Managing Strategy-Culture Dichotomies in South African Municipalities: A Payment Culture Perspective

Local municipalities in South Africa have been struggling to enhance a payment culture for municipal services. Despite their endeavours to do so, consumer debts still intensify to an unbearable extent. This study investigated how to manage strategy-culture dichotomies to enhance a payment culture for municipal services. Secondary data were gathered from several sources, such as journal articles, books, blogs, magazines, and local municipal reports. A systematic literature review was done to examine the effective measures needed to manage the strategy-culture dichotomies in effect to change and handle peoples’ culture and psychology in the payment for municipal services. The meaning of culture and its impact on the implementation of the organisational strategy were identified. Concerning the intensifying consumer debt accruals, the study upholds that strategic leaders should understand the cultural imperatives of the people before making and implementing strategies. The study further recommends that municipal employees identify characteristics of present culture and specify actions to implement a strategy. More so, strategic leaders should always scrutinise their workforce, analyse their systems, improve their communication options, and collaborate with stakeholders. This study asserts that the intensifying consumer debts amidst varying cultural imperatives could be stemmed by reconciling strategy-culture dichotomies.


INTRODUCTION
The payment culture for municipal services could be enhanced if the strategy-culture dichotomies are resolved by the strategic leaders in the local municipal context. Consumer debts continue to intensify due to the inability of municipal workers to mobilise all debts from residents who consume such services (Enwereji and Portgeiter, 2018). Khale (2015) opines that payment default has been a worrisome issue in South African local municipalities, as some service consumers have imbibed the culture of nonpayment. The Republic of South Africa (2019) highlighted that the consumer debts in the two hundred and fifty-seven (257) local municipalities of South Africa amount to over R160 billion. This invariably cripples the performance of each local municipality in their intentions to foster economic development motive, as well as service provision bid. It is also believed that municipalities have been unable to improve the payment culture of residents due to negligence in understanding the culture of residents towards payment for services. Rose (2017) upholds that culture refers to the beliefs, norms, values, and the totality of social heritage, which people in the same geographical location share. In the view of Isac and Remes (2018), culture epitomises a powerful force, shaping people's attitudes, characters and actions, thus affecting individuals' willingness to engage in a venture. Culture can also represent "a common mental machine" which serves as a source and representation of group differentiation and diversity (Gill, 2013). to achieve a goal. Technologies, markets, preferences, fashions, and people change over time, and organisations are forced to put together their resources and skills to ensure they have controls designed to achieve their various goals. In Rothaermel's (2013) and Joyce's (2017) views, a strategy is seen as an organisation's operational attempt to achieve a competitive advantage in the external environment. It is seen as a theory of management that distillates how to succeed and guides an organisation in how to achieve its defined goals. The success of an organisation, as Rothaermel (2013) affirms, is not by copying a similar rival, but the willingness of the management to diversify activities to ensure innovation. In this regard, organisational strategy requires excellent plans on how to succeed in the business environment, and this entails effective systems and change management (Joyce, 2017).
Cultural imperatives set the foundation upon which organisational strategies are implemented. Effective implementation of organisational strategies therefore depends on its alignment with norms, beliefs, and values of the people. Barnat (2016) argues that organisations need to consider sheer cultural practises before the implementation of strategy, as culture determines the nature of strategy implementation. This study aims to examine the effective measures needed by municipal employees to manage the strategyculture dichotomies in effect to change and handle peoples' culture and psychology in the payment for municipal services. This is in an attempt to enhance the payment culture for municipal services to achieve equitable service delivery, as constitutionally stipulated.

THE STAKEHOLDER MODEL
This study adopted the stakeholder model as its theoretical background. Grant and Osanloo (2014) affirm that a theoretical background refers to the fundamental philosophies of research in which essential beliefs are developed about the essence of knowledge. A theoretical framework supports and directs a study through the provision of a structure and explanation of how a study is structured philosophically and methodologically. In the view of Rothaermel (2013), stakeholders are groups of individuals who are affected by or can affect the accomplishment of organisational goals. The stakeholder approach is concerned with understanding the concerns of employees, communities, societies, and other stakeholders to propose attainable objectives within both the internal and external environments (Freeman, 2010;Rothaermel, 2013). The implementation of strategy, according to the stakeholder model, requires organisations to consider, or to give priority to, a particular group of people who have relationships with the organisation. Organisations (municipalities in this case) need to understand the needs regarding both the internal and external environments before implementing strategies.
