Nike Organizational Culture Strategy Essay

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Organisational culture is defined as a "consistent, observable pattern of behaviour in an organisation" (Watkins, 2013). The patterns of behaviour that define a culture are reinforced through the artefacts of culture, including slogans, imagery, written statements, posters, mission statements and vision statements. Culture is therefore reinforce directly by the organisation, which sends the message about the patterns of behaviour that define the organisation repeatedly, because repetition is critical to ensure that the message is received and implemented consistently. Hofstede (2015) argues that there are a number of different dimensions along which an organisation's culture can be understood: means-oriented versus goal-oriented, internally-driven vs. externally-driven, work discipline, open vs. closed system, degree of formality, employee-oriented vs. work-oriented and the degree to which an employee is expected to identify with the organisation. Some organisations have strong cultures, others have weak ones, but the best organisations have cultures that closely align with firm objectives. A good example of this is Nike.

The Nike Strategy

Nike works with a differentiated strategy. Its athletic apparel is not necessarily any better than other leading brands -- they often use the same suppliers -- but Nike seeks to position its brand as being superior. This is a key component of its advertising message, and is reinforced in the approach that the company takes to its athlete endorsements -- it aims for the best players of a given sport. Nike positions itself as a winner, an approach that has helped it when entering new markets where objectively it might have had disadvantage, such as soccer. Yet, Nike blends this with empowerment, a cultural attitude that everybody is able. As this is a company that seeks to win its business, Nike has developed a culture that blends hard work with a desire to win, a culture that drives its employees to work towards these objectives.

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The culture is unique, and there is a high level of buy-in, two essential components to an effective organisational culture.

Nike's Culture

The organisational culture at Nike is reinforced in a number of ways. First, the company seeks to foster a spirit of belonging among its employees. There are slogans that everybody ends up memorizing, and some such as "if you have a body, you're at athlete" are the sort of inclusive, empowering slogans that the company uses to make its products attractive to a broad audience. This part of the corporate culture is important, because to win an industry, Nike needs to be able to sell to a very broad market. Positivity is the only thing that you can sell to people with respect to their fitness -- people want to hear that whatever they are doing is good enough, and such reinforcement coupled with alignment to a top athlete creates very positive brand associations. So this element of Nike's culture directly supports its strategy.

Another element of the organisational culture at Nike is that it promotes its own history among its employees. There are icons, such as a Winnebago used for meetings, to represent what founder Phil Knight used to sell shoes out of, and the waffle iron destroyed by co-founder Bill Bowerman while attempting to produce rubber soles is a museum piece at company headquarters. There is an element of humility in these items, but they also serve to remind that from humble origins, the company arose into the dominant entity that it is today, and that happened with hard work (Nisen, 2013).

Nike also leverages its culture to drive innovation at the company. The culture is built around constant innovation and hunger, a drive to be the best. The….....

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