Organizational Culture and Leadership

by Edgar H. Schein

The book that defined the field, updated and expanded for today's organizations

Organizational Culture and Leadership is the classic reference for managers and students seeking a deeper understanding of the inter-relationship of organizational culture dynamics and leadership.  Author Edgar Schein is the 'father' of organizational culture, world-renowned for his expertise and research in the field; in this book, he analyzes and illustrates through cases the abstract concept of culture and shows its importance to the management of organizational change. This new fifth edition shows how culture has become a popular concept leading to a wide variety of research and implementation by various organizations and expands the focus on the role of national cultures in influencing culture dynamics, including some practical concepts for how to deal with international differences.

Special emphasis is given to how the role of leadership varies with the age of the organization from founding, through mid-life to old age as the cultural issues vary at each stage.  How culture change is managed at each stage and in different types of organizations is emphasized as a central concern of leader behavior.. 

This landmark book is considered the defining resource in the field. Drawing on a wide range of research, this fifth edition contains 25 percent new and revised material to provide the most relevant new concepts and perspectives alongside the basic culture model that has helped to define the field.

Dig into assumptions and typologies to decipher organizational culture

Learn how culture begins, thrives, or dies with leadership Manage cultural change effectively and appropriately Understand the leader's role in managing disparate groups The resurgence of interest in organizational culture has spurred an awakening in research, and new information is continuously coming to light. Outdated practices are being replaced by more effective methods, and the resulting shift affects organizations everywhere. Organizational Culture and Leadership is an essential resource for scholars, consultants  and leaders seeking continuous improvement in the face of today's business realities.

 

Genres: Leadership, Business, Management, Nonfiction, Cultural, Psychology, Buisness

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 19, 1985

About the author

Edgar Henry Schein is the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus and a Professor Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Schein investigates organizational culture, process consultation, research process, career dynamics, and organization learning and change. In Career Anchors, third edition (Wiley, 2006), he shows how individuals can diagnose their own career needs and how managers can diagnose the future of jobs. His research on culture shows how national, organizational, and occupational cultures influence organizational performance (Organizational Culture and Leadership, fourth edition, 2010). In Process Consultation Revisited (1999) and Helping (2009), he analyzes how consultants work on problems in human systems and the dynamics of the helping process. Schein has written two cultural case studies—“Strategic Pragmatism: The Culture of Singapore’s Economic Development Board” (MIT Press, 1996) and “DEC is Dead; Long Live DEC” (Berett-Kohler, 2003). His Corporate Culture Survival Guide, second edition (Jossey-Bass, 2009) tells managers how to deal with culture issues in their organizations.

Schein holds a BPhil from the University of Chicago, a BA and an MA in social psychology from Stanford University, and a PhD in social psychology from Harvard University.

From:http://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detai...

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

outstanding content; bored me to tears

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first learned of Edgar Schein when I worked at athenahealth, Inc. They are a company with a strong culture, and they spent a lot of time trying to understand and protect it—at least up until 2017. Interestingly, the Austin office kind of had an allergic reaction when people would come down from the headquarters in Boston to talk about culture. "Our culture is just fine, thank you--leave us alone!" I think part of the problem was that we just did culture exercises without understanding the reasoning behind them.

After digging a bit deeper, I believe the three-way decomposition of “cultural artifacts”, “espoused values”, and “underlying assumptions” is a great approach. The book fills in a lot of the information around this that makes the approach even more valuable. Having said that, the book is long, and not every chapter is practical and valuable to me—but enough of it is.

As I move into a new business consulting role, Schein gives me a valuable approach to understand the cultures of the companies I am working with. I've started doing culture sessions with one organization, and feel like it's helped clarify some misaligned underlying assumptions.

Lesson learned: I shouldn’t have bought this as an audiobook. It’s too hard to highlight sections I want to save. The upside was that I could listen at 1.25x speed.