The studies of Freeman (2010) and Rothaermel (2013) avers that the stakeholder model can be applied to employees to ensure organisational effectiveness. These strategies could include tangible and intangible benefits, for example, an increment in salary, fringe benefits, and motivational approaches to enhance good working conditions and effectiveness. Concerning the customers, implementation of strategies such as product improvements and price reductions falls into this category. In the case of municipalities, residents are the target audience, and strategies such as the provision of adequate services should be the main focus or objective of municipal role-players. The stakeholder model further posits that communities should be given reasonable consideration, such as the provision of employment opportunities, improving the lives of the citizenry, and economic development. Municipalities should focus on improving the quality of service delivery to members of communities to motivate them to pay for services rendered. Regarding society, organisations are required to consider the existing culture in society by formulating or implementing development-friendly policies to enhance the living standards of the people.
In the views of Freeman (2010) and Rothaermel (2013), the stakeholder approach is regarded as an outward-friendly approach, as it tends to specify the direction in which the ideas and needs of all stakeholder groups are given attention. In this approach, employees and others find the procedure exceptionally easy to understand within the context of the internal and external environment. In the case of municipalities, role-players should be able to consider residents, the strengths of their staff, the civil society, suppliers, and government during policy formulation to enhance the payment culture for municipal services.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review of this study is focused on the meaning of culture, elements of cultural change, the meaning of strategy, and the roles of strategy in organisational success.

The Meaning of Culture
Culture originated from the Latin word "cultura" meaning to "cultivate" which portrays the nurturing of human character. Subsequently, culture (cultura) may further portray attempts to educate or refine people's behaviour. One of the early definitions of culture depicts that it is a complex transferrable standard, ideas, and other arrangements responsible for shaping human actions over time (Lebron, 2013). Culture is simply a mutual mental software involving shared social norms that differentiate one group of people from another. The word "culture" may be considered as acceptable standard ways of life by which a particular set of people live. Gill (2013), upholds that people partake in cultural practices in their domain despite how simple it may be. In the view of Heskett (2011), culture may be regarded as various facets of life, which may include traditional behaviours and attitudes, what citizens do, or how they reason and feel. Different communities may have different cultures but can collaborate and exchange habits or ideas with each other. While cultural features are shared by groups and from family to a larger space, anthropologists have historically been concerned with the cultural characteristics of societies (Cole, 2019). Many anthropologists describe society as people inhabiting a given place, who speak the same dialect that other people do not necessarily understand.
Most anthropologists understood that culture is not a jumble of disparate attitudes and ideas that are mostly blended into a society (Idang, 2015). For psychological reasons, cultural heritage could appear to be integrated as a set of beliefs embodied in individuals' minds. This means that people prefer to change attitudes or actions that do not cognitively or conceptually adhere to certain knowledge (Kanies, 2018). Societies aren't expected to be completely integrated, just as we don't expect people to be completely coherent. Yet, if there is a propensity toward cognitive continuity in humans, there is an assumption that some elements of culture will continue to be incorporated. In sociological disciplines, culture is a significant conception because it plays a critical part in people's lives. Besides shaping social relationships, culture enhances the preservation of social order and shapes daily behaviour in society (Idang, 2015). Theorists posit that culture plays an important role in society, as it provides a tool for domination and supremacy, and also serves as a catalyst for oppression, rebellion, and emancipation (Gill, 2013). Culture is a profoundly significant part of social life and without it, there would be no partnership and understanding in society (Gill, 2013). Table 1 presents the different definitions of culture.
The definitions as provided in Table 1 depict that culture involves three important aspects, such as mental models, artefacts, and set of behaviours. Culture as a mental model refers to information, values, and procedures that help community members cope with the environment. Gill (2013) opines that such models represent what is thought to be correct and may be exchanged for their utility. These models may include reasoning systems, such as arithmetic and logic that facilitate further manipulation and extension of models. Culture as an artefact depicts cultural representations that occur in the real world, such as languages, images, literature, instruments, technology, traditional beliefs, icons, etc. (Gill, 2013). Such cultural objects serve the purpose of interacting and reaffirming mental models and expectations that are the fundamental belief and behaviour of a particular group of people. Culture as a set of behaviour involves traditional patterns of thinking, actions, and artefacts which are transmitted from generation to generation (Gill, 2013). Culture does not depict measurable behaviour, but principles and ideals people use to perceive interactions and these are expressed in their behaviour.

