Organizational Culture and Leadership, 4th ed.

Citation

Yergler, J.D. (2012), "Organizational Culture and Leadership, 4th ed.", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 421-423. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211229331

One of the seminal works on organizational culture, if not the seminal classic, is Edgar H. Schein's book, Organizational Culture and Leadership (2010). For the student, consultant, scholar, human resource professional, or C‐suite executive who wants to learn more about organizational culture and the important role of leadership in identifying, understanding, creating, modifying, and sustaining culture, Schein's book is a must read. One of the strengths of Schein's style of writing is that it is clear, succinct, and based on his own research and experiences as a consultant. As such, his book has particular utility for consultants who specialize in culture change and/or leadership development as well as internal human resource professionals charged with the responsibility of explaining how organizational culture shapes and is shaped by human resources management processes.

This updated fourth edition has areas of strength that were absent in the earlier edition. Most notably, special attention is paid to culture creation and the many ways culture is now influenced by global events as well as social networking and information technology that are inextricably bound‐up with these events. The new information gleaned from rapid global change, notes Schein, has been incorporated into each chapter. This would include information addressing national and ethnic macroculture and team‐based microculture. Schein affirms also that his emphasis on leadership continues to be critical to this work. Because leadership writings, issues, and tools continue to explode further complicating the discussion on who a leader is and what a leader does, Schein goes into detail throughout the book defining what leaders do and how their influence can influence different components of culture change.

The text is divided into four parts and concludes with references, an index, and a link that takes the reader to the online instructor's guide. Part one, covering chapters 1‐4, speaks to the definition of organizational culture and leadership (pp. 7‐72). Here Schein defines the levels of culture using two case studies that are based on his own consulting work. The reader is quickly brought to a level of understanding about the three levels of culture (artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and basic underlying assumptions) by the manner in which Schein connects the cases to his explanations about the structure and function of culture.

Part two, covering chapters 5‐11, addresses the dimensions of culture (pp. 73‐196). Chapters in this section speak to the deeper assumptions that make cultures distinct. This would include definitions of reality and truth (pp. 115‐24), the nature of time and space (pp. 125‐42), and human nature, activity, and relationships (pp. 143‐57). Chapter 10 on culture typologies and culture surveys is particularly beneficial and insightful. Here Schein explores the structure and power of typologies using the approach of conceptual categories and how those conceptual categories establish patterns of perception that may or may not be accurate. The value of assessments become critical in gathering data since they hold the potential of gathering information that transcends simplistic conceptual categories often found in typologies.

Part Three, covering chapters 12‐16, highlights the role of leadership in building, embedding, and evolving culture. This would include new groups and the emergence of culture (pp. 197‐28), the ways in which founders create organizational culture (pp. 219‐34), how leaders communicate an embed culture (pp. 235‐58), leadership and organizational “midlife” (pp. 259‐73), and the information leaders need to know about culture changes (pp. 273‐98). In chapter 16, Schein provides a clear approach and methodology for leaders who choose to engage in culture change by matching organizational stages with change mechanisms. Different organizational evolutionary stages call for different culture change levers.

Part four, covering chapters 17‐19, explains the strategies that inform a leader's strategy for managing the process of culture change. Chapter 17 explores the conceptual model for managed culture change (pp. 299‐314). Chapter 18 describes culture assessment and how it connects to managed culture change (pp. 315‐28). The final chapter in part four provides glimpses into specific examples of organizational culture change (pp. 329‐64). This section takes on the question, “how does a leader change organizational culture when it is not evolving or in the case when evolutionary changes are unfolding too slowly?”. In chapter 17, Schein does a masterful job of describing his model of managed change and the different themes that must be considered when the changes include culture (p. 299). His model is based on modifications of Lewin's (1947) popular model of the three stages of change:

1. 1.

   unfreezing;

2. 2.

   change; and

3. 3.

   refreeze.

Of particular value is Schein's description of creating psychological safety (pp. 305‐9) which he includes in the first stage of change. Establishing psychological safety, as any leader or consultant who is facilitating organizational change knows, is critical to the longer0term success of any change process. The eight activities Schein identifies, such as creating a “compelling positive vision” (p. 305), creating space for “formal training” (p. 306), and the importance of “positive role models” (p. 306) are examples of conditions which must be met if change is to move forward successfully.

Part five, covering chapter's 20 and 21, deals with the importance of a learning leader (pp. 365‐84) and the new challenge of managing multicultural groups (pp. 385‐400). It cannot be stated enough that these two finishing chapters are particularly beneficial. Chapter 20 describes the need for leaders to create and sustain a learning culture, that is, an organizational culture that maintains a posture of openness to a rapidly changing world while preserving its commitment to change, growth, and maintaining a positive orientation toward human nature as well as to the future (pp. 367‐9). These characteristics of a learning culture (there are ten total) help organizations lean into a future that is “new and unchartered territory” (p. 366). Schein also includes in this chapter a helpful section that speaks to leadership selection and development and how this process can create leaders who value ongoing cultural learning (pp. 380‐3). Schein's final chapter addresses cultural intelligence and the creation of “cultural islands” (p. 389). Cultural islands, as Schein describes them, are situations where individuals can set aside prescribed cultural norms and rules in order to effectively learn and experiment with cultural learning.

From this reviewer's perspective Schein's updated and expanded fourth edition is superb. While his previous editions have also served a very valuable purpose, this fourth edition includes components about culture and global concerns that should hold great value for the reader. As a professor of management as well as a leadership development consultant, this text is a tremendous resource for students as well as for the organizational leaders with whom I work.

About the reviewer

Jeffrey D. Yergler, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Management and Chair of the Undergraduate Management Department at Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California.