Organizational Culture and Leadership

I first read Organizational Culture and Leadership more than a decade ago and recently re-read it after reading Organizational Development, edited by Joan V. Gallos and to which Edgar H. Schein provided the Foreword ("Observations on the State of Organization Development") and to which he contributed two articles, "Facilitate Process Interventions: Task Processes in Groups" and "So How Can You Assess Your Corporate Culture?" As Schein notes in the Foreword, the core of organization development (OD) has a number of elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness." I know of no one who has made more and more valuable contributions to the field of OD than has Schein. He is OD's pre-eminent knowledge leader. He organizes the material in Organizational Culture and Leadership within three Parts: Organizational Culture and Leadership Defined Excerpt: "When one brings culture to the level of an organization and even down to groups within the organization, one can see clearly how culture is created, embedded, evolved, and ultimately manipulated, and, at the same time, how culture constrains, stabilizes, and provides structure and meaning to the group members. These dynamic processes of culture creation and management are the essence of leadership and make one realize that leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin...Leadership [must possess the ability and willingness] to step outside the culture that created the leader and start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive. This ability to perceive the limitations of one's own culture and to evolve the culture adaptively is the essence and ultimate challenge of leadership." (Page 2) Comment: I am again reminded of James O'Toole's apt characterization of a common barrier to change, "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." This is precisely what Jack Welch encountered after he Reginald Jones selected him to be the next CEO of GE. Jones urged him to "blow up" the organization. Schein's point is that although a culture may define leadership, there are situations in which a CEO must re-define the terms and conditions of the leadership needed if the culture itself is to be transformed, as was GE's and as was IBM's after Lou Gerstner became its CEO. The Dimensions of Culture Excerpt: "If culture consists of shared basic assumptions, we still need to specify: assumptions about what? The concept of organizational or occupational cultures reflects the ultimate problems that every group faces: dealing with its external environment...Culture is pervasive and ultimately embraces everything that a group is concerned about and must deal with. Beyond these external and internal problems, cultural assumptions reflect deeper issues about the nature of truth, time, space, human nature, and human relationships." (Page 85) Comment: Here again, Schein stresses the importance of determining w

"Cultural analysis illuminates subcultural dynamics within organizations...Many problems that were once viewed simply as 'communication failures' or 'lack of teamwork' are now being more properly understood as a breakdown of intercultural communications...For example, most companies today are trying to speed up the process of designing, manufacturing, and delivering new products to customers. They are increasingly discovering that the coordination of the marketing, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, and sales groups will require more than goodwill, good intentions, and a few management incentives. To achieve the necessary integration requires understanding the subcultures of each of these functions and the design of intergroup processes that allow communication and collaboration across sometimes strong subcultural boundaries...Cultural analysis is necessary if we are to understand how new technologies influence and are influenced by organizations. A new technology is usually a reflection of an occupational culture that is built around new core scientific or engineering concepts and tools...Cultural analysis is necessary for management across national and ethnic boundaries...Organizational learning, development, and planned change cannot be understood without considering culture as a primary source of resistance to change...Given these and related issues, it seems obvious that we must increase our study of culture and put this research on a solid conceptual foundation. Superficial concepts of culture will not be useful; we must come to understand fully what culture is all about in human groups, organizations, and nations so that we can have a much deeper understanding of what goes on, why it goes on, and what, if anything, we can do about it" (from the Preface).In this context, Edgar H. Schein organizes his book into six parts.* Part One- In this section, after saying that cultural understanding is desirable for all of us, but it is essential to leaders if they are to lead, he defines the concept of culture and shows its relationship to leadership.* Part Two- In this section he focuses more on the concept of culture and the less on the concept of leadership. He argues that the content of organizational cultures reflects the ultimate problems that every group faces: dealing with its external environment and managing its internal integration. According to him beyond these external and internal problems, cultural assumptions reflect deeper issues about the nature of truth, time, space, human nature, and human relationships.* Part Three- In this section he deals with the practical issues of how one can decipher cultural assumptions. He says that the reader will note that the emphasis in this part is practical and oriented toward what leaders, researchers, and consultants can actually do about deciphering culture.* Part Four- In this section he focuses on leadership, especially the role that leadership plays in creating and embedding culture in

In this work, Edgar Schein articulates the importance of understanding organizational culture as a means of implementing change. His theory is that the ability to manipulate culture is a key tool of modern management. He theorizes that organizational culture reflects the leadership and vision of its founder, and that organizations become self-sustaining through buy-in to the culture.Schein provides a complex model for diagnosing culture and analyzing the values and assumptions of the organization. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamics of the stage of organizational culture, prior to implementing change.An interesting point that Schein makes is the need to periodlically "unfreeze culture" and apply a "cognitive reconstruction" -- in short repond to market pressures by becoming more competitive through organizational change.Schein's work is very thorough and easy to read. My only criticism is the length of the work, which is the result of Schein's many real-life examples that reinforce his points.

This is excellent reading, especially for those people who are managing business units or any other functional groups that operates within an organization. The author has done substantial research on the topic of organizational culture and leadership. This is not his first book on the topic, but in this book he really flushes out the impact of culture on the organization and especially for those who are in leadership roles. Schein believes that culture can be transformed into a tool that can be used by managers to better understand the dynamics change in the organization. He points out that culture is a phenomenon that surrounds us at all the time and it is being enacted and created by our interactions with others. He feels that the process of culture creation and management are the essence of leadership. Shein feels that if leaders want to start evolutionary change processes that must be adaptive. In order for them to achieve this goal, they must first understand the dynamics of culture. He feels neither culture nor leadership can be understood or addressed individually because many things in-groups are shared or held in common. Shein presents categories of values that groups routinely use to operate within an organization. He provides a very clear definition and explanation of organizational culture. He talks about how leaders are chosen or not chosen. He stresses the point that cultural understanding is critical for leadership, and is the determining factor in the choice of leaders within a group or organization. Shein talks extensively about group dynamics and presents some interesting information about some of the assumption that are necessary for groups to operate successfully. He also discusses how leaders embed and transmit culture both formally and informally within an organization. He also talks about the different stages organizations go through as they age, and how this process impacts the culture of the organization and its leadership. Shein predicts that organization and their leaders will have to become perpetual learners in the future in order to manage learning and change, if they expect to create a learning organization.

I have used Schein's book to teach a course that addresses the leader's role in shaping organizational culture. I find that Schein's approach is deeper and more useful than many--he views and studies organizational culture from an anthropological perspective. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in truly understanding organizational culture and the leader's role in shaping it. My students have all enjoyed it also. It is especially useful and interesting to adult students who work in organizations similar to those that Schein describes.Marie Cini