Elements of Cultural Change
Theorists in the field of sociology, such as Brent and Lewis (2014), affirm that culture is subject to change through invention, diffusion, and acculturation. Invention can be a source of cultural change in any society, but when innovations are not applied efficiently, it would result in no change in society (Brent and Lewis, 2014). A change can only occur when societies embrace innovations and apply them continuously. Discoveries can bring about change in culture and these may include objects, computers, communication systems, ideologies, democracy, etc. Gill (2013) affirms that discoveries may depict addition to information and innovations, which represent breakthroughs in further knowledge. Perhaps, innovation or discoveries could enhance change if it is consciously communicated to society. Municipalities (in this case) should always depend on inventions and discoveries to ensure that the cultures of the citizens could be changed to enhance their payment culture.
Societies can adopt the models of other societies, which can serve as new cultural elements within the society. Change through dispersion or diffusion is viewed as a mechanism by which cultural imperatives are borrowed from other societies and introduced into the recipient society to enhance change (Brent and Lewis, 2014). The art of borrowing change often helps societies to skip failures in the process of development. Brent and Lewis (2014) further uphold that change through dispersion can occur through direct contact, intermediate contact, and stimulus contact. Concerning direct contact, cultures of neighbouring communities are adopted and applied in a gradual process, which consequently spreads into mainstream society. In intermediate contact, diffusion is facilitated through third parties or agencies to change cultures. Lastly, stimulus diffusion occurs when knowledge belonging to another society sprawls up the invention of new knowledge in another society. Change through dispersion should be encouraged by municipal workers by adopting models from top-performing municipalities of the world, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States in handling the payment culture of the residents. Brent and Lewis (2014) further point out that change can occur when diverse societies meet, and this is known as acculturation. This is similar to diffusion, but in this case, the word acculturation is used to explain to the change of culture where a stronger society changes the ideologies of weaker countries. In the sense of superordinate relations between cultures, acculturation can be viewed as a phase of comprehensive cultural borrowing. Borrowing Culture refers to a system of shared cognitions, such as symbols and meanings Smircich (1983) Culture is a form of simple conventions embodied by a group of individuals to cope with its problems, and this has to be imparted to all individuals as the truest means of resolving issues Schein (1984) 3. Culture entails a series of meanings comprising beliefs, arts, ritual engagements, ceremonies, and informal cultural practices such as histories, dialects, stories, rights, and accepted rituals Swindler (1986) 4. Culture is a set of cognitions shared by members of a social unit O'Reilly et al., (1991)

5.
Culture refers to the embodiment of people's qualities which are subject to social control Axelrod (1997) 6.
Culture is a common belief structure (depicting what is essential) and prospects (describing right attitudes and behaviours) Chatman and Cha (2003) 7. Culture is the customary beliefs conveyed equally unchanged by national, religious, and social classes from generation to generation Guiso et al., (2006) 8. Culture is reflective of people's practices, it makes leadership weaker or stronger and drives engagement.
Culture refers to how people individually behave in alignment with social norms Kanies (2018) 10.
Culture refers to large and diverse intangible aspects of social life accepted by a group of people living in a geographical area Cole (2019) Source: Adapted from Gill (2013) occurs either way, but the lesser country usually borrows more from a stronger country. Change through acculturation can occur through external pressure, and this can assume direct and indirect forms. In direct form, the dominant society employs force or threat to change the culture, while dominance is used to conquer a weaker country in an indirect acculturation.

The Meaning of Strategy
Strategy is derived from the Greek word "strategia," which depicts "generaliship." The word "strategy" was used by the Greek military when referring to the measures to deploy troops for action in the quest to conquer enemies (Nickols, 2016). Strategies provide direction, distribute capital most operatively, and organise decisions taken by various individuals (Hitt et al., 2017). Some organisational policies, principles, and ideas have their precedents in the military strategy. Little et al. (2016) confirm that strategy refers to the overall resource management measures for achieving a competitive advantage. In the view of Ritson (2011), strategy is a plan and pattern that represent a bridge between organisational policies and tactics. As a management tool, strategy denotes a network of complex words, such as ideas, perspectives, experiences, knowledge, views, and prospects that guide managers in their endeavours to achieve expected goals (Hamadamin and Atan, 2019).
