Edgar Schein
| Edgar H. Schein | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 5, 1928 Zurich |
| Residence | United States |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | North American |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | MIT Sloan School of Management |
| Alma mater | Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Chicago |
| Known for | coercive persuasion, organizational development, career development, group process consultation, organizational culture, corporate culture |
| Notable awards | Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance of the American Society of Training Directors, 2000 Everett Cherrington Hughes Award for Career Scholarship, 2000 Marion Gislason Award for Leadership in Executive Development, from the BU School of Management Executive Development Roundtable, 2002 |
Edgar Henry Schein (born 1928), 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 generally credited[by whom?] with inventing the term "corporate culture". (The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase "corporate culture" as far back as "1966 Acad. Managem. Jrnl. 9 362/2".)
Contents |
[edit] Schein's organizational culture model
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion with: Biographical info. |
Schein's model of organizational culture originated in the 1980s. Schein (2004) identifies three distinct levels in organizational cultures:
- artifacts and behaviours
- espoused values
- assumptions
The three levels refer to the layers of corporate culture.
- Artifacts include any tangible or verbally identifiable elements in an organization. Architecture, furniture, dress code, office jokes, and history 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 or desired cultural elements. This is most often a written or stated tone that the CEO or President hope to exude throughout the office environment. 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 general assumptions of the culture.[1]
- Assumptions are the actual values that the culture represents, not necessarily correlated to the values. It's a true reflection of the culture. These assumptions are typically so well integrated in the office dynamic that they are hard to recognize from within.[2]
The model has undergone various modifications, such as the Raz update of Schein's organizational culture model (2006), and others.
[edit] Coercive persuasion
Schein has written on the issues surrounding coercive persuasion, comparing and contrasting brainwashing as a use for "goals that we deplore and goals that we accept."[3]
[edit] 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: (1) autonomy/independence, (2) security/stability, (3) technical-functional competence, (4) general managerial competence, and (5) entrepreneurial creativity. Follow-up studies in the 1980s identified three additional constructs: (6) service or dedication to a cause, (7) pure challenge, and (8) life style.[4]
A 2008 study distinguishes between entrepreneurship and creativity to form nine possible constructs.[5]
[edit] Education
- Ph.D., social psychology, Harvard University, 1952
- Master's Degree, Psychology, Stanford University, 1949
- University of Chicago
[edit] Publications
- Brainwashing and Totalitarianization in Modern Society (1959)
- Coercive Persuasion: A socio-psychological analysis of the "brainwashing" of American civilian prisoners by the Chinese Communists (1961), W. W. Norton (publishers)
- Organizational Psychology (1980) ISBN 0-13-641332-3
- Organizational Culture and Leadership (1985) ISBN 1-55542-487-2
- Process Consultation Revisited (1999) ISBN 0-201-34596-X
[edit] 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
- Professional
- Fellow, American Psychological Association
- Fellow, Academy of Management
- Board Member
- Advisory Board, Institute for Nuclear Power Operations
- Board Member, Massachusetts Audubon Society
- Board Member, Boston Lyric Opera
[edit] See also
For other individuals that have done further research in areas related to Schein's research see:
[edit] References
- ^ [1], Edgar H. Schein's Model of Organizational Culture.
- ^ http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_schein_three_levels_culture.html
- ^ Schein, Edgar H.. "Organizational Learning as Cognitive Re-definition: Coercive Persuasion Revisited". Society for Organizational Learning. http://www.solonline.org/res/wp/10010.html. Retrieved 2009-10-11. "The issue is similar to that faced by parents of children who have joined cults that have used coercive persuasion. Are the parents in turn justified in kidnapping their child out of the cult and using a deprogrammer to coercively persuade them back to a set of values that the parents are more comfortable with? Are managers justified in imposing new methods of thinking on employees who have been programmed by decades of industrial experience to think in a certain way? [...] we cannot ignore that the same methods of learning, i.e. coercive persuasion or colloquially brainwashing, can be used equally for goals that we deplore and goals that we accept."
- ^ Schein, Edgar H. (November 1996). "Career anchors revisited: Implications for career development in the 21st century". The Academy of Management Executive. http://www.jstor.org/pss/4165355. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ Danziger, Nira (2008). "The construct validity of Schein's career anchors orientation inventory". Emerald Group Publishing Limited. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1663093. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
