How can the study of strategy benefit from a broader cultural perspective?

What is strategy?

In simple terms, a strategy determines a plan of action that is designed for attaining short, medium, and long-term oriented goals (Anwar and Hasnu, 2016). It identifies the overall plan of a business that is designed to successfully reach out to the potential customer market for the designated product or service and also in order to transform the potential customers into more long-term ones. Many authors have brought forward varying definitions to explain the concept of strategy.

One of the earliest definitions of strategy has been recorded in the early 1950’s by Peter F. Drucker, who determined that strategy is an analysis of the current situation and making changes whenever the necessity arises (Blackburn, et al., 2013). Henry Mintzberg defined strategy as the addition of decisions implemented by a business in all aspects, including structural as much as commercial, with the strategy growing on par with the learning process of the organization’s manager.

In a more recent development in the year 1996, Alex Miller and Gregory Dess defined strategy as a set of decisions or plans that are made with the effort to aid businesses in achieving their ultimate objectives (Parnell, 2010). Despite the slight variances in the definitions available, all the definitions seem to determine the significant role that strategy plays in leading an organization towards success. The aim of this essay is to study the concept of strategy with the aim of determining how it may contribute to the broader perspective of culture. In doing so, a detailed analysis of the organizational strategy is carried out along with a study of organizational culture and the manner in which the organizational strategy contributes to the overall cultural perspective.

Subcategories of strategy

An organizational strategy is consisted of three sub categories namely corporate, business and functional level strategies (Anwar and Hasnu, 2016). While the corporate level strategy tends to highlight the critical purpose of an organization it also determines the destination towards which the business is effectively moving. Certain commonly incorporated corporate level strategies may include diversification, investigation, profit, concentration, liquidation and turnaround (Blackburn, et al., 2013). Most strategies which are corporate level tend to be increasingly broad in terms of complex, scope and ideally geared towards the achievement of organizational goals.

The business level strategy acts as the bridge between the corporate level strategy and the functional level strategy. Due to this factor the business level strategy tends to be increasingly focused upon the corporate level strategy that effectively drives this performance (Parnell, 2010). Rebranding, broadened exposure, increased marketing budget and investigation of new markets effectively identifies the decisions implemented by the business level strategy.

Functional/ operational level strategies are the specified actions and effective benchmarks that are assigned to departments and also individuals that direct the organization toward the goals that have been created at the corporate level of strategy (Yuliansyah, Gurd, and Mohamed, 2017). This type of strategy tend to be quite detailed and when the three levels of strategy are successfully combined a broad and generalized organizational strategy suited for the organization is successful derived. There are many theories and models in relation to the concept of strategy that have been studied over the years and several such theories are discussed within this essay.

Theories of Strategy

Porter’s Generic model introduced by Michael E. Porter determines the different types of strategies available for an organization to choose from (Anwar and Hasnu, 2016).

Porter’s generic model identifies four main types of strategies that an organization may choose for its long-term direction of operations, depending on the source of competitive advantage and competitive scope (Blackburn, et al., 2013).

Cost leadership – this is where an organization will opt to follow a strategy of cost leadership in ensuring its products or services reach its customers by offering the lowest price possible for organizations goods and services.

Cost focus – this strategy aims at gaining a competitive advantage by maintaining a close focus on a low cost yet narrowed customer market in order to attract the customers for the products and services under consideration (Berman and Hagan, 2006).

Differentiation leadership – using this strategy an organization attempts to remain unique within the industry by offering products and services that are varied from the current offering of the market (Stocker, et al., 2022). The differentiated products and services are offered to a broad customer market in order to be successful in making a profit.

Differentiation focus – in a differentiated focus strategy the focus of a business will be to offer an unique and differentiated product or service to a limited customer market in order to gain a competitive edge (Berman and Hagan, 2006).??

The Ansoff matrix identifies four main strategic options that an organization choose in order to expand its business operations.

The output that an organization derives from the Ansoff matrix offers a number of growth strategies that help determine the direction for the organization’s business strategy (Stocker, et al., 2022). The four main strategic options are determined as follows:

Market penetration – this determines the strategic direction of choosing to sell the existing products of an organization to its existing market of customers (Berman and Hagan, 2006).?

Market development – this strategic choice determines the growth of the business organization by selling the existing products to a completely new market. ??

Product development – this strategic choice determines the development of new products to an existing market and is likely to require development of new competencies as well (Yuliansyah, Gurd and Mohamed, 2017). This strategic is identified to be ideal for products where in order to remain competitive the product needs to be differentiated.

Diversification – this identifies the development of new products and services to a new market and this strategy helps in diversifying the overall portfolio risk of companies.

