Strong and Weak Cultures

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From the course by Copenhagen Business School

Strategy Implementation

593 ratings

Copenhagen Business School

Strategy Implementation

593 ratings

Course 3 of 4 in the Specialization Strategic Management and Innovation

Even a thoroughly developed business strategy may fail if you don't pay enough attention to its implementation. This rings particularly true with strategies based on innovation or implemented in complex or fast-changing environments. In the 20th century successful implementation leveraged stability and typically proceeded through hierarchy and control. Today the key is to stay vibrant and able to quickly respond to trends in competition and technology while not losing sight of the strategic objective. In this course we'll build a toolbox of techniques to execute today's business strategies to help them succeed. After completing this course, you'll be able to: - Create objectives and goals to guide strategy implementation - Identify organizational structures that fit particular strategies - Understand how to leverage company culture in implementation - Describe how to communicate the strategy so that the organization "gets" it - Detect and mitigate risks to implementation

From the lesson

Leveraging Organizational Culture

Like structure, an organization's culture might be supportive or obstructive in implementation. In this module we define what culture is, learn how it can impact implementation, and explore when and how it can be changed.

Lesson 1 Intro0:38

What is Organizational Culture?4:52

Subcultures3:16

Strong and Weak Cultures3:59

Meet the Instructors

Nicolai Pogrebnyakov
Associate Professor
Department of International Economics and Management

Not only each organization has its own culture or cultures, but the fact of

the culture on how employees actually behave can be more or less pronounced.

We'll talk about strong and weak cultures.

A strong organizational culture is the one where employees agree with

the notions of what is valued and they feel strongly about these values.

If employees have intense feelings about a common set of values,

the whole organization is likely to behave in a particular way.

A weak culture is where there is no agreement on the values

espoused by the company, and employees do not adhere to them.

For example,

in the early 2000s many employees at the cable company Comcast were

dissatisfied with the company policies of outsourcing customer service calls.

And they couldn't do much about these policies.

These policies led to bad customer experiences, and

some employees even did not want to wear jackets with the company logo

in public in case they met Comcast customers.

What leads to a strong culture?

What determines whether the culture of a company is strong or weak?

It turns out that when it's clear which values and beliefs are more important and

which ones are less important, the culture is stronger.

Because in a situation when several of the organization's values might apply,

it's more clear which ones should be used.

Another factor that determines the strength of culture

is the number of employees and the number of locations of the company.

Generally, a company with fewer employees will have a stronger culture

because it's easier to maintain agreement about values when there are fewer people.

That's why startups often have strong cultures.

Employees who work there subscribe to company values and

are often recruited based on how well they fit into the culture.

The same logic applies to geographic spreading.

If a company has many locations in many geographic regions, it will,

generally speaking, likely to have a weaker culture.

Because it's much harder to spread agreement and

values among too many locations.

On the other hand, there are many examples of big or

geographically dispersed companies with strong culture.

For example, the clothing retailer Nordstrom is famous for

its exceptional customer service.

That service is made possible by a strong culture

that empowers its sales associates.

Nordstrom sums it up with a statement phrased,

use best judgment in all situations.

Strong leadership and

low turnover among employees can also lead to a stronger culture.

By now we should see the difference between strong and weak cultures and

what might cause the culture to be stronger or weaker.

But when we implement our strategy, do we need a strong or a weak culture?

Take a few moments, put this video on pause if necessary, and think about it.

Whether we would like a strong culture to implement our strategy depends on whether

the values and beliefs of that culture are consistent with our strategy.

If the company's values will not support implementation,

it might be better not to have a strong culture,

which you would need to struggle with during implementation.

Also, if your strategy involves flexibility, or

being able to quickly react to changes in the environment,

a very strong culture might actually not help.

Well these types of strategies need to keep some degree of inconsistency and

disagreement within the organizations.

As long as these disagreements do not grow into destructive and

counter productive battles.

And that means that you actually might want some employees

to deviate from dominant culture.

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