Unpacking Culture: Helping Leaders and Organisations Look Beyond the Buzzword

By Sarah Clarke. 

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is quoted so often that it has become iconic. However, it risks becoming ironic when, like many elements of an organisation’s culture, the quote has taken on a folklore of its own.  

Routinely attributed to Peter Drucker, research suggests the phrase was coined by management theorist Edgar Schein, who used it informally in the context of culture’s influence on organisational effectiveness. Like many traditions, stories and ‘ways we do things around here’, this phrase has taken on a life of its own, becoming a polished maxim and strategic doctrine.  

Yet, whether culture does (or does not) eat strategy for breakfast, we need to unpack what we are really talking about. Because culture is currently one of the most frequently used – and least clearly understood – words in organisational life today. 

Watch Sarah's ABP Speaker Session on this subject here.

The Emergence of “Culture” 

Thirty years ago, culture was a word mainly used in MBAs and by academics. In the boardroom, it was unlikely anyone would say ‘we need to work on our culture’. Indirect comments, about rules, policies and whether a new recruit could ‘handle it here’ or ‘will they fit in with us’ were probably the closest leaders got to the term. Yet, people still felt the culture in their organisations; it wasn’t that it didn’t exist just because it wasn’t labelled at the time.   

Today, the word culture is everywhere: in boardrooms, leadership offsites, employer branding, annual reports, and media commentary. But what do we really mean when we talk about culture? How can organisations manage culture? How is culture lived and experienced in practice? How do we, as Business Psychologists, ensure it adds value to individuals, teams, organisations and society?

The biggest risk, for the 2.5 billion people who are working, is that organisational culture gets reduced to yet another management buzzword.  

When Language Becomes a Buzzword 

The term buzzword originated from research at Harvard Business School, where students found that using fashionable terminology could result in higher grades (Halgren & Weiss, 1946). Today, a buzzword is defined as “a slogan or fashionable piece of jargon”. This shorthand can carry both positive and negative connotations in business (Cluley, 2013). 

Culture sits uncomfortably in this space. 

On the one hand, leaders recognise that culture matters. On the other, it is often spoken about in vague, abstract terms. Managers and employees speak of culture as something to be described rather than designed, measured, or led. This ambiguity is part of the problem because how can culture be a competitive advantage when it is elusive, multi-dimensional, and so difficult to define? 

Stop and think – how would you define culture?

How would you describe the culture in your organisation? Take a moment – set a timer for two minutes – and see what you can come up with when you really think about it.  

So What Is Culture, Really? 

This challenge is not new.  

Over 70 years ago, Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) identified more than 140 definitions of culture. Since then, it is safe to assume that the number has grown. ChatGPT politely summarised it as “a lot” when telling us the number of current definitions being used in January 2026. 

Focusing on work and the Business Psychology lens, one of the most widely cited definitions comes from Edgar Schein (1985), who described culture as: 

“A pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel.” 

This definition is powerful because it moves culture away from slogans and towards learned behaviour. Organisational culture is not what leaders say matters, it is what the organisation has learned, over time, actually works. For this reason, culture needs to be defined in specific terms of ‘how we do things around here’. Not because of folklore or stories, but reality.