Analyzing how an organization responds to incidents, including its communication with impacted parties and its approach to accountability, provides a direct and powerful insight into its organizational culture. Culture is defined by the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize an organization—often described as "the way we do things around here." An incident response under pressure reveals these underlying values in action, far more than any policy document. A transparent, empathetic, and responsible response indicates a positive and resilient culture, whereas a secretive or blame-oriented response suggests a dysfunctional one.

B. Business targets: These are specific, measurable objectives (e.g., financial goals). An incident response reflects values and behaviors, not the organization's predefined performance targets.

C. Business plan: This is a formal document outlining strategy and goals. The actual response to an incident demonstrates the organization's enacted culture, which may differ from its documented plans.

D. Structure: This refers to the formal hierarchy and reporting lines. While structure influences who responds, the manner of the response reflects the organization's character and values (culture), not its organizational chart.

1. Business Continuity Institute (BCI), "Good Practice Guidelines (GPG), 2018 Edition." In Professional Practice 2 (PP2): Embedding Business Continuity, Section 4.3, "Organizational Culture," it is stated that "An organization’s culture is a combination of the shared values, attitudes, and patterns of behaviour that give the organization its particular character." The analysis of past incident responses is a method to assess these actual patterns of behavior.

2. Pauchant, T. C., & Mitroff, I. I. (1992). Transforming the crisis-prone organization: Preventing individual, organizational, and environmental tragedies. Jossey-Bass. This foundational text on crisis management argues that an organization's culture is a primary determinant of how it will prepare for and respond to crises. Analyzing past responses is a key diagnostic for understanding this culture. (Chapter 3: "Diagnosing the Crisis-Prone Organization: The Search for Cultural and Unconscious Factors").

3. Smith, D., & Elliott, D. (2007). "Exploring the Attenuating Effect of Cognitive Biases on the Senior Management Team's Crisis Preparedness." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 15(4), 183-193. This article discusses how organizational culture and leadership attitudes (which are revealed during incident response) are critical factors in crisis management effectiveness, distinct from formal plans or structures. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2007.00523.x