In another view, Little et al. (2016) posit that organisational strategy can be viewed as a broad set of rules and procedures for decision-making that determines the scope and path of growth for organisations. Joyce (2017) affirms that strategy involves organisational directional decisions, actions, or steps to achieve goals. The strategy assumes some fundamental underpinnings such as: Who are we? What are we doing? What kind of organisation are we? What kind of success do we want to achieve? How do we achieve it? -A strategy is all about the means to achieve an end (Mainardes et al., 2014). Supporting this view, Keevy and Perumal (2014) state that strategy depicts how organisations accomplish goals, but not what those goals should be, or how they're set. A strategy consists of four important segments, which include goals to attain, the steps to attain the goals, measures of distributing resources, and the resources available to the organisation (Ritson, 2011). The top management has to ensure that the ends of the enterprise are clear to the employees and that these ends are legal to support in actualising the visions of the organisation. Strategy can also be defined as a plan, pattern, position, vision, and direction, which evolves as goals in a changing environment (Mainardes et al., 2014). Therefore, describing a strategy requires looking at a structure that directs an organisation to achieve set objectives.

The Roles of Strategy in Organisational Success
Strategy plays an important role in actualising the objectives of the organisation, and Ritson (2011) affirms that the roles of strategy in the organisation include decision a support mechanism, coordinating device, target tool, positioning, and a linking tool. These factors, as proposed by Ritson (2011), Kishore (2012), and Tapera (2014) are expounded upon in the subsequent delineation: A strategy is a tool that brings continuity to organisational decisions. Apart from helping to simplify decision-making by limiting the number of alternative decisions (Tapera, 2014), it serves as a heuristic approach that eases the search needed to find an appropriate resolution to a problem (Kishore, 2012). A strategy allows organisations to pool and incorporate the expertise experiences of different individuals to achieve an objective. Generally, the concept of strategy helps the organisation to promote the use of analytical tools to access the future to mobilise countermeasures to achieve goals (Joyce, 2017). It synchronises the activities of various members of the organisation, and this remains a crucial task of management (Hills et al., 2017).
In this regard, a strategy is needed to coordinate activities as it facilitates teamwork in achieving the visions of the organisation (Nickols, 2016). Strategy as a tool for contact helps management to communicate the organisation's priorities, thus positioning all members of the organisation. It is believed that communication is not adequate to synchronise organisational members in different groups, but strategy gives direction and enhances effective collaboration (Kishore, 2012). The formulation of organisational strategy provides a platform for organisational members to share views, build consensus, and formulate frameworks that are tracked over time to guarantee that success is achieved in a clear direction.
According to Tapera (2014), strategy is not only concerned with the survival of the organisation, but the future of the organisation in terms of profitability or service positioning The main goal of strategy as a future approach is to set a course for organisational growth, and to propose goals that can stimulate and encourage the employees of the organisation (Keevy and Perumal, 2014).
Organisations map out strategies to draw plans and to close the gap between resources and targets, thus encouraging management to gain a competitive advantage. Strategy as a targeting tool creates opportunities for organisations to identify their goals by accessing the future and aligning measures to actualise their goals (Tapera, 2014). Organisations adopt strategy because it serves as a positioning tool to actualise goals (Kishore, 2012). Management communicates its strategy to its employees to position them on the right path to achieve their objectives. It can be considered as a roadmap, thus obtaining this roadmap allows strategic leaders to walk in a familiar bearing or walk together to achieve the missions of the organisation (Ritson, 2011). The most critical function of strategy is perhaps to motivate, organise, mobilise, inspire, and enhance collaboration to gain emphasis or direction, even if plans are not right (Little et al., 2016). Working with strategy enhances success and positions the organisation to uphold its direction.
Finally, a strategy serves as a link between the organisation and the environment (Tapera, 2014). The organisation encompasses three essential elements such as goals, resources, and structure, while the environment comprises the understanding of the customers' preferences, the need of the suppliers, and the direction of the close competitors (Ritson, 2011). To enhance efficiency in organisations, measures should be put in place to make it compatible with internal and external environmental factors. Joyce (2017) pinpoints that a lack of consideration of the variables surrounding the external environment may cause organisational failure. Figure 1 presents the strategy as a link between the organisation and the environment: Figure 1 portrays that strategy serves as a link between the organisation and the environment. Organisations (municipalities in North West province in this case) should always link their organisational goals with environmental circumstances to provide adequate services to consumers, as constitutionally required. This section emphasises the need for local municipalities to adopt strategies as a decision support mechanism, coordinating device, target tool, positioning tool, and a linking tool to achieve their service provision objectives. The next section explains the consequences of strategy-culture mismatch.