Bartlett and Ghoshal's global strategy determines four main sub categories that are applicable as strategies for implementation when operating businesses in more than one country (Stocker, et al., 2022).

International strategy – this strategy is used when similarities exist amongst markets and less gains from the integration globally.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Multi-domestic strategy – this strategy comes to play when sufficient variations exist amongst market demand and few benefits as a result of global integration (Joseph & Kibera, 2019).

Global strategy – this strategy becomes effective when significant economies of scale and also where market demand similarities.

Transnational strategy – the transnational strategy comes to play when pressure prevails to fulfill the local needs and benefits from integrating at a global level.

?Organizational culture ??

The organizational culture emphasizes on how a business entity tends to do business, handle employees and customers, etc. (Shahzad, et al., 2012). It involves a system that encompasses shared assumptions, values, beliefs, etc. that essentially govern the manner in which people within a given organization may choose to act or behave. In order to explore the extent to which the organization’s culture can benefit from the study of strategy, it is important to determine what is meant from an organizational culture (Svyantek & Bott, 2004).

A business’s or organization's internal atmosphere is known as its organizational culture. Organizational culture theories aim to describe the phenomena that affect people and their surroundings (Schneider, et al., 2016). It's common to refer to the conceptual analysis of organizational culture as a result of interest that is phenomenal. In addition to shared knowledgeably, intangible values, and underlying presumptions, the study of corporate culture also examines how culture affects the overall human behavior. Companies can improve the working conditions in which their employees operate by comprehending the phenomenon of the organizational culture (Dauber, et al., 2012).

The absence of conclusive information regarding diverse cultures makes it challenging to analyze organizational culture theories. Analysts frequently use historical hints to ascertain the development of corporate culture (Homburg & Pflesser, 2000). For instance, there were a lot of manufacturing- or production-oriented enterprises throughout the industrial era. Those businesses had a very differing organizational culture compared to those operating in the new age. Organizational cultural studies are also effective in revealing weaknesses in the existing culture phenomenon.

One of the various conceptions across organizations within public and private sectors is the shared knowledge ability of organization-related culture. So as to further a clear, well-defined mission, people in a firm frequently hire others who share their viewpoints (Svyantek & Bott, 2004). This enables the company or group to have a clear cultural focus. Theories of company culture frequently take into account various business mindsets, such as altruism, ethics, and financial success. Only when recruiting managers to fill the vacant positions the hiring younger individuals to replace more experienced ones do the shared traits change over time (Dauber, et al., 2012).

Values, presumptions, and norms are examples of intangible aspects of corporate culture (Schneider, et al., 2016). Depending upon the organization's objective, different organizational culture theories define these traits in various ways. Each nation, for instance, frequently has a cultural norm for society. Many internal cultures of organizations' are impacted by these standards, as are the people who work there (Shahzad, et al., 2012). In contrast to cultural conventions, changing a corporate culture can frequently be challenging less possible.

Comprehending organizational cultural theories also involves understanding how they impact human behavior (Svyantek & Bott, 2004). Most people nevertheless hold onto particular internal values and customs or ideas; it can be intuitive to examine how they behave in a workplace with a diametrically opposed culture. The impact on their conduct aids in defining the changes in both individuals and businesses when there are few opportunities for these people to locate a system with interchangeable corporate belief (Dauber, et al., 2012). This theoretical approach also includes a study of how people connect with each other outside of the context of the workplace.

Numerous articles on strategy, organizational behavior, business policy, and theory all mention the possibility that businesses may have unique cultures (Schneider, et al., 2016). Despite the lack of a sound theoretical foundation for the idea of organizational culture repeatedly bemoaned, nothing has effectively been done to integrate the pertinent ideas from cultural anthropology into the organizational and management area.

Most often than not organizational culture and its possible impact upon the organization is overlooked by many businesses but however, it must be noted that the culture plays a pivotal role in directing the future growth and development of the company (Shahzad, et al., 2012). Hoisting diverse perspectives on culture may help boost and inspire overall drive for innovation and creativity amongst employees in the lower levels of the business’s hierarchy.?

Strategy and Organizational Culture

Study of strategy within an organization is essentially directed and linked with the culture of the organization as well where the study of the strategy helps in determining cultural perspectives even better (Homburg & Pflesser, 2000). Having an insightful knowledge upon the nature and extent of the culture and its values that exist within the organization may make it easier for the development and implementation of strategy itself.

The intended, deliberate and realized strategy determines the manner in which the strategy development process of an organization may change during the phase of implementation without the prior knowledge on the part of employees, managers (Nelson & Gopalan, 2003). The intended strategy constitutes the strategy that the organization wishes to implement. These strategies tend to be detailed and explained within the strategic plan of an organization. The emergent strategy can be determined as an unplanned strategy that may arise as a response to the prevailing challenges and opportunities in the market (Wilson, 2001). Since the emergent strategy is unknown to the company it could also be a failure for the business such as in the case of FedEx in the 1980’s.

