of the business. The problem is that not enough organisations are explicit about what that desired culture is.

Lord Davies, who has been leading an inquiry into male dominance in UK boardrooms, pulled back from the option of recommending mandatory quotas of women, but said FTSE-100 companies should aim for their boards to be 25 per cent female by 2015.

Interestingly, in explaining the decision to reject quotas, Davies said that only 11 per cent of the submissions received by his inquiry supported them. Yet nearly 90 per cent of overall respondents were women. Clearly women appreciate as much as their male counterparts that the answer lies in re-configuring the cultural norms within businesses rather than attacking them.

In the debates that are periodically stirred up by this persistent topic, critics variously blame blinkered chairmen recruiting in their own image; or headhunters operating behind the change curve. But seldom does the issue of culture, the way we do things within businesses, feature.

Of course, it’s ridiculous that women are still so under represented in senior roles. But outrage isn’t working and the answer doesn’t lie in imposing quotas that women themselves don’t believe in.

Surely the solution lies in acknowledging and respecting difference rather than criticising and attacking alternative approaches; in re-positioning culture change and organisation development as business critical not discretionary activities reserved for the good times. Much more can be done to champion and mentor role models from both sexes, not on the grounds of their gender, but because they exemplify the values, behaviours and culture required for businesses to thrive. And that, after all, makes good business sense.

Ian Buckingham is author of Brand Champions, published by Palgrave Macmillan