SCHEIN’S THREE LEVELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Use to understand the role that values and beliefs play in your organisation.
Edgar Schein is generally seen as the foremost thinker on organisational cultures. He claims that the organisational culture is determined by a set of basic beliefs that the organisation has about itself. These beliefs, consciously or subconsciously, define what the organisation is and how it copes with the problems of external competition and internal integration. He argues that the organisation’s culture grows out of the legacy of others.
Surface manifestations: These are the artefacts, rituals, myths and legends that send out a message to all concerned about what makes the organisation tick.
Espoused values: These provide a common direction for all employees and a guideline for what is acceptable behaviour.
Basic assumptions: These are the invisible, subconscious and often taken-for-granted understandings held by all employees about the organisation.
Schein’s theory suggests that organisations are socially constructed realities that are as much in the minds of staff as they are in the organisation’s concrete structures and rules. Therefore to understand the organisation’s culture you must understand how the staff see the organisation.
HOW TO USE IT
- In order to understand your organisation’s culture, you have to play detective and seek out a range of cultural clues.
- To identify the surface manifestations ask yourself questions such as: Are workplaces neat and tidy? Do people work in an informal open plan office and wander around talking to each other or do they work in their own offices behind closed doors and communicate through emails? Are meetings lively with animated debates on new ideas or do they follow a strict agenda devised and delivered by those in authority?
- To identify the organisation’s espoused values and basic assumptions, which are buried in people’s minds, you will need to talk with them. Workshops are great for this but you need to guarantee confidentiality so that people will feel safe from possible recrimination if they express views that might be unpopular with those in authority. One-to-one interviews may be more suitable provided staff don’t feel intimidated by you. You might even think about using a focus group.
- Once you have collected your data, analyse it and use your findings to describe and understand the organisation’s culture and identify acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and approaches to management and leadership.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- What data do I need to collect to make a judgement about the organisation’s culture?
- What am I going to do with the information produced?