My take is that as long as your workers are above a certain threshold (as far as technical competency goes), a team with healthy culture will on average outperform a team with toxic culture - even though the latter may have members that are more technically proficient, than in the former team.

By toxic culture, I mean:

- Poor communication

- Abrasive or toxic personalities

- Bullying and harassment

etc.

I think that in most normal people, stressors like those can affect their performance. And I don't mean full-blown hazing rituals - even more subtle actions (poor communication, for example) can lower morale. More so if you feel that said poor communication is deliberate.