Five stars for Schein’s methodology. A little less for the length that made this a long, but worthwhile, slog.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the pre-eminent book on organizational culture, by one of the pioneering scholars in the field. I read the first edition some twenty years ago, and in its third edition, it has not lost its relevance or practical utility for managers and scholars. Schein strengthens our understanding of culture by carefully exploring what it is, its genesis, how it adapts, evolves, and is transmitted, and how it can most effectively be changed. By focusing on leaders as creators, preservers, and change agents, Schein goes right to the heart of culture and its influence. Much that had previously been thought to operate independently is now convincingly shown to influence and be influenced by corporate culture. This would include such attributes of organizations as reward systems, communication and conflict management, career paths, power structures, and much else. This is a must read for anyone interested in the foundations of what makes an organization successful.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is the classic on organizational culture, it's also incredibly verbose and tedious. There's value here, but a 100 page version with another 300+ pages of examples linked to it would be a lot more useful. There were also a huge number of really dated examples (pre technology, companies were mainly dead dinosaurs like DEC), which is because the book is in 4th edition and only lightly revised.

I also listened on audible, rather than reading, which made it extra-tedious. (Textbook pricing for the printed or e-book, single credit for the audiobook, so...). I'd recommend reading this as an e-book instead.

I'd probably give it 5 stars as the canonical book on an important topic, except for being vastly too long and pretty tedious.

[Toni Tassani · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are into change and culture this is a must read. I found myself highlighting full paragraphs and most of the things resonated to me. Some useful concepts are described such as multiple levels of integrated cultures or macro culture and function culture. The ideas of level of relationships, the "talk to the campfire" or the temporary cultural island are useful too.
What I liked most was the description of cultures of different real organisations and the methods described to decipher culture.

[Ning-Jia Ong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive guide to organizational culture and it's tight relationship with leadership.

[Rodrigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente reunião de conceitos sobre cultura e processo de mudança cultural em empresas.

[Bob Wallner · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Culture” is the current buzz word, but until recently, I honestly had no idea what was meant by a company’s “culture”.

Dr. Edgar Schein, in his excellent book Organizational Culture and Leadership, clearly articulates what culture is, the components of culture and how to succeed and fail in various cultures. Dr. Schein uses his personal experience with the people in Digital Equipment, Ciba-Geigy, and many others to bring his examples of culture and working within various cultures to life. As I listened to this audiobook, I thought about companies I worked with and for. What were the artifacts of their culture, how did people act, and what was their environment like?

After spending 16+ hours listening to this unabridged audiobook, I now understand why I had not seen any one or two page articles on what culture is – there is simply too much to it. Before we can change something we must understand it. Organization Culture and Leadership is an excellent foundation for understanding corporate cultures. I now find myself reading articles on culture just a little different light than I did before I listened to this book.

[Esmie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for a class and surprise - it's a lot of corporate bullshit, presented in the typical business academia style in which obvious trends and patterns are developed into a framework of capitalized terms. This will probably be very insightful for the reader who is a white person seeking validation in the white collar world that I certainly hope is less empty and directionless than it seems.

[Doc Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schein is a key thinker on the topics of organizations and culture. This book covers a good deal of his experience and thinking. While deeply entrenched in a leader:follower/hierarchy perspective, there's plenty to take from this text for the "Teal" thinker as well.

[Vladimir Ryashentsev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Если вы не понимаете что происходит в вашей компании, если логически обоснованные предложения сталкиваются с сильным сопротивлением, если конфликты возникают один за другим и вы не понимаете в чем дело - дело в неосознаваемой организационной культуре. Данная книга поможет понять суть организационной культуры, определить конкретные противоречия и изменить базовые представления.

[Joseph Kmiech III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Schein is an expert on Organization Culture and Development, having spent decades in the field. This book is a must have for any manager or leader. It provides insights and deeper understanding in to the way people work and how organizations become thinking & breathing entities. I highly recommend this book.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively, insightful and well written - certainly a work of reference

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as books on organisational culture go, I think this book at the time of its first publication and early editions would have been considered ground breaking and pivotal. At the time of reading its most recent edition in 2025 it feels like most of it’s ideas are pretty well understood and part of a general understanding of what we mean by organisational culture and culture change.

