Personal and cultural values affect decision making in a person's personal life because they define who the person is and how they will react to different situations. Different cultures often have vastly different value systems, such as the respect for elders in Eastern cultures, the faith-based beliefs of different religious groups such as Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus. These factors play a major role in the way people think and how they approach problems. In some cultures it is customary to seek the advice of elders in decision-making whereas in cultures such as America this is not necessarily so. In Saudi Arabia, a young man would never dream of approaching a young woman and asking her for a date, but this is quite acceptable in America.
At the corporation level, culture takes on a totally different meaning. There is a corporate 'culture' to which members of a company must belong to be able to work effectively in that company. This culture can be defined as a ômanifest pattern of behaviorö which describes patterns of cross individual behavioral consistency, or ôthe way things are done around hereö (Scholl, 2003). It defines the way in which people consistently perform tasks, solve problems, resolve conflicts, etc. Corporate culture can also be defined as ôa set of mechanisms creating cross individual behavioral consistency,ö meaning the informal values, norms and beliefs that control how individuals and groups in an organization interact.
Organizational culture controls behavior, encourages stability, and provides a source of identity (Scholl, 2003). However, it also causes formation of a barrier to change and improvement, diversity, cross-departmental and cross-organizational cooperation, and mergers and acquisitions. Because it is so pervasive, it also affects the decision making of all individuals in the corporation. Decisions must fit in with the corporate culture and therefore there are limits with...