The Consequences of Strategy-culture Misalignment
A strategy should be aligned with the cultural imperatives of a particular group of people. Strategic leaders need to consider the internal and external environmental factors while making and implementing organisational strategy (Hitt et al., 2017). It is believed that the strategy-culture misalignment is caused by sheer negligence of strategic leaders, and this may lead to loss of vision, employees' disorientation, loss of image, and job turnover (Deshler, 2017). These factors are explained subsequently: Loss of mission-Strategy is a management tool that helps position employees to achieve desired goals (Joyce, 2017). Organisations are required to build a compass to keep employees focused to reconcile culture and strategy. Deshler (2017) pinpoints that building a compass gives employees a sense of direction and a purpose that drives their actions and decisions. When cohesion fails, many employees turn to self-serving actions, which lead to loss of mission and inability to attain goals.
Employees' disorientation-Orientation involves the ability of management to engage the employees to know their job duties and responsibilities. It further includes an induction process where all information needed by the employees to function effectively is communicated. Deshler (2017) upholds that employees get confused and lose organisational objectives when they receive contradictory messages from strategic leaders. Keevy and Perumal (2014) posit that strategies should always incorporate the visions of the organisation and the cultural imperatives of the people, thus serving as an orientation to empower employees to achieve set objectives.
Loss of image-The image of the organisation can be regarded as people's perceptions and beliefs about the organisation. Through the alignment of culture and strategy, daily activities continue to fall in place with the brand and identity of the organisation (Deshler, 2017). In a situation where consistency is not maintained, the organisation may look deceptive to those who perceive it, particularly the clients. In this regard, management should formulate strategies while considering cultural underpinnings so that the organisational image would be retained to achieve success.
Job turnover-Turnover occurs in an organisation when employees consistently leave the organisation and are replaced by new ones (Selesho and Naile, 2014). Employees are demotivated to work when they are confused with their job specifications. Confusions may occur due to the inability of strategic leaders to align strategy with cultural constraints. Reconciling strategy-culture conflicts provides a sense of belonging and motivates employees to give their best to the organisation (Deshler, 2017). It also encourages loyalty in all sections, from the top management to the lower management cadre. If the cohesion fails, it can be difficult to retain employees' sense of loyalty, as they would prefer pursuing their career elsewhere.
This section discusses the consequences of strategy-culture misalignment. It was deduced that it is crucial to align organisational strategy with the culture of the people. Aligning strategy with culture enhances organisational cohesion, collaboration, retention of employees, and achievement of organisational objectives.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study investigates how municipal workers can manage strategy-culture conflicts to enhance the payment culture of residents. An interpretivist paradigm has been adopted in this study. Creswell (2014) affirms that interpretivist philosophers believe that human behaviour is complex and predefined probabilistic models cannot determine its concepts. In this regard, Blair et al. (2014) concur that interpretivism relies on researching human actions in daily life, rather than in a regulated environment. Interpretivism appreciates what people think, do, and feel, and how they give meaning to the phenomenon being studied. In this study, patterns and trends were conceived from the research process with a view to finding solutions to the problem of the study. A qualitative study is applied in this study and only secondary sources are consulted to unravel the problem of the study. A systematic literature review of literature on the meaning of culture, elements of culture, the meaning of strategy, and the roles of strategy in enhancing organisational success has been done to propose measures to resolve strategy-culture dichotomies in the local municipal context. The study further investigated the consequences of strategyculture misalignment and proposes measures to resolve the undue misalignment. This is done by outlining how to manage strategyculture relationships in both organisations (municipalities) and external environmental contexts. Several searches were made on the internet through Web of Science and EBSCOhost and keywords such as the local municipality, organisational strategy, culture, payment culture, and service provision were explored to find solutions to the problem of the study. The inclusion criteria of resources used in this study comprise peer-reviewed articles published in the English language, articles focused on strategic management, culture, and municipal management in the South African context. The conclusion of the study are drawn from the findings of the review, which serve as recommendations to the municipal role-players.

PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
The findings deduced from this study are literature-based, which emphasise how to manage strategic-culture relationships in organisations and external organisational contexts.