FedEx chose to deviate from its intended strategy in order to pursue an emerging technology (emerging strategy) that was facsimile (fax) machines (Wilson, 2001). FedEx developed a service named ZapMail that facilitated the ability for documents to be shared electronically with other parties using fax machines and the management of the company dwelled on the expectation of the service’s success since it helped reduce the time to deliver a document significantly (Homburg & Pflesser, 2000). Unfortunately for FedEx however, the ZapMail system faced large volumes of technical issues that annoyed customers and failed them. With FedEx having to shut down ZapMail permanently as a result of this the company suffered losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.

In studying the case of FedEx it is evident that the company had less understanding for the cultural context of the organization when this strategic decision took place (Pedersen & Dobbin, 2006). With ZapMail taking the priority of the company’s focus it must then be noted why that is so. With the emergent strategy being unpredictable the likelihood to obtain a clear understanding of the change would have been to have a sound understanding of the existing culture of the business (Nelson & Gopalan, 2003). With a comprehensive understanding of the prevailing culture within the organization it would have been easier for FedEx to analyze the best course of action to ensure that the emergent strategy is made successful in the market. The culture plays a vital role where without an understanding of it clearly it is difficult to manage (Wilson, 2001).?

One of the best examples of a strong relationships and adequate balance maintenance amongst strategy and cultural perspective is the performance of Apple technologies (S?rensen, 2002). With Apple being the one of the most valued brands in the world its founder Steve Jobs, continuously made efforts to ensure that a strong emphasis and balance was maintained between the culture of the organization and its link with overall organizational strategy. A rigidly innovative culture is known within the organizational culture of Apple even today despite the demise of Steve Jobs, who initially brought across such strategies for growth and development (Berthon, et al., 2001). With the culture of the organization determined concretely as such, the ability to design and initiate strategy in a manner that accommodates the cultural values, norms etc. of the company is high. With the knowledge of culture, the ability to divert the interests of the emergent and realized strategies on par with the cultural knowledge would have been high thereby ensuring that the right and the desired output is derived (Joseph & Kibera, 2019).

Further to this, with a sound understanding of the prevailing culture within the organization it is easier for the management to determine the manner in which they can improve the strategy by collaborating with the company’s culture and avoiding the need (Nelson & Gopalan, 2003).

Herzberg’s two-factor theory is one such strategy that can be implemented effectively in order to determine how to properly utilize the cultural background in existence to get the players to embrace and accept the change in relation to the strategy of the company (Pedersen & Dobbin, 2006). The Herzberg two-factor theory can be determined here where it is identified as motivational factors and hygiene factors both of which need to create a balance in ensuring the delivery of the products. This model can be determined in bringing about the desired culture of the management within the organization’s context (S?rensen, 2002). It is believed that the right balance between the two influencing factors of the model could help an organization adjust and accommodate themselves to motivational influence within the working environment.

With the motivating factors determining the existence of motivators to encourage employees to work harder, the ability to develop a culture constant motivation is higher. With motivation factors being found within the job itself it is therefore, necessary to ensure that these factors are not compromised for anything (Berthon, et al., 2001). In enhancing the motivating factors it is possible to incorporate a few mechanisms for facilitating the acknowledgement of achievements, the work of each individual, responsibility growth and also recognition for each employee’s contribution.

While the development of suitably attractive motivational factors being critical for developing the needed impact on the study of strategy, along with the motivational factors the hygiene factors too need to be taken into consideration (Joseph & Kibera, 2019). Any poor conditions of hygiene factors will lead to a loss in job satisfaction of employees which needs to be eliminated.

In doing so, Hygiene factors are found around the job rather than actually on the job, and in doing so businesses can maintain strong supervision, security while on premises, fair distribution of remuneration, healthy and safe working conditions, comprehensive company policies, etc. in facilitating strong hygiene position of the business (Berthon, et al., 2001).

With a strong balance between the hygiene and motivational factors a business is able to develop the culture needed as the basis of foundation for its ideal strategy in mind and the cultural background is likely to help in shaping the shifts and turns encountered in achieving the ultimate organizational strategy (S?rensen, 2002).

Conclusion

This essay was focused on critically analyzing the context “how can the study of strategy benefit from a broader cultural perspective?” In fulfilling this task initially the concept of strategy was designed and analyzed. Further, the categories of strategy were identified along with theories that support strategy within organizations.

The criticality of organizational culture was also discussed along with the criticality of theories surrounding the organizational culture of businesses. Additionally the relationship between the broader cultural perspective and strong strategic benefit was determined with a critical discussion on the same.

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