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This paper is a thematic book report analyzing the concept of culture and leadership presented in the book Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar Schein, published in 2010. The book is written in the first-person point of view, where the author uses his personal experiences to illustrate major concepts. The book covers the subject of leadership and culture in three major sections, including the definition of organizational culture and leadership, the dimensions of culture, and leadership’s role in building culture. This report will focus on the first and third parts of the book, where the themes of leadership and culture are demystified. The selected portions of the book portray the relationship between leadership and culture and how leaders play a significant role in establishing and reinforcing culture.
Schein’s definition of organizational culture and leadership argues that culture and leadership are closely related and can be perceived as two sides of the same coin. According to the book, culture is created when leaders impose their assumptions and beliefs on their followers (Schein, 2010). When the followers accept the imposed ideas, their practices and conduct begin to conform to their leader’s directive. The continuous practice of this behavior forms the culture of the organization and the characteristics of the leadership model. This formed culture will therefore guide the future generations of the organization on acceptable and unacceptable practices that must be considered.
Schein analyzes the concept of culture in four major characteristics, including structural stability, partnering or integration, breadth, and depth. Structural stability involves the degree of steadiness that culture brings to an organization. According to this concept, culture can survive even when the initiators leave the organization (Schein, 2010). That is why generations of employees in a company tend to follow the cultural principles initiated within a long period. A positive culture is hard to change because the organization members value its efficiency and predictability. The characteristic of patterning or integration implies that the stability presented by culture creates a binding force of cohesion that brings together different elements of an organization and gives them one identity. For instance, employees of various departments in a company have different roles, yet they share the same cultural beliefs and values. The sense of unity and cohesion that culture brings to the organization creates an orderly working environment that defines the consistency and predictability of operations within the company.
The characteristic of breadth in culture implies that the influence of culture covers all aspects of the functioning of an organization, including its external and internal operations. Schein argues that the breath of culture defines the organization of operations within a group of people, including dictating how primary tasks should be executed. Lastly, the perception of culture from the depth point of view suggests that culture is often less visible from the outside because it is deeply embedded in the organization’s core principles.
The establishment and integration of culture within a group of people is an evolutionary process that revolves around the leader of the group. Schein states that the evolutionary perspective of culture involves the group leader enforcing their personal beliefs on their followers to form a foundation of similar thoughts and values. At first, the followers will be highly conscious of the views and principles imposed on them. Some will develop a sense of resistance and doubt. However, due to constant reinforcement, these perceptions of the follower will evolve and the values and principles be deeply embedded in the group making the followers less conscious and perceiving their leader’s values as non-negotiable. However, when the followers’ perception fails to evolve, they will develop discomfort and anxiety, leading to the rejection of their leader’s beliefs.
In the second chapter of part one of the book, Schein analyses the different levels of culture essential in understanding a particular organization’s basic practices. According to Schein, the level of culture is the extent to which the cultural traditions of an organization are visible to outsiders (Schein, 2010). The levels of cultural phenomenon range from more tangible and visible elements to more deeply embedded values that define the code of conduct of the followers of the culture. Schein explains the deepest cultural levels as the basic assumptions group members consider regarding their behavior and practices. The second chapter of the book analyzes three significant levels of culture. They include artifacts, exposed beliefs, and underlying assumptions. The artifacts level is the outermost surface of culture that comprises practices visible to an observer when interacting with a particular cultural group member. This level consists of the visible items defining the environment of a particular organization, including the architectural designs and the language of the organization’s members. Other visible elements at the artifact level include artistic creations, dressing mode, emotions, etiquette, ceremonies, and rituals.
The deeper perception of the artifact level can involve the vital organizational processes and how they are executed. According to Schein, an observer can easily identify a culture based on the routines and formal descriptions of the culture members (Schein, 2010). In other words, Schein associates define the artifact level as one with elements that are easily visible but difficult to interpret and analyze because they form the identity of a particular culture. For instance, he associates Egyptian culture with the pyramids (Schein, 2010). The pyramids are easily visible, but their meaning is difficult to interpret because they mean differently in other cultures. Schein argues that by understanding the artifacts’ level and accurately interpreting the visual elements of a culture, one must live with that cultural group long enough to uncover the meanings of their artifacts.
The espoused beliefs and values level consists of the strategies, philosophies, and goals the founder of the culture intended to pass to their followers. According to Schein, the culture of a particular group tend to reflect the ideas and beliefs of the founder of the group on what is acceptable and the practices that should be avoided (Schein, 2010). When a problem arises within a group, the proposed solutions tend to revolve around the assumptions of an individual who dictated the best ways to handle such issues. Assumptions tend to emerge from the beliefs and opinions of the leaders of a particular group. When a group faces a crisis and the leader proposes solutions based on their ideas, and the problem is solved, the followers will adopt the leader’s belief of handling that problem as a shared value. The shared value will then transform into basic assumptions.