As a reading experience, there wasn’t too much in here new for me, but I acknowledge that there definitely are some golden nuggets in here. It perhaps is let down by being overly long and repetitive and perhaps quite poorly structured. It’s a book I’ve been dipping in and out of over recent weeks but in the last week or so I was close to shelving this as unfinished, indeed the last few chapters have felt more like a slog than a learning experience. I should also say that the author, whilst exhorting others to travel and learn about other cultures and to ‘go and find out, rather than guess’ is still rooted to quite hierarchical thinking and that the leader and their powerful pals can shift culture.

The book is full of lists and bullet points and sub-headings which in retrospect make it quite hard to navigate and decide what matters but below I will summarise some of the learning that jumped out to me.

The first part of the book is about defining the structure of culture and I quite like the definition of, "Cultures are learned patterns of beliefs, values, assumptions and behavioural norms that manifest themselves at different levels of observability," in particular the notion that culture is learned and that it is observable to greater or lesser degrees. Even the stuff ‘we just know’ to some extent shows itself.

I like the observation that culture as a shared product of shared learning, and I also appreciated the observation that culture cannot be separated from how an organisation responds to its external environment (for instance when organisations say 'we focus on the bottom line AND the people' as if they are two distinct workstreams when the 'how we do things' – make money, is part of, not distinct from culture). I also like the comment that culture comes from the established practices that have generated success or survival and new members of the group are expected to 'sign-up'. Stein posits that culture has a degree of structural stability to it, in that it survives if people leave, it replicates and isn't easy to change (see all the programmes of failed cultural change – it is quite strong). I also noted the comment that new group members are not shown or taught all the culture when they join, they learn what it is by what succeeds, fails, is 'rewarded' or 'punished'. I can agree with that but I also think some cultures are more open to ‘showing’ than others. New colleagues where I work have noticed how quickly they have been exposed to cultural elements they thought would take a long time to surface.

Stein’s argument is that culture has three levels to it:
1) Artefacts – the visible things we see, the processes, the tangible things
2) Espoused beliefs and values – what we say matters around here
3) Basic underlying assumptions – the mental models and core beliefs that govern what we say our beliefs and values are.

The general argument is that each level gets deeper into the core culture, but the levels are harder to see and interpret at first, and may even not be elicited openly. However there is a relationship between the three, and where there is tension may identify where one level is not aligned with deeper levels (for instance a ‘return to the office’ mandate is an artefact but it may well show a conflict between the leaders beliefs and values and the staff, whilst exposing an underlying assumption ‘staff need to be observed to work’ that is not aligned with the core group).

The second part of the book explores macro-cultures and how they differ. There are six dimensions of the ‘macro-cultural’ context (macro being large cultural differences potentially across class, race, religion, region, ethnicity). They are:

• Language and Context – differences about what we mean when we say the things we do (are we literal, allegorical, are there cultural nuances to how we say ‘yes’)
• The Nature of Reality and Truth – our relationship to pragmatism, immediate factors or core beliefs, with a suggestion that deeply religious or dogmatic people may have a defined version of the truth whereas some cultures determine truth by what is most pragmatic in the moment
• Basic Time Orientation – essentially a relationship to time and what time should be spent doing. Is time measurable? Or an experience?
• The Meaning of Space : Time and Relevant Placement – how we consider privacy, personal space, individuality and community. What do we value about human organisation and hierarchy
• Human Essence and Basic Motivation – What is the purpose of what it means to be human. What motivates us (self-interest? Social value?)
• Assumptions about Appropriate Human Activity – What it is acceptable for humans to do, or do not.

The third section of the book addresses culture and leadership through stages of growth, including in early formation (when founders have significant influence), through to growth and stability (where the founders have less influence, having moved on) through to death of an organisation. A number of case studies are presented which are quite interesting in themselves which illustrate how organisations are shaped by different stages. He actually demonstrates a model for organisational design and understanding culture that feels quite useful suggesting an external lens and an internal one which touches on:

