What does it mean that organizational context shapes individual behavior?

The structures and incentives of an organization determine individual action more than personality does.

Example: A conscientious, ethical employee joins a bank whose compensation structure rewards cross-selling eight products per customer. Within months, she's opening unauthorized accounts. She hasn't changed. The system selected the behavior. When Wells Fargo's incentive structure was finally dismantled, the fraud stopped — not because employees became more ethical, but because the system stopped rewarding the wrong thing.

Try this: Pick one behavior in your organization that frustrates you — missed deadlines, siloed communication, risk aversion, whatever recurs despite everyone agreeing it's a problem. Now answer: What does the system reward? What does it punish? What does it measure? Map the actual incentive structure, not the stated values. You'll almost certainly find the frustrating behavior is a rational response to the system as designed.