The continuous practice of assumptions established by the leaders or founders tends to become conscious among the group members. As a result, they transform into irrefutable values and traditions that guide the group members on their code of conduct. According to Schein, the beliefs at this level of culture play a significant role in influencing the observable features at the artifacts’ level (Schein, 2010). However, for these beliefs to be successfully integrated into the group, they must be based on prior learning. Learning is a reinforcement process that creates memories embedded in the followers’ morals and practices.
Schein reports that when there is a lack of prior learning, the group may develop espoused theories where the people’s beliefs are not fully embedded in their behaviors. In this case, people tend to act contrary to the principles they subscribe to in situations that demand them to exercise such principles. When the espoused beliefs are inconsistent with the existing assumptions, a gap is created in the culture, making it difficult to understand its artifacts and future aspirations. However, when the espoused values conform to the basic principles of a culture, they play an essential role in unifying the organization and help in the creation of the primary mission and aspirations of the group.
The third level of culture discussed in the book is the basic underlying assumptions. This is the deepest level of culture and is often less visible to the observer. Schein argues that the basic underlying assumptions in culture are generated when the implementation of certain beliefs and values repeatedly proves successful in addressing a social issue. As a result, the members of the organization develop a high degree of consensus toward those beliefs and values, thus taking them for granted. When the basic assumptions are highly integrated into the organization, practices based on other beliefs will be unimaginable. Schein uses the analogy of capitalism to explain this notion. He argues that it is unthinkable that a company opts for policies that lead to continuous financial losses in a capitalist country. This perception of basic assumption is referred to as theories-in-use, where beliefs embedded in culture are extremely difficult to change because they have evolved to become inviolable. Trying to change beliefs at this level can lead to high anxiety and defensiveness, which may interrupt the subjects’ cognitive abilities.
In the third part of the book, Schein analyzes the role of leadership in building, embedding, and evolving culture. Every organization has its own goals and aspirations that reflect its founder’s ideas and beliefs. Leaders tend to impose their beliefs and principles on their followers. Leaders employ various mechanisms to embed and reinforce their ideas in their followers. Firstly, leaders tend to pay attention to, measure, and control regularly desirable practices. A high degree of attention is meant to send signals to the organizational members on the preferences and priorities of the leader.
Secondly, leaders tend to embed their beliefs in their followers based on how they react to critical incidents and crises within the organization. The methods of solutions that leaders tend to initiate during a crisis often create new norms and traditions on how the organization reacts to future incidents. According to Schein, crises create a high level of anxiety, and the need to resolve such problems to overcome anxiety is often a compelling motivation for the organizational members to adopt new practices and beliefs (Schein, 2010). Thirdly, leaders embed their beliefs into the organization by how they allocate resources. For instance, leaders who value financial independence will budget the organizational resources to cushion the organization from relying on borrowing.
Fourthly, how leaders allocate rewards and status plays a significant role in organizational culture. Schein argues that leaders will tend to link rewards to the behaviors that conform to their principles and values and often punish those who exercise behaviors that are contrary to their beliefs (Schein, 2010). Additionally, only organization members portraying behavior that rhymes with the leader’s values tend to occupy senior positions than those who display contrary behavior. Lastly, leaders initiate organizational culture by how they recruit and excommunicate members of the organization. According to Schein, leaders will try to recruit people who share the values and principles of the organization (Schein, 2010). Such people will play a significant role in developing the organization’s future.
Aside from embedding mechanisms, Schein analyzes various reinforcement measures that leaders initiate to ensure that established values and beliefs are stable and progress into the future. Some of the reinforcement mechanisms explored in the book include organizational design and structures. Leaders tend to design their organizations’ structure based on their assumptions about how they perceive operations should be conducted rather than based on research. Additionally, leaders tend to reinforce organizational culture through various practices, such as formal statements defining the organizational philosophy and determining the type of rites and rituals to be practiced in the organization.
This book is highly educative and will play a significant role in guiding my leadership position in the future. The selected parts that focus on organizational culture and leadership contain crucial information on how to create a positive culture and understand the limitations of the existing culture to design adaptive mechanisms to initiate cultural change. Schein’s definition of culture has enabled me to understand leadership’s vital role in creating the organizational culture. I understand that as a leader, my beliefs and values will form the foundation of the culture I will establish in an organization or within a group of people. The book has outlined the various mechanisms a leader can employ when embedding their values and beliefs in their followers. I will exploit these mechanisms by paying more attention to desirable practices and rewarding those whose behavior conforms to my underlying assumptions.
Reference
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.
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