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Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a firm's organizational culture affects the set of quality techniques it uses, and if these quality techniques affect the relationship between organizational culture and operational performance.Design/methodology/approach– Based on data collected from 250 firms in Brazil and Denmark, structural equation modeling is used to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and the use of quality techniques, and its impact on operational performance. Four quality technique groups, four cultural profiles adopted from the Competing Values Framework and a set of operational performance indicators are used to operationalize the study.Findings– Culture does not appear to be an unequivocal predictor of the use of quality techniques. Furthermore, while most quality technique groups contribute indirectly to the total effect on operational performance in the developmental, group and hierarchical cultures, the performance effects are insignificant for all four groups in the rational culture.Practical implications– Managers need to be actively aware of the cultural characteristics of their organization before adopting quality techniques, in order to benefit most from the use of these techniques.Originality/value– Most previous studies address the relationships between culture, quality management and performance at the level of quality practices. This study takes the unitarist-pluralist discussion to the level of quality techniques and extends that discussion to what should be its core, namely, the influence of quality techniques on the performance impact of culture.