Managing Strategic-culture Relationships: An Approach for Organisations (municipalities)
This section explains how managers (municipalities in this case) can implement diverse organisational strategy amidst varied cultural backgrounds. Culture, as previously discussed, is viewed by Zimmermann (2015) as tolerable characteristics of people living in a particular place. Rothaermel (2013) views strategy as the measures utilised by managers to transform organisations to cope with future challenges in the business environment. In this situation, Cristian-Liviu (2013) avers that managers should consider people's way of life before making and implementing strategies. Thompson et al. (2014) also indicate that there is always resistance to change when there is a dilemma between culture and strategy implementation. This affirmation by Thompson et al. (2014) implies that organisational direction, performance, and strategy should be in alignment with culture to achieve strategic goals.
The implementation of strategy in a conflicting culture remains the greatest task of managers as they strive to understand the behaviour, norms, and beliefs of people. Strategic leaders who do not adequately understand the culture of people invariably fail to implement the strategic goals of an organisation. While it takes time to understand the general behaviour of people, Hitt et al. (2017) postulate that a strategic leader should be a visionary concerning strategic direction. This assertion depicts that managers should understand the business environment, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses facing an organisation, as well as devising soluble measures to deal with it all. Strategic leaders are in the position to set organisational goals which should be clearly understood and accepted by all employees, and unless these strategies are in alignment with the culture of the people and the organisation, the implementation of the strategy will not be effective. In this regard, Thompson et al. (2014) argue that strategy-culture conflict should be managed by strategic leaders, as it is believed that it weakens managers' efforts and may hinder the implementation of the strategy.
To unravel the strategy-culture dilemma, top management is required to formulate new measures and procedures and give support to middle management, whose job specification falls under operating approaches and support. Thompson et al. (2014) identified four steps through which organisations can resolve strategy-culture conflict. Figure 2 presents the solutions to resolve strategy-culture conflict. Figure 2 portrays that a strategic leader can resolve the strategyculture conflict by firstly identifying the characteristics of the present culture. This will enhance the implementation of strategy, while the cultural constraints that do not support the implementation of strategy are distinguished. The second step is to specify actions to implement a strategy, and this involves the ability of managers to state precisely the actions and related behaviour they want to cultivate in the new culture. In the third step, managers should discuss with other employees and organisational roleplayers how to seek additional solutions to address the situation. Strategic leaders should explain the characteristics of the culture of the people and why it is necessary to implement new strategies to change it. The fourth step advocates the careful implementation of all the measures agreed to achieve the target. Finally, the fifth step advocates the use of forceful action to achieve a change in culture.
In this case, strategic leaders (in the local municipalities) can abide by the contents of legislation and legal actions to ensure that wrong cultural practices are changed (Thompson et al., 2014). Thompson et al. (2014) affirm that strategic leaders should apply diverse techniques to ensure the success of strategy implementation. Other forceful actions, according to Cristian-Liviu (2013) and Thompson et al. (2014), which should be applied by management to achieve a change of culture include: replacing managers who are used to the old culture and who find it difficult to get acquainted with the new culture; promote people who indicate their willingness to help disseminate the process of change; appoint a new breed of managers to assist in driving change forward; and select only employees that best suit the positions during the period of screening. This section recommends that strategic leaders should be acquainted with culture to be able to implement soluble measures or force to change it.

Managing Strategic-culture Relationships: An Approach for Managers in the External Environmental Context
According to Hrebiniak (2011) and Rose (2017), strategic leaders should constantly establish initiatives to support the implementation of strategy in a particular environment. The interrelationship between culture and strategy enhances adaptability, consistency, and mission accomplishment. According to Barnat (2016), leaders should be flexible in handling the external environment to ensure that the needs of the residents are resolved. This is because cultural imperatives, which include norms and beliefs, are interpreted and detected by managers while signals are translated into a strategy. In this regard, Hrebiniak (2011) affirms that strategy invariably drives behaviour, knowing that norms and the belief system drives strategy and also determines how people work together to achieve definite objectives. Hrebiniak (2011) emphasises that managers should focus on structure and process, people, incentives, and enforcement control to implement strategies in a diverse culture. By focusing on structure and process, strategic leaders should Source: Adapted from Thompson et al. (2014) decentralise operations and build a culture of decision-making autonomy. This should be done in a way that employees can reach out to consumers (residents) to understand their perception about services rendered to take corrective measures if needed.
