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In his book Corporate Cults, for example, author David Arnott identifies as cult-like and human-unfriendly some of the same organizations defined as visionary by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their oft-quoted book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. The question, it would seem after reading these and other conflicting positions, is, "Successful perhaps, but how, and at what?"

In their book, The New Corporate Cultures, authors Allan Kennedy and Terry Deal highlight the decimation of such cultures during two decades of massive downsizings, mergers and acquisitions. These authors and others say this corporate blood-letting is akin to ripping out the heart, and some would say soul, of business.

Others, like author and economist David Korten, who penned When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World, suggest that a business is a legal entity that itself has no heart or soul but, in a rabidly pro-investor world, consumes the heart and soul of its people. The problem, they might say, is one of ethics, accountability and human scale. To me, the two seem inseparable; a corporation is certainly a legal entity, but the decisions are made by human beings who, perhaps so consumed by the needs of the entity begin thinking legalistically instead of humanistically. Such decisions, and the day-to-day behavior they inform, help to shape an organization's culture.

And, of course, one of the most compelling looks in recent years at corporate culture can be found in The Corporation, a documentary film based on the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, authored by Joel Bakan.

These works outline the characteristics that define a person as a psychopath, and then apply those standards to the typical large corporation. Why? Because under the law, the corporation has the same rights as a person, so the author and filmmakers ask: If the corporation is a person, what kind of person is it? The answer, very compellingly presented, is: a psychopath.

To be sure, organizational culture is a vaporous yet pervasive concept, tough to get your arms around yet a key element in any type of organizational transformation or growth. It remains a hot topic in leadership and management circles, yet is no more honored or understood despite abundant discussion on the subject.

As most of us know, trying to change an established or entrenched culture is vexing even for the hardiest and most skilled change agents, particularly if they don't challenge the beliefs and systems that created the now-undesirable culture in the first place (many of which stay in place following a merger or reorganization, making culture transformation nearly impossible in these cases). So what’s the deal?

As with many overly-mystified and guru-ized subjects, a good place to begin is with the basics, within your own organization. Every organization, every group of people, has a culture, whether that culture is recognized and articulated or not. And that culture will help define how the group behaves, who fits within it, what it excels at and what it doesn’t do well at all — one of the reasons organizational change initiatives, mergers and the like are much more challenging, and expensive, than one expects.

The trick for your organization is to know what the actual culture is — really — and assess whether or not that culture is compatible with your vision, mission and strategic plan. Because the culture was appropriate to get you where you are does not mean it's appropriate for where you want to be tomorrow. Knowing your reality will help you to determine the best next steps.