External factors

• Mission
• Goals - Some interesting observations here about manifest objectives (what we say we will do) and latent goals (which we don't verbalise). The latent goals may be part of the 'reason we are here, what matters to us' and they are the culture and influence decision making. The stuff that isn’t written into a plan may be a greater indicator of culture. It also shows you can’t separate strategy from culture.
• Means
• Measurement – Much written here resonates with me, particularly the notion that ‘what gets measured gets done’ – a strong cultural signifier as to ‘what matters’ and also often the wrong thing! Or that people’s disagreements over what should be measured can cause cultural tensions. Stein makes the observation that an over reliance on quantitative data can distort culture and draws on how dehumanising it can be to rank and treat people as numbers. He also points out how staff surveys and similar can miss the point about how people are really feeling.
• Correcting and Repairing – There is a good observation here about change management - the desire to 'change things' outweighs the capacity to do it! Also the cultural thinking about improvement, growth, fixing and correction influences how it is done. See also people 'not improving / changing / preventing' and why that may happen.



Internal factors

• Language
• Identity and Boundaries – Stein introduces his ‘relationship levels here’ and suggests the level of intimacy and connection we desire before we work together well can vary between cultures. For the record, Level 0 is absolute coercion by a power authority, Level 1 is purely transaction (I do what you ask and I get paid according to norms), Level 2 is relational as in friendships and Level 3 is intimacy or love at a partner or family level. He observes that many cultures have a sense of ‘hey let’s get along great and be a team’ (Level 2) whilst leaders and managers still expect their word to be final (Level 1) and the disconnect is because you can’t really have both. I think I see a lot of this with culture change programmes where an organisation wants to be a happy family but also have absolute power at the top.
• Authority
• Trust and openness
• Rewards and punishments - Interesting observations here about informal rewards and punishments and how these codes or signs are understood. How people know who is ‘in’ or ‘out’ and why
• The unexplainable

There is a significant section on how leaders transmit and embed culture. I am not sure how much of a culture is defined by a leader but when people do have power to harm your livelihood and ability to support yourself they do have a lot of influence. When I was reading the lists below I did reflect upon what I have seen in my career and how it influences culture.

Primary embedding mechanisms

1. What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis
2. How leaders react to critical incidents and organisational crises
3. How leaders allocate resources
4. Deliberate role modelling, teaching, and coaching
5. How leaders allocate rewards and status
6. How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate

Secondary Reinforcement and Stabilising Mechanisms

1. Organisational design and structure
2. Organisational systems and procedures
3. Rites and rituals of the organization
4. Design of physical space, facades, and buildings
5. Stories about important events and people
6. Formal statements of organizational philosophy, creeds, and charters

When Stein talks about how an organisation increases in size it becomes more abstract in how it understands performance (thinking in numbers rather than people) and also that with size a common culture gets harder to maintain and a corporate culture replaces it - almost like a blanket culture. I think I see that where I work. There is a ‘corporate’ culture that wraps around everything but it’s not really ‘the’ culture. Instead there are lots of micro-cultures that fit inside this corporate culture and that this corporate culture is drawn upon when needed (maybe at an Artefact level) but it isn’t the culture at lower levels. Instead we have lots of micro-cultures. I find these fascinating because even in an organisation these cultures intersect. So I see service areas and professions, or regions with quite distinct cultures. I see the same dependent on where you are in the hierarchy, but also things like longevity. As someone who has been where I am a long time, the culture of ‘those who have been around a bit’ and understand the history and legacy is different to those new to the organisation. There is also the note here about the executive culture in that the perspectives of senior leaders create their own culture as a group or team but they also try to shape the wider organisational culture.

The final section is about assessing culture and leading change. I really liked the observations about staff surveys, mostly that the employee may not be honest. What is measured may only be superficial (it doesn't factor in the complexity of relationships and dynamics that inform culture). Surveys miss the patterns that inform culture.

Stein presents a model to assess culture as follows. Most of the below is self-explanatory but based on everything we have read so far to date I do not share the assertion that all this can be achieved as quickly as he says. I found the biggest flaw was that any assumption about ‘who’ does the self-assessment will influence the result. The case study felt like the organisation got the ten most cleverest leaders and put them in a room. All I could see was the mental models of people who hadn’t left the manager’s office in a while. Nevertheless the steps are as follows:

1. Obtain top leadership commitment
2. Select groups for self-assessment
3. Select an appropriate setting for the group self-assessment
4. Explain the purpose of the group meeting
5. Understand how to think about culture
6. Elicit descriptions of artifacts
7. Identify espoused values
8. Identify shared underlying assumptions
9. Identify Cultural Aids and Hindrances
10. Make decisions on next steps

The book then draws on Kurt Lewin’s Change Model on Unfreezing the Current State, Transitioning to the Desired State and then Freezing the new Current State. Again, much of these models are quite old now but they are still useful. I do kind of like that Stein draws on systems thinking, psychology, behavioural science as well as leadership and management writing.

