STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

ANA-MARIA CHIRANUS (NICULCEA)

MASTER OF ARTS IN CONFLICT AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT
2ND YEAR
30.11.2010
“Strategic planning” is a very complex term as many researchers and scholars have
had different views and conclusions on strategy. Each writer on planning has his own
definition. According to Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, “strategy is the direction
and scope of an organization over the long term which achieves advantage for the
organization through its configuration of resources within a changing environment, to
meet the needs of markets and fulfill stakeholder expectations”. George Steiner says
that strategic planning is “an attitude, a way of life” that needs dedication and
determination (as Ackoff says: “not to do it well is not a sin, but to settle for doing it
less than well is”). And these are only a few of them.
From my point of view strategic planning is a process. Like every process it consists
of a number of specific tasks that need to be accomplished to yield a final product. A
strategic planning begins with the creation of a common long-term vision for the
organization. Once the vision is established, the organization needs to look at its
external markets in order to identify opportunities and threats as well as to assess the
internal strengths and weaknesses. Then, a specific mission is created, in turn is
translated into goals and objectives. Additional, it has to be designed to fit the unique
characteristics of each organization.

Every organization has missions and goals and to attain them it adopts different
modes and methods of operation. All the members of an organization come to share
common values, beliefs, norms, attitudes and ways of doing things which are unique
to the organization. This is called organizational culture. The most widely-known
definition is that of Deal & Kennedy: “the way we do things around here”.
Schein provides a more comprehensive definition of culture as a social system based
on a central set of beliefs and values; a social system that is developed or learned as a
consequence of the organization’s efforts over time to cope with its environment. Its
success in coping leads the organization’s members to regard their ways of doing
things as the best way to cope with the environment in the future. Schein also says
that culture implies a level of structural stability in the group, being the deepest, often

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unconscious part of a group, influencing all aspects of how an organization “deals
with its primary task, its various environments, and its internal operations”.

Organizational culture has an important impact both on the process of planning and
on the final strategic plan. It can aid the strategic planning process and the strategic
planners themselves. A strong organizational culture is obviously a major strength of
a company, which means that employees involved in the process will actively
participate in the formulation of the mission of the organization, in the identification
of the strengths and weaknesses, in the formulation of realistic objectives and
strategies, and most importantly in the implementation of the strategies.
One cannot implement a strategy to produce a quality product or service unless a
quality-oriented organization culture is already present. For example, companies such
as Sony have supported strong quality culture that it can be seen in the quality of its
products.
Changing the organization culture can improve the organization’s ability to
implement new strategies and to perform better. Here are some examples of
companies benefiting from the positive effects of organizational culture: Wal-Mart
-founder Sam Walton’s concern and respect for staff from the foundation of the
company creates an environment of trust that persists to this day. Walton met staff,
calling them by their first name and encouraged change to maintain the competitive
edge. To this day, staff thinks about “how Sam would have done it”. Hewlett Packard
is another clear example of making internal culture a strategic issue in re-inventing
itself. Several years ago, problems encouraged HP to change its culture; staff are
required to formulate three personal and three professional goals each year, and are
encouraged to cheer those that meet them, such as getting away early to be with
family. Two years into the program, HP reports no loss in productivity despite staff
working shorter hours and there is an increased staff retention rate. The program has
been marked by the extent to which managers bought in, and modelled it in their
personal lives.

One should keep in mind that the organizational culture is very important for the
realization of strategic goals while the strategy determines what should be done to
achieve certain goals, the organizational culture influences how the strategy will be
implemented into plans and finally realized. Organizational culture and strategy are

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interdependent as Alain Fayolle says. And it can also be said that culture gives a
strong competitive advantage to a company, because competitors cannot copy it
easily.

Bibliography

• Deal E. Terrence, Kennedy A. Allan – “Corporate cultures: the rites and

rituals of corporate life”, Perseus Books, 2000
• Fayolle Alain – “Entrepreneurship research in Europe: outcomes and
perspectives”, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005
• Goodstein D. Leonard, Nolan M. Timothy, Pfeieffer W.J. – “Applied Strategic
Planning. How to develop a plan that really works”, McGraw Hill
Professional, 1993
• Johnson Gerry, Scholes Kevan, Whittington Richard – “Exploring Corporate
Strategy”, Pearson Education, 2008
• Schein H. Edgard – “Organizational Culture and leadership”, John Wiley and
Sons, 2004