ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS A STRATEGY

Abstract

This study establishes the relationship between organizational culture and organizational strategy. It also seeks to find out how a successful organization relies on its culture as a strategy to survive unstable economic conditions. In this paper, pragmatic articles on organizational culture and organizational strategy were exclusively reviewed. Authors of previous studies defined organizational culture as beliefs, assumptions and values of an organization while an organizational strategy is all about the actions an organization takes to achieve long-term goals. The literature explicitly confirmed that these two concepts are linked and had worked successfully for organizations. The review found that organizational strategy begins with a summary of the organization’s beliefs, norms and values, and that organizational culture and strategy are intertwined. The study further confirmed that organizational culture could be considered as an organizational strategy because both serve the same purpose. The outcome of the study shows that organizational culture in itself is a unique strategy for organizational development. The results suggest that an organization maintains its culture as a strategy to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors.

Keywords

• organizational culture
• organizational strategy
• leadership