Organizational Culture and Context

Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that influences how people in groups behave in the formal and informal organizations. Because culture includes the informal organization, it provides context to understanding corporate operations in a way not fully explained by hierarchical charts and established policies. Culture research is distinguishable from ethical climate research, which examines the moral development of a work group by focusing on its members’ shared perceptions of organizational practices and procedures that have ethical content, as defined by the ethical theories of egoism, utilitarianism, and deontology.