This study aims to analyze how organizational culture can affect social sustainability indicators. Through an extensive review of the literature with a qualitative systems-based approach, multiple factors of organizational culture and social sustainability indicators are identified. Moreover, linkages and interdependencies among them in a complex system are generated from the data collected from 97 construction industry professionals. In total, five causal loop diagrams (CLDs) are developed in which the effect of organizational culture on social sustainability in the construction industry is illustrated. The result of a systematic analysis of content indicates the most impacting factors that incorporate the literature and industry scores. Among these factors, goal setting and teamwork orientation, respecting and caring for communities and impact assessment are most significant with scores of 0.124 and 0.126. Furthermore, to map the effect of organizational culture on social sustainability, the factors in CLD are prioritized because of their strength and speed of influence in the system. The results in CLDs highlight that respecting and caring for communities, impact assessment, awareness of social sustainability, and opportunity for skills development are the most crucial and mutually affecting factors among different loops impacted by organizational culture. Moreover, the identified CLDs indicate robust loops and resonant mechanisms which give information on different factors within the complex system and can assist decision-makers and top management to make robust strategies and policies for assessing the impact of organizational culture on social sustainability through their underlying interdependencies. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.