Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast - Essay Example

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast Student’s Name Institution Date Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast Culture eats strategy for breakfast is an argument made by Peter Drucker explaining how organisational culture influences strategy in a firm. Organisational culture has an influence on the way various processes in a firm are performed. Culture influences the manner in which workers in a firm perform their functions. A great organisational culture makes it possible for all stakeholders in a firm to unite and perform various duties as outlined in its strategy. However, a weak culture has a negative impact on performance because employees are not likely to be interested in taking the initiative to improve their own performance. This paper will discuss critically the claim that culture eats strategy for breakfast focusing on various viewpoints advanced by various published sources. Some authors have argued that for an organisation to have a winning culture, it needs to have competent employees who go out of their way to attain positive results. As a result, a firm that has competent employees is likely to transfer a philosophy of competitiveness to them. A firm needs to make its employees understand its mission to make them realise how different it is compared to other firms in the industry. This makes it possible for a firm to impart crucial values which make employees more motivated to achieve specific points as outlined in its vision. As a result, employees are able to achieve different aspects of a firm’s strategy easily. Employees are also able to internalise the way their firm executes its functions in the industry (Ahmadi, Salamzadeh, Daraei & Akbari 2012). Organisational culture helps an employee to understand the business situation the firm is in and how it intends to improve its operations to strengthen its position in the market. As a result, an employee is able to understand both internal and external conditions that have an impact on the firm’s performance in the industry. He becomes aware of specific actions he needs to take to ensure the firm he works for maintains its competitive edge in the market (Lau & Ngo 2004). Therefore, it is necessary for an employee to have a strong sense of responsibility to enable him understand the strategy his firm is intends to achieve in the industry. Organisational culture makes an employee understand his responsibilities to ensure his firm achieves its objectives in the industry. Organisational culture makes all employees understand various norms, practices and routines which are followed at the workplace. All these activities give the firm an identity in the industry it operates in because they help to differentiate a firm from other firms operating in the same industry. As a result, a firm is able to define its position in the industry in comparison to that of its competitors. Therefore, managers are able to understand what improvements need to be made to improve a firm’s competitiveness in the industry. This makes them more oriented to the firm’s processes and they are able to identify various problems that make a firm fail to achieve its full potential. Hatch and Zilber (2011) reveal that culture makes workers to use their instincts to make various assumptions at the workplace to enable them attain set targets at the workplace. Culture is a net result of values and vision which are practised in a firm. Therefore, culture enables a firm to achieve its vision by taking various decisive actions meant to strengthen its position in a particular industry. The internal behaviour of leaders and their subordinates determines whether a firm is on the right path to achieve its strategy in the market. Good leaders show other employees they are committed to important values which are observed in the firm. They also demonstrate that they are willing to abide by them as the firm works hard to achieve its vision in the industry it operates in. As a result, the firm is able to move in a positive direction which enables it strengthen its brand value in the industry. It also solidifies its own reputation in the industry making its customers more loyal to its products (Dodek,‎ Cahill‎ & Heyland 2010). Cultural influences also determine other important aspects of a firm’s existence. It sets the right foundation for implementing a firm’s strategy in the market. As a result, a firm is able to orient its processes to make all employees aware of what is expected of them at the workplace. Lund (2003) argues that cultural practices in a firm create perfect conditions for a firm to make necessary changes to its strategy to ensure they conform to various trends in the market. As a result, a firm is able to take decisive measures to help it restore its competitive advantage or increase its market share in specific markets it serves. All employees in the firm are able to share in the new strategy because they understand that both internal and external improvements have a positive impact on its performance in the industry. Effective leadership in a firm determines the direction a firm takes. As a result, leaders and their subordinates should understand the specific direction the firm needs to take and how this relates to its long term vision in the industry it operates in. This makes all stakeholders in the organisation realise specific sacrifices that need to be made to ensure the firm does not deviate from its goals and objectives. An essential component of strategy needs to have a positive influence on the behaviour of all employees to make them prepared to take risks to ensure the firm achieves its goals (Obenchain & Johnson 2004). For strategic changes to succeed, they need to be backed up by similar changes in organisational behaviour to ensure all stakeholders make sacrifices to ensure the firm attains positive performance in the industry. A firm that has instituted a culture of learning in its workforce is able to come up with innovative products and services targeting various consumer segments. A learning culture is a constant improvement process that makes all employees understand that they need to work harder to achieve a higher level of excellence. A workforce that appreciates learning is able to execute its functions more effectively, which enables a firm to accomplish its strategic objectives in the industry. A learning culture encourages workers to share ideas by collaborating on various work tasks to register positive results (Fay‎ & Denison 2003). This makes all stakeholders to determine whether the strategy chosen by the firm is realistic after a careful analysis of various conditions in the market has been done. All workers are able to know specific changes that need to be made to products and services a firm sells to make them more suited to customer needs and expectations. It takes a long time to change the culture of any organisation. Therefore, the management of a firm needs to take time to find out how a new strategic shift is likely to have a long term effect on different internal practices. It is necessary for leaders to find out specific internal processes that are not working properly and specific actions that need to be taken to boost efficiency. However, before any strategic changes are made, collective attitudes of all workers need to be assessed to find out how they affect their performance in a firm. Many employees are likely to be against any change that is likely to challenge them to adopt new working practices (Igo & Skitmore 2006). As a result, leaders need to communicate to all employees in a firm to make them aware of its expectations in the industry and the contributions they need to make to ensure such expectations are realised. For a strategy to be effective, it has to be communicated effectively to all stakeholders to make them understand why it is important. Igo and Skitmore (2006) argue that the purpose behind a strategy needs to come out clearly to motivate all stakeholders to put in more efforts to achieve it. For employees to accept a new strategy, they need to see an incentive behind it that promises to improve their current situation to a better one. Employees need to sustain positive performance and results to enable a firm achieve its vision in the industry it operates in. As a result, employees are able to learn that if they distinguish themselves from their workmates, their talents are likely to be noticed by their superiors and they are likely to be considered for career advancement opportunities. This makes them more committed to a firm’s strategy in the industry. They share in its success and failures because they feel that they are part of the organisation. In conclusion, Peter Drucker’s analogy about culture being more important than strategy is relevant to modern business practices. It sums up the reasons why culture affects the manner in which a firm conducts itself in the market and other important processes which a firm is involved in. However, strategy makes all stakeholders in a firm have focus on the direction they want the firm to take in the industry it operates to make it stand out. Both culture and strategy determine the destiny of a business firm in the industry it operates in. 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