SCHEIN’S MODEL OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
•Edgar Schein is a management scholar and consultant interested in the role of leaders in
the development and maintenance of organizational culture.
•In 1992, his book —Organizational Culture and Leadership describes a model of culture
that provides a helpful way to understand how culture can be understood in a variety of
organizational forms and contexts.
A Definition of Culture
•Schein (1992) first defines the culture of a social group—an organization or other
collective—in the following way:
[A] pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its
problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that 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 in relation to those problems.
•This definition raises several critical issues.
•.1. First, Schein defines culture as a group phenomenon.
■Cultural groups can exist on many levels, ranging from civilizations and
countries to small organizational or social groups.
■Schein believes that it is important to highlight the human need for
stability, consistency, and meaning and thus the push of many cultural
forms toward patterning and integration.
•.2. Second, Schein defines culture as a pattern of basic assumptions, suggesting that
the beliefs that make up culture are relatively enduring and difficult to change.
■Schein acknowledges that organizational culture also encompasses values,
behaviors, rules, and physical artifacts.
■He believes that the core of culture is its basic assumptions and that value
and behaviors are better seen as reflections of that culture.
•.3. Third, Schein sees culture as an emergent and developmental process.
■According to his definition, cultures are learned or invented as a group
meets internal and external challenges.
■The culture of such a company would reflect the contingencies of this
environment.
•.4. Finally, Schein’s definition highlights the socializing aspect of organizational
culture.
■When individuals enter an organization, a major part of “learning the
ropes” consists of developing an understanding of the assumptions and
values that make up that organization’s culture.
A Model of Culture