To focus on people when changing their cultural heritage, strategic leaders should introduce new people with new ideas, new thinking with competitive capacities, and new skills to change the way of thinking, the beliefs, and the behaviour of people. Strategic leaders are required to provide more incentives, such as mobile communication (sending of account balances and debts through mobile phones), payment of municipal services through automatic teller machines, debit order, money order, and electronic fund transfers (EFTs). This is viewed as affecting behaviour and performance in such a way that management would attract new resources and capabilities, which will help to change people's culture (Hrebiniak, 2011;Rose, 2017). In addition, Hrebiniak (2011) further affirms that focus should be placed on changing enforcement controls, such as the disconnection of service provision. Also, increasing the method of feedback, evaluate the performance of employees, and take remedial action. Management should ensure checking employee performance through performance management to hold managers and employees accountable for performance results to shape new behaviour that will be able to change the cultures.
To manage people's psychology in resistance to change (nonpayment and payment default of municipal services), Cooper (2001) concurs that strategic leaders should implement the following measures: explain the need for change; clarify what is needed to achieve change; ask for assistance and cooperation to achieve change; encourage consistent discussion and guidance; ask for suggestions and follow them through; ensure flexibility and welcome negotiations; specify time limits for change; and work as a team to achieve change.
In the view of Murgor (2014), culture constitutes the aggregate behaviour of the external environment, which is exogenous and affects organisational performance. In this regard, the external environment provides an organisation with inputs which is converted into output through skills. Njoroge et al. (2016) postulate that an organisation cannot control the external environment unless a study on cultural imperatives is done. It was noted in the words of Peter Drucker that "Culture eats strategy as breakfast" depicting that the study of strategy is very paramount to that of culture. Cristian-Liviu (2013) declares that strategic leaders ought to understand the culture of people and outline diverse strategies to change their culture. This will invariably enhance the results desired by strategic leaders. These results are not easily achieved without learning through people's way of life and applying counterstrategies to facilitate change.
This discourse dealt with the explanation of the relationship between culture and the implementation of organisational strategy in the external environment. It is viewed that culture is a way of life of people living in a particular place; it then requires that strategic leaders should introduce new strategies and explain the need for change to change peoples' culture.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study investigated the measures to manage strategy-culture dichotomies to enhance the payment culture for municipal services. It was deduced that culture is the totality of beliefs, norms, and values of people living in a geographical area. The study maintains that the knowledge of culture equips strategic leaders to understand the line of actions to embark upon to achieve organisational objectives. It is highlighted in the study that strategy is an organisational plan that provides direction to actualise an objective. Payment for municipal services has been a contentious issue with regard to the mobilisation of payment from service consumers, and this study reveals that strategic leaders should understand the beliefs, norms, values, and the totality of social heritage of the people while formulating and implementing diverse strategies to change undesirable cultures affecting payment for services. It is noted that the interrelationship of culture and strategy enhances adaptability, consistency, and mission accomplishment. Therefore, strategic leaders should understand the diverse cultures of the people and formulate justifiable strategies to counter culture-strategy misfits. This is in an endeavour to enhance the payment for municipal services.
The study recommends that the municipal strategic leaders should: • Implement new strategic ideas to attract people's attention • Interpret and comprehend the nature of the environmental culture to know how to handle uncertainties • Improve decision-making skills to make suitable decisions that will be able to resolve a situation • Increase innovation to introduce new ways of doing things • Develop skills to make things easier for stakeholders • Encourage employees and give them support to create a sustainable culture • Encourage focussing on external environmental issues • Scrutinise the available workforce and ascertain if they are fit to drive the organisational mission forward. In a situation where the employees are not fit, the strategic leader should reinforce the workforce by recruiting capable employees that will promote and achieve desired goals • Ensure systems analysis to examine if the structures of the organisations embrace or reject the cultural imperatives of the people. Strategic leaders should critically immerse themselves in knowing the organisational culture and peoples' (customers or consumers) culture before making and implementing strategies • Examine communication options to resolve strategy-culture mismatch, as it serves as a medium to clarify emotional cues and to manage diversity. Implementing cultural change in the external environment through invention, dispersion, and acculturation requires that strategic leaders should facilitate various communication options to unravel strategy-culture dichotomies • Scrutinise collaboration levels to ensure effective synergy between management and the external environment. Without collaborating with the external-role players in the society, the desired change could be difficult, as residents are loyal to certain leaders (traditional leaders, politicians, chiefs) who make and enforce local orders.