We wrap up with some principles for change adoption which again I recognise as drawing on Lewin’s Force Field Analysis. Essentially Stein says that for change to occur survival anxiety or guilt must be greater than learning anxiety, and in order to do this leaning anxiety must be reduced rather than increasing survival anxiety. I think a lot of theories around culture and behavioural science have leaned far too much on coercive practices of increasing survival anxiety and they have caused harm to people. I also noted his list on how to create psychological safety

1. Provide a compelling positive vision
2. Provide formal training
3. Involve the learner
4. Train relevant 'family' groups and teams
5. Provide resources
6. Provide positive role models
7. Provide support groups in which learning problems can be aired and discussed
8. Remove barriers and build new supporting systems and structures.

Reflecting on summing up the book, there’s probably more in here than I gave credit for and it is useful, despite its length, structure and repetition. It probably works well as a good introduction to organisational culture and it avoids a lot of the annoying excesses in similar business literature.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but informative. More a textbook than consumer-friendly. Will revisit for reference.

[Rod Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tone can be is stiff and academic, which can be inferred by the title - it’s not meant to entertain you, but the content is phenomenal and a must read for any aspiring or current leaders and managers. I’ll provide key takeaways below:

- Culture is the shared understanding of how to do things, how to behave, the accumulated learning is passed down to new group members. Need to understand the groups history that precedes any of the current members. Changes will not occur unless they’re consistent with the groups dna.
— Structure of culture 1) artifacts: observable, descriptive, surface level characteristics that contribute to climate 2) beliefs and values 1) ideal: what you say it is 2) reality: whats actual based on what works to solve problems (discrepancies can lead to conflict) 3) basic assumptions - often implicit, fundamental rules that govern beliefs, values, behavior and how you solve problems. These are often implicit, (ex: individualism v collectivism). Any group who works to solve problems long enough will develop a culture, even if it’s a sub/micro culture. This framework can analyze cultures anywhere. Observe artifacts, ask group members why they do X —> answers get at beliefs/values, assumptions & principles guiding decisions.
— Macro-cultures: norms in attributes, beliefs, and assumptions across highly established ethnicities, nations, people. Ways to describe beliefs/assumptions and the resultant attributes 1) individualism vs collectivism 2) power relationships (deference vs challenge power) 3) masculinity, femininity and distinct bs fluid gender roles 4) tolerance for ambiguity 5) short vs long term future thinking. Further nuanced aspects that influence macro-culture a) Language & words: is meaning precise (Germans) vs non-specific (Asian) b) Moralism vs pragmatism c) Personal space, physical closeness, architecture d) body language. Levels of relationships 1) exploitative (slaves, prisoners) 2) transactional (workers, business relationships) 3) strong emotional relationship (intimate, close friends, sacrifice for each other).
- Cross cultural intelligence and learning. Have to recognize your culture, recognize there are cultures different from you, seek to understand those other cultures, and be adaptable and open to change your approach. Island technique / safe space to ask questions to learn about other cultures without worrying about making a mistake or being “offensive” and getting punished (most places aren’t safe spaces!) The power of personal story.
- cultural stages of organizations
— Founder/start up: 1) form & group starts interactions 2) storming: interpersonal conflicts arise, power hierarchy develops 3) norming- power hierarchy & personalities understood, normality in actions and expected behaviors develop 4) performing: group work is done consistently, well established roles & practices (many never reach this stage)
—> External and internal culture develops after group founded
—— External: 1) mission (the group function, purpose and strategy for long term vision) 2) goals (short term way to build mission, different from strategy cause shorter term, more tangible goal setting) 3) process & means (how the job gets done - policies, procedures, etc) 4) measurements (what ur doing, how ur doing it, defining job success, qualitative & quantitative measures, etc - imp so applicants and new hires understand the job) 5) diagnosis and self correction (blame culture? how are issues resolved, how does group learn & adapt from success and failure. Internal integration 1) language (shared vocabulary to communicate ideas) 2) relationship levels (should group function at formal, informal, intimate) 3) authority 4) trust/openness (what should group function?) 5) rewards/punishment (how to diagnosis & self correct, easiest way to change culture, blame culture?)
