This post is the eighth in a series about the various schools and models of making organizational strategy. It is excerpted from The Portable Guide to Leading Organizations, available now from LeaderLab Press.

Strategy is a collective process.

Contrasting the power school, which emphasizes negotiation and bargaining, the cultural school views strategy as an inevitable product of the culture of the organization. The process of developing strategy is collective and cooperative, but also heavily dependant upon the traditions and norms of the organization. If culture is about what differentiates an organization from other organizations, than culture’s influence will also be what makes the organization’s strategy unique. Strategy, in essence, represents the collective intentions of organizational members.

Included in the development of strategy is not just information about strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats, but also cultural beliefs, values and traditions. In practice, strategy formation is a social process and as such is subject to the same cultural awareness as other social interactions.