Factors that determine the culture of any organization:

Values held by top management—top management through their orientation and values set the tone that prevails in the organization. For example a management that is antagonistic to competitors creates this atmosphere for its employees.

History of the organization—the way things have always been done in the organization determines to a great extent the things held in common by its members. For example the character of the founder of a company is maintained in the company through out the years.

Top management vision for the company—what top management feel about the future of the company permeates into the entire organization. If the CEO for instance has no faith in the future of the company a tone of hopelessness may prevail among employees.

Work Group

The nature of the immediate work group will affect one's perception of the quality of culture. Commitment refers to whether this group is just going through the routine motions of work. Sixteen people are just going through the motions, it is difficult for a particular individual to obtain high levels of output and satisfaction. Hinderance is concerned with the degree to which a great deal of busy work of doubtful value is given to the group. Morals and friendliness within the group are factors with which most readers are familiar.

Organizational Characteristics

The leadership style of the immediate supervisor will have a considerable effect on the culture of the group and vice versa. If the manager is always pursuing for output, this alters the environment. Trust refers to supervisory behaviour characterised by personally working hard and setting an example. Consideration is a leadership characteristic. Organizational characteristics may also affect the type of culture. Organizations vary on such attributes as size and complexity.

Large organizations tend toward higher degrees of specialization and greater impersonalization. Labour unions often find that large firms are easier to organise than smaller ones because smaller firms tend to be closer and have more informal relationships between employee and management. Complex organizations tend to employ a greater number of professionals and specialists which alters the general approach to solving problems.

Organizations also vary in the degree to which they write things down and attempt to program behaviour through rules, procedures and regulations (standardisation of processes).They can also be distinguished on the basis of the degree of decentralization of decision making authority, which affects the degree of autonomy and freedon of personnel within the organization.

Administrating Process

Corporate culture can be affected by administration processes. Firms that can develop a direct link between performance and rewards tend to create cultures conducive to achievement. Communication systems that are open and free flowing tend to promote participation and creative atmospheres. The general attitudes that exist toward the handling of risk and the tolerance of conflict will, in turn, have considerable impact on the type of team work affected. They also affect the amount of organizational innovation and creativity.

A strong and widely recognised culture is one of the factors that may contribute to the success of a company.

A company's predominant culture can be changed by various environmental factors e.g. competition, government action or social movement. For example the current issues of gender balance, environmental friendliness, economy deregulation, privatisation and even transparency and accountability may change the cultures of many companies here in Kenya.

Culture emerges from the actions of organization members and any attempt to change culture must focus on what people do. If a manager can get organizational members to behave differently then cultural change is possible. Culture gives organizational members a sense of how to behave and what they ought to be doing.

Organizational culture has an impact on the employee's degree of satisfaction with the job, as well as the level and quality of their performance. The assessment of how good or poor the organization's culture is may differ from employee to employee.