- How leaders influence culture (12 ways) primary and secondary. Primary: 1) whats measured (implies whats valued, how its captured, issues they get emotional, angry, or ignore) 2) crisis (when shit hits fan, ull know what’s really valued) 3) resource allocation (put $ on what u value) 4) role modeling / teaching (what u do > what u say) 5) incentives and rewards 6) recruitment/promotion. Secondary (more implicit, difficult to articulate) 1) organization design/structure - top down / bottom up, checks/balances, etc 2) organization system & procedures 3) rights/ritualized activities 4) design of physical space 5) stories of people and events (legends) 6) philosophy (at the forefront, for ex). All of these interact together when a leader attempts to change culture.
- Growth and mature companies: changing culture at mature organization requires getting rid of senior leaders who fight to keep old culture. Subcultures develop when differences exist within organizations - to stop it, must stop its leaders (Fong, Small). Bigger, mature orgs will decentralize into separate departments 1) job decentralization: each job has own subculture (surgeons vs anesthesia for ex) - then subdivides (crit care vs pain) 2) geographical decentralization (community vs main hospital) 3) product/market decentralization 4) hierarchy & executive subculture (the higher u get, less u know on ground, profits & growth rule, people are resources who fill roles - this opposed to founder culture who often more connected to ground - harder for ceo to connect to ground, only hear what people want them to hear, isolating, they need to manage subcultures described here) 5) operators subculture (boots on ground, clinical workers for ex - Fong)
- Cultural evolution: 1) early growth dependent on founders (hard to change culture unless founder / senior manager changes) 2) mid-stage companies change from conflicting subcultures, most dominant culture wins. Organizational midlife occurs when operational control is taken over by mid-level managers - can change culture by elevating those from different subcultures that will eventually shift the dominant culture 4) mature/decline: culture deeply set, society often shifts past them. Scandals and big events can abruptly change culture, even mature ones (Enron, me too, etc). Turnaround managers change culture by eliminating the old guard and bringing in your own people.
- Assessing culture: observe interpersonal interactions, artifacts, ask lots of humble questions (humble inquiry), don’t push / force questions as motives generate suspicion, be a helper, provide and demonstrate value. Quantitative Data: shadowing, consulting, surveys, etc. difficult to make interpretations but can make legitimate by 1) an independent observer coming to same conclusion 2) observations predict outcomes 3) those in org agree. Outsiders should never lecture insiders on their own culture. When conducting internal assessments understand you may be wrong, or the insiders may not want to hear the results, thus org has to be motivated to get results. The tools can have issues 1) surveys: didnt ask right questions, didn’t know what to ask, people didnt answer freely, or misunderstand questions, dont get at underlying driving beliefs and assumptions. Surveys can form subcultures & unify toxic groups, set up expectations to fix the unsolvable. Qualitative: group interviews (with insiders), facilitator doesn’t need to know culture, understand what and how to guide the change leader on findings. Can use tools to assess culture, insiders can use and learn beliefs and assumptions consistently. As consultant always important to work with a trusted insider to make change and offer solutions. If u can’t find the basic beliefs and assumptions, the assessment won’t be that helpful.
- implement change as leader: 1) identify specific problem (interview workforce, administrators, etc - may be specific data indicators) 2) why change? (crisis or problem? need vision, skills, involve learners, group training, resources, role models, support groups, and structures to aid change that support change) 3) actual change - learning new skills/tools that help change (get taught, role modeled, or trial and error). Targets helpful to ensure changes happening. 4) reinforcing change (when new problems arise, does the change make things easier to do - if so, it will reinforce and solidify change). The change process is a cycle, not a destination. Change inevitable, leaders must commit to learning, adapting, and changing. Promoting change culture through learning oriented leadership 1) proactive learning 2) learn to learn (humble leadership) 3) positive - default to people’s good intentions 4) believe u can change things 5) commit to open dialogue & communication (facilitates trust - but requires boundaries when needed) 6) optimistic about future 7) commitment to cultural diversity in organization (need cultural mutual understanding) 8) big picture thinking 9) commit to internal cultural analysis

