How to Build a Bridge Between Culture and Code?

Developing New Corporate Muscles for the Algorithmic Age

Every organization is made up of formal structures and rules. It also consists of a cultural system composed of values, norms, and symbols. Strategies will change. Technologies be renewed. Yet, culture remains the deepest structure. Culture determines how employees think, behave, and make decisions. Now, into this system steps a new player holding decision-making power: algorithms.

Artificial intelligence is establishing a regime that redefines everything. This includes the profile of the “ideal employee” and justice. It also changes ways of working and structures of authority.

A Silent Coup

One in four employees in Europe is exposed to decisions made by algorithms at work. This number is rising rapidly. But what is really changing is not just the decision-making mechanisms, but the decision-making culture itself.

Let’s take a simple example. In the past, who discovered a talented employee and how? A mentor, an experienced manager, informal networks… Human intuition, experience, judgment, empathy… Complex, not always healthy and fair, but ultimately a human process.

Now? Algorithms scan resumes, analyze predefined criteria, filter, and make decisions. Easy and fast. But is the result always right and sound?

Here’s the risk: If qualities that can’t be fully measured by algorithms—like creativity, empathy, character, and personal traits—slowly become invisible in systems, some concerns arise.

These concerns include the fate of those qualities. They become less valued. Can we afford to overlook them? What will happen? What will happen to those qualities? Will they be valued less? Can we afford to overlook them?

A Wave of Regulation is Coming

The EU’s AI Act, regulating artificial intelligence, has come into force. It will be fully implemented gradually by 2026. High-risk systems will need to guarantee transparency, human oversight, and prevention of discrimination.

Although the EU regulation is not binding for Türkiye, it will have serious economic and strategic consequences. Turkish companies offering AI-based products, services, or software to the EU market will need to follow this legislation. Compliance will effectively become mandatory.

In Türkiye, the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) is creating an integrated framework. This framework ensures AI applications develop on a legal, ethical, and technical foundation. It achieves this through its published guidelines.

This framework focuses on protecting personal data. It also aims to standardize principles like transparency, accountability, fairness, and social advantage. Nonetheless, these principles are now advisory and lack binding legal force.

For the corporate world, establishing ethical protocols voluntarily is crucial. Doing so before the regulatory wave rises will offer both preparedness and a competitive advantage.

If Culture Erodes, Then What?

If all these points are ignored, culture is not consciously protected, and a new corporate order is built under the dominance of algorithms, the next risks become inevitable:

• Value Erosion: The company loses its long-term values for the sake of short-term metrics. The slogan “We invest in people” turns into “We enhance human resources.”
• Trust Erosion: Employees can’t understand how decisions are made. The answer to “Why them and not me?” is buried deep in the algorithm. The perception of injustice becomes chronic.
• Loss of Identity: The company loses its unique spirit. “Human-centered” values evolve into “data-centered” values. Success becomes the measure of algorithmic performance, not human virtues.

The end of this process is a corporate zombie state. Maybe everything functions, the wheels turn, but the soul is gone.

New Corporate Muscles

At this point, the concept of ethical engineering comes to the forefront—coding human values into algorithmic systems. Not only asking “Is the algorithm working properly?” but also “What values does this algorithm show?” Combining technical design with ethical criteria. The basic practices are simple:

• Transparency: Build systems where algorithmic decision-making processes are open and transparent.
• Bias Auditing: Regularly scan for possible hidden biases in recruitment, performance evaluation, and promotion systems.
• Participatory Design: See employees not only as users but as design partners.
• Right to Appeal: Create fast, effective, and human-centered channels to challenge algorithmic decisions.

Conclusion: Designing Technology with Values

In my view, the real issue is deciding which values will guide technology. Neither fully surrendering to algorithms nor retreating in technophobic fear is right. The link between corporate culture and code must be consciously designed and built.

That is why today’s most strategic move is to design algorithms as systems. These systems encode the company’s values. They also shape the culture of the future.

Because tomorrow’s sustainable competitive advantage will not lie in which technology we use, but in which ethical compass guides it.