Dissecting a department of surgery: Exploring organizational culture and competency expectations

•Five surgical training programs within a department of surgery participated in a systematic process to defined their organizational culture and competency expectations for entering trainees.•Although perceptions of the organizational culture were similar regardless of subspecialty affiliation, desired and required competencies required to be a successful trainee in the program significantly differed by educational program.•Training programs seeking to optimize person-organization fit will benefit from defining and communicating both their organizational culture and competency expectations to potential applicants.