[Kris Muir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 19 for 2020

Schein defines culture as "a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group 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." I read Schein's book in preparation for a class I am teaching this summer. His hierarchical cultural framework (artifacts, espoused beliefs/values, and underlying assumptions) remains useful and it is clear that his experience in the field is both deep and broad, particularly how we enmeshed his time as a consultant to various companies (HP, DEC, Ciba-Geigy). Schein highlights how many elements of a culture not are not visible within an organization until you dig into underlying assumptions. However, the examples were entirely too long and the theoretical framework was heavy on "leadership determines culture."

Happy Reading!

[Bertrand A Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Organizational Culture and Leadership" explores, analyzes and explains the behaviors and attitudes we encounter on a daily basis.

We all, I suspect, feel that there are things we can't quite see or explain but are shaping our experiences at work. Mr. Schein illuminates the fabric of our work life(organizational culture) so that we can better understand how action and reaction are caused or affected by the particular work culture. I found this very enlightening leading to a number of eureka moments. It was also somewhat embarrassing that I had missed so much of this over my work career! A must read for those switching jobs or careers.

[Katri]

I DID IT! VUHU!

[Angela Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that span across academic research and real-world applications. Probably the most comprehensive book I've read on organizational culture. Most books talk about culture in very vague, fluffy terms but Schein really breaks it down into very concrete terms, yet retaining the realities of how complex culture is.

The book is organized into 5 parts across 21 chapters. It's like reading a business textbook, but with more practical applications. Personally, I found it more useful to think of it in 2 just parts: Culture and Leadership [with cultural diagnostics straddling both]

Culture's so complex because it involves multiple dimensions at multiple levels, including:
• 4 categories of culture: macrocultures, organizational cultures, subcultures, and microcultures.
• Within each category, you can analyze culture at 3 levels: artifacts, beliefs/values and assumptions.
• These assumptions may be applied to a range of cultural content or dimensions. Fundamentally, assumptions exist to help groups to function and survive, on 2 dimensions: (a) External survival and adaptation + (b) Internal integration issues. And, every group also shares deep assumptions about (a) reality and truth, (b) time and space, and (c) human nature.

Leadership is vital in shaping any group’s culture.
• They'll inevitably play a role in 4 natural stages of a group's evolution, though leaders can use certain "change mechanisms" to more deliberately steer culture in each of these stages
• They can also do cultural diagnosis and intervention in cases where natural evolution is too slow [and the book dives into exact how to do that]

Overall, I loved the depth and breadth of research on culture, including the frameworks and detailed case studies. BUT, it can be a little hard to digest in some places due to the slightly-academic writing style, and the fact that related concepts get repeated in different parts of the book (but each time with slightly different contexts). It’s like reading a business textbook though, so it got really dry about 1/3 into the book.

Still, this is definitely a great book on culture...admirably organized given the sheer immensity and complexity of the concepts covered

Can be used by managers/leaders, academia/researchers, in work contexts or just to understand the world in general.

Book Summary at: https://readingraphics.com/book-summa...

[Scott Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Culture” has become a trendy word in today’s business talk. Many popular books espouse it as a cure-all to every organizational malady. Much hype certainly permeates those book, but Edgar Schein’s work cuts through the hype with an academic lens. Known as the father of the field of organizational culture, Schein describes his early explorations about it with the now-defunct DEC and how his ideas expanded with later work. As a result, this 5th edition presents an engaging textbook that moves seamlessly from theory to practical cases to elucidate key insights.

