‘Cultural glue’ – employees often gather around the founding principles and values of

an organisation (e.g. IKEA).

Captured by culture – faced with changes in the environment, people may keep using
solutions within the existing culture.

Managing culture – culture change is difficult to manage Culture’s influence on strategy

Strategy First try to do tighter control, not working, develop new strategy or
reconstruct current strategy, not working, go to change culture.

National/Regional:countries different cultures may mean attitudes to work, authority,

equality, ethics and behaviours differ between countries/regions.

Legitimacy is concerned with meeting the expectations within an organisational field in

Cultural frames of reference

term s of ass umptions, behaviours and strategies.Strategies can be s haped by the need
for legitimacy in s everal ways: Regulation, Normative expectations , The recipe History and manager’s experience. Experience becomes embedded in behavior and
organisational field culture: it is a shared meaning system between people in the
A recipe is a set of assumptions, norms and routines held in common within an managers need to ‘stand apart’ from this.
same field which they interact frequenctly.
organisational field about the appropriate purposes and strategies of field members. Learning from the past. Will trends be repeated? How were problems dealt with in the
like doctors, nurses, pharmcists. past? Asking ‘what if’ questions.
Why history is important Innovation based on historic capabilities. Can managers adapt/transfer these to the
is likely to be about basic but fundamental assumptions about the organisation (e.g. current situation?
Policing is about ‘thief taking’).
History as a legitimisation – past success as evidence to support strategies.
informs what people in the organisation do.
The paradigm
influences how organisations respond to change. is where early events and decisions establish ‘policy paths’ that have lasting effects
on subsequent events and decisions

When conducting cultural analysis: Impact of Path Dependency:

The cultural web – can help build an understanding of a culture Building strategy around path-dependent capabilities that have been successful in the
past
Statements of cultural values – be aware that statements in company reports (e.g. Path dependency
values statements) can be misleading about the actual culture cultural analysis Path creation – selectively using what is relevant from the past to build future
strategies
Pulling it together – a cultural web can be detailed, it can be useful to summarise the
essence of a culture in a few brief statements. Management style may evolve from the early style adopted by the founder(s).

Chronological analysis
Strategic drift is the tendency for strategies to develop
incrementally on the basis of historical and cultural Cyclical influences

influences, but fail to keep pace with a changing Culture and Strategy Methods of historical analysis Key events and decisions
environment. Historical narratives

Incremental strategic change The Cultural Web Analysis is a model where the
Steady as you go – reluctance to accept that change may require moving away from organisational paradigm, convictions and assumptions
strategies that have been successful
Strategic Drift within an organisation are clarified by means of a coherent
Building on the familiar – uncertainty of change is met with a tendency to stick to the
familiar
whole of six elements.
Core rigidities – capabilities that are taken for granted and deeply embedded are Stories:: about hereos, villans, sucess and failrues that are talked about from
employee to another
tendency towards strategic drift
difficult to change

Relationships become shackles – organisations be reluctant to disturb relationships Power Structure::most powerful people within an organisation are deemed to have the
with customers, suppliers or the workforce most direct influence on the core assumptions and ideas within an organisation.

Lagged performance effects – the financial performance of the organisation may hold Symbols::he symbols are about recongisable expressions of the organisation, logo,
up initially (e.g. due to loyal customers or cost cutting) masking the need for change. car, dress code etc.

Power structures::hierarchical composition of the organisation and the relationship

As performance declines and the organisation becomes out of touch with its
environment, a period of flux may occur typified by:
Strategic change, but in no clear direction
Top management conflict and managerial changes
Internal disagreement on the ‘right’ strategies
Declining performance and morale
Customers becoming alienated.
between people from these various layers of the organisation.
cultural web Control systems::the way in which the organisation is being managed and controlled.
This includes the financial systems, the quality systems and rewards. How these
rewards are determined and how these are distributed within the organisation also
falls under control systems.
Rituals and routines::Rituals are the events of an organisation in which they
period of flux emphasise what is truly important to them and how they handle matters. Examples of
this are: Friday afternoon drinks, training courses, promotions and the recruitment and
selection policy of the organisation.
Routines that reveal much about the way employees interact with each other and
others both within and outside the organisation.

As performance continues to deteriorate the outcome is likely to be:

The organisation dies (e.g. goes bankrupt or into receivership)

The organisation is taken over (and perhaps radically changed by new owners) Transformational change or death
The organisation implements transformational change – multiple, rapid and
fundamental changes.