Professional organizations may place educational or experience requirements on membership. Restricted membership organizations are communities of practice for experts. In businesses these experts, based on their knowledge, are designated for specific subjects. Other groups may be open to anyone who wants to learn. Culture is a combination of organizational history, shared experience, group expectations, unwritten or tacit rules, ethics, and social interactions that affect the behavior of everyone in the organization.
Culture is a complex social structure.
We simultaneously participate in many cultures such as family, local, religious, national, and organizational. One culture may permit an action, while another forbids it. In organizations culture can be conscientiously changed with a new rule from an executive. If culture has been placing barriers to sharing knowledge, the organization needs to take actions to create an atmosphere that is supportive and collaborative. Data is the smallest unit of measure.