Not just for an academic crowd, this classic book contains many actionable topics, like how to analyze a culture is covered in depth. Many firms prefer culture surveys, but Schein warns that culture surveys, if wrongly done, can actually harm an organization by mistakenly exposing once-dormant artifacts. He also describes all that’s involved in changing culture, including potential mistakes to watch out for.

He identifies, better than I’ve ever read or heard before, how cultural dynamics and personal traits can translate into generative results, played out over time. I learned about how a group’s founder can successfully navigate the waters of letting others lead and learning from others’ contributions. I’ve seen too many promising ventures die when a leader exerts their ego over countervailing guidance.

If you’re in a position of influence over an organization – whether in its infancy, mid-life, mature years, or even in decline – reading this book can benefit you directly. Its comprehensive approach will point out what you need to improve in your circumstance. Many books only talk about one fix for one situation. This book offers a foundational, 360-degree look at a scholar contributions to the business world.

[Joe Kopacz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to Edgar Schein's "Organizational Culture and Leadership" by way of references to it within other documents at my work. I work in nuclear power generation and this book was referenced in an industry-specific document called "Culture Change" which, in all honesty, I didn't find very illuminating or helpful. As a result, I really wanted to read Schein's book to see if the source would clarify things better.

After reading this book, I think I get what our industry wants out of us, both from "Culture Change" and another document called "Advancing a Culture of Continuous Improvement". The background from Schein's book was helpful. The framework of culture including artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and underlying assumptions made much more sense. The added discussion and case studies about different work cultures also provided the necessary context I felt was missing from the industry documents.

One of the other things I really missed from the industry docs was how culture is shaped or changed. Here too, Schein provided explanations and numerous examples. If such change were to be effected at my station, I feel I might be able to understand it and even actively participate.

This was definitely worth the read. It provides a good mix of practical experience in the form of case studies with explanations and theory on how culture works and how it evolves or changes. If you're interested in the subject, the book is of a reasonable length and reads easily enough.

[Michael Fitzpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Organizational Culture and Leadership presents a useful and applicable tool for investigating workplace culture. The constructs are well explained in the beginning. However, I think this book falls off in its application sections. The overall vibe of suggested interventions seems to be to hope the culture got set up well in the beginning and pray it evolved in a useful manner. Granted, the main reason for this is the incredible complexity of a matured culture, but I would say this book is deeply lacking proposed solutions in spite of that complexity.

[Celso Ferreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro instigante para quem quer se aprofundar no tema da cultura organizacional. Schein não perde a atualidade e segue como um pensador excepcional, cujos conceitos seguem válidos e são de uma ajuda inestimável para quem quiser ter sucesso no mundo empresarial e na vida pessoal. Consegue traduzir de forma fácil a importância da cultura e como encara-la para fazer a diferença enquanto líder. Além de toda a questão conceitual o livro traz exemplos que ajudam a entender o processo de evolução e mudança da cultura. Um clássico.

[Dariusz Biskup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great work, must read for everyone who wants to understand what organizational culture is and how it evolves, how to define it and finally how to change it. For me very useful was going through all culture dimensions and realizing how many things I observe in organizations are a result of culture. Especially interesting case studies of several companies and how their cultures were supporting growth or working against them. Also practical and useful concept of "cultural island".

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, if academic, exploration of the different components of organizational culture and how to analyze and drive it -- along with the unique role leadership plays. Questions at the end of each chapter were most helpful, framed for different leaders (change leaders, consultants, students, etc).

[Ezzeddine Jradi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book but quite lengthy. I forced myself to finish it. The book is loaded with extensive frameworks, thoughts, examples and insights about culture and leadership. I just wish that the language used was more not just simplified rather more fluid. It is a must read for those who crave change and would like to learn its elements, especially those related to culture.

[Joe DeGraaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed and practical description of organizational culture and a leader’s role in change. It describes multiple stages of culture and a three level model (artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, underlying basic assumptions) for analyzing a culture. It then offers real life examples and practical advice for how to navigate culture analysis and change efforts.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Schein makes some good points and shares some great cultural insights, the book is super disorganized and repetitive. He beats the reader over the head with things and then talks himself in circles.

[Louise Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a classic on organizational culture. As a student of leadership, it is important to understand the impact of culture on leaders.