This book is a thorough and thoughtful treatise that provides a functional/structural explanation of organizational culture.  Schein draws upon his broad as well as deep understanding and experience with organizational culture change.  He also lays out foundational principles for understanding the dynamic interplay between leadership and organizational culture.  First-hand, long-term experiences with different companies' cultures, change and leadership are offered to illustrate and help the reader knit a deeper understanding of his key concepts for understanding organizational culture, leadership and their intertwined relationship.

[Schein, Edgar  (2004)  Organizational Culture and Leadership.  San Francisco,  Jossey Bass Publishers]

The book is organized in three sections:

•  Part One: Organizational Culture and Leadership Defined;
•  Part Two: The Dimensions of Culture;
•  Part Three: The Leadership Role in Culture Building, Embedding, and Evolving.  

Levels of Culture 

In defining organizational culture, Schein describes three fundamental levels at which culture manifests:

1. artifacts;
2. espoused beliefs and values; and,
3. underlying assumptions.

Artifacts are apparent on the surface as behavior and tangible products of the group (e.g., language, the group's design of its environment, enacted rituals) and beneath these forms the climate of the organization represents the deepest level of cultural artifacts.  Espoused beliefs and values, according to Schein, are shared ideals and theories which may or may not actually guide behavior.  Finally, the author defines the core of an organizational culture as being the underlying assumptions that members tend to share and take for granted.  The latter assumptions are reflexive and therefore generally unquestioned or unexamined.   Schein finds that the alignment between espoused beliefs/values and underlying assumptions is crucial for the group to become mission oriented.

The author claims the primary dimensions of culture are external adaptation and internal integration and he depicts these two aspects of a culture as relatively interdependent.  The external adaptation process consists of five steps in a loosely organized cycle:

1. Mission and Strategy;
2. Goals;
3. Means;
4. Measurement;
5. Correction. 

Furthermore, the above process steps are enacted within any organizational culture through a pecking order (artifact) that ramifies power and ideologies (espoused beliefs) that ramify meaning.  The latter mechanisms are factors that primarily influence how integration occurs within a culture.

Schein provides several types of typologies (e.g., participation, corporate character, intra-organizational typologies) for diagnosing and understanding a given organizational culture.  Assessing and addressing an organization's cultural alignment is the critical job of leadership according to Schein, who sees leaders as the chief architects and builders of organizational culture. 

The last set of chapters in the book stress the hand-in-glove relationship between culture and leadership.  Schein describes and explains organizational culture as being semi-plastic, with motivational thresholds wherein particular aspects of the culture unfreeze or freeze, depending on the developmental (i.e., early growth, midlife, mature) stage.  Depending on the skill and resources of a leader, Schein suggests they can operate upon the culture like a glass-blower does upon glass, using timing and deeper understanding of the medium to mold innovative new alternative designs.

Tools/Knowledge Objects/Resources/Contacts etc.

•   Edgar H. Schein, Ph.D., Sloan Professor of Management Emeritus, MIT. email: scheine@mit.edu 

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