There's a tacit expectation that you go out and drink with the team, blindly obey leadership, or you won't advance your career. What you must produce to advance is not clear and changes regularly while you are blamed for not meeting the new standards, which vary greatly from person to person.
It doesn't out feel from that perspective that it's about the client outcomes, it's about the egos in that environment. Also, most of the Local leadership is from one background, one country even, and it was often discussed that it felt like if one wasn't in that group then one wasn't fit to lead long term, if they can even get in.