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I've seen both usages in articles published by reputable media like NYT and the Entrepreneurs. I've seen both being used to refer to what seems to me to be the same thing. It's so puzzling to me.

An example taken from the Guardian (para 5):

Working culture remains horribly gendered. The report that working full-time increases a mother’s stress hormones by up to 40% puts numbers on ...

So I wonder which one is correct and is there any subtle distinction between the two variants?

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    I've moved your quote to the question, and added the link and attribution.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 15, 2019 at 12:44
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    If you Google "work culture" and "working culture", you will see that both are used, but that the former occurs almost four times as frequently as the latter. Googling "work culture" + "working culture" reveals that quite a few organisations seem to use the two terms interchangeably. This strongly suggests that one shouldn't worry about the fact that both terms are in widespread use. // It's interesting to contrast ' "work ethic" vs ?/*"working ethic", where a very different picture arises.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 15, 2019 at 12:57
  • Thanks for giving more clarity to the question!
    – rutuehurhu
    Commented Jun 15, 2019 at 16:42

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Both usages are correct, but if you were introducing the topic for the first time work culture would be more precise. In working culture the word "working" might be mistaken for a participle describing "culture", which is not the intention.

But it is a very slight difference.

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  • But I've seen both being used to refer to the same thing. It's so puzzling to me. Taken from the Guardian: Working culture remains horribly gendered. The report that working full-time increases a mother’s stress hormones by up to 40% puts numbers on something...
    – rutuehurhu
    Commented Jun 15, 2019 at 4:22
  • I should have said, "In 'working culture' the word 'working' LOOKS LIKE a participle". You're right, rutuehurhu. I'll edit my answer when I've got a minute.
    – Old Brixtonian
    Commented Jun 15, 2019 at 10:41

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