Edgar Henry Schein, a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management,
has made a notable mark on the field of organizational development in many
areas, including career development, group process consultation, and
organizational culture. He is the son of former University of Chicago professor
Marcel Schein. Schein's organizational culture model
Schein's model of organizational culture originated in the 1980s. Schein
identifies three distinct levels in organizational cultures:
artifacts and behaviours espoused values
assumptions The three levels refer to the degree to
which the different cultural phenomena are visible to the observer.
Artifacts include any tangible, overt or verbally identifiable elements in an
organization. Architecture, furniture, dress code, office jokes, all exemplify
organizational artifacts. Artifacts are the visible elements in a culture and
they can be recognized by people not part of the culture.
Espoused values are the organization's stated values and rules of behavior. It
is how the members represent the organization both to themselves and to
others. This is often expressed in official philosophies and public
statements of identity. It can sometimes often be a projection for the future, of
what the members hope to become. Examples of this would be employee
professionalism, or a "family first" mantra. Trouble may arise if espoused
values by leaders are not in line with the deeper tacit assumptions of the
culture. Shared Basic Assumptions are the deeply
embedded, taken-for-granted behaviours which are usually unconscious, but
constitute the essence of culture. These assumptions are typically so well
integrated in the office dynamic that they are hard to recognize from within.
Schein's 'Career Anchors' A career anchor is one's self-concept,
and consists of one's perceptions of one's talents and abilities, one's basic
values and one's perceptions of motives and needs as they pertain to career.
In Schein's original research from the mid-1970s he identified five possible
career anchor constructs: autonomy/independence,
security/stability, technical-functional competence, general managerial
competence, and entrepreneurial creativity. Follow-up studies in the
1980s identified three additional constructs: service or dedication to a
cause, pure challenge, and life style. A 2008 study distinguishes between
entrepreneurship and creativity to form nine possible constructs.
Education Ph.D., social psychology, Harvard
University, 1952 Master's Degree, Psychology, Stanford
University, 1949 Ph.B., B.A.,University of Chicago, 1947
Publications Coercive Persuasion: A
socio-psychological analysis of the "brainwashing" of American civilian
prisoners by the Chinese Communists ISBN 0-393-00613-1
"Professional Education: Some new directions" ISBN 0-07-010042-X
"Career Dynamics" ISBN 0-201-06834-6 Organizational Psychology, 3d ed ISBN
0-13-641332-3 "The Clinical Perspective in Field Work"
ISBN 0-8039-2975-7 "The Art of Managing Human Resources"
ISBN 0-19-504882-2 "Strategic Pragmatism: The culture of
Singapore's Economic Development Board ISBN 0-262-19367-1
Process Consultation Revisited ISBN 0-201-34596-X
"DEC is Dead: Long Live DEC: The lasting legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation"
ISBN 1-57675-225-9 Procesadvisering ISBN 90-5261-531-4
"The Corporate Culture Survival Guide,2d ed" ISBN 978-0-470-29371-3
"Helping: How to offer, give and receive help" ISBN 978-1-57675-863-2
Organizational Culture and Leadership, 4th ed ISBN 978-0-470-18586-5
"Humble Inquiry: the gentle art of asking instead of telling" ISBN
978-1-60994-981-5 "Career Anchors, 4th ed" with J.
VanMaanen ISBN 978-1-118-45575-3 Organizational Psychology Then and Now:
Some Observations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and
Organizational Behavior, Vol. 2. Awards, honors
Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace
Learning and Performance of the American Society of Training and Development,
February 3, 2000 Everett Cherrington Hughes Award for
Career Scholarship, Careers Division of the Academy of Management, August 8,
2000 Marion Gislason Award for Leadership in
Executive Development, Boston University School of Management Executive
Development Roundtable, December 11, 2002
Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Award of the Academy of Management, 2009
Life Time Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association,
2012 Honorary Doctorate from the IEDC Bled
School of Management in Slovenia, 2012 Professional
Fellow, American Psychological Association
Fellow, Academy of Management Board member
Advisory Board, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations
Board Member, Massachusetts Audubon Society
Board Member, Boston Lyric Opera See also
Lotte Bailyn John Van Maanen
Warren Bennis Harold Leavitt
List of social psychologists References
See Books above