Organizational Culture and Leadership

Rating:
Summary: "Why do we need to understand culture?"
Review: "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 a group. He argues that leaders create culture and must manage and sometimes change culture.

* Part Five- The focus of Schein in this section, as well as those in the rest of the book, remains on the leader and how culture change appears from the leader's perspective.

* Part Six- In this section his focus shifts from analysis to normative speculation. He deals with the concept of learning and the implications for leadership and culture of the growing rate of change.

I highly recommend this business classic on organizational culture and leadership.

Rating:
Summary: Professor Benjamin Schneider comments :
Review: "A wonderfully insightful, beautifully written, straightforward presentation of Schein's perspective on organisational culture". --Benjamin Schneider is a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland

Rating:
Summary: "Why do we need to understand culture?"
Review: "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 a group. He argues that leaders create culture and must manage and sometimes change culture.

* Part Five- The focus of Schein in this section, as well as those in the rest of the book, remains on the leader and how culture change appears from the leader's perspective.

* Part Six- In this section his focus shifts from analysis to normative speculation. He deals with the concept of learning and the implications for leadership and culture of the growing rate of change.

I highly recommend this business classic on organizational culture and leadership.

Rating:
Summary: Not Just Theory---Plenty of Useful Leadership Tactics
Review: I bought this book because my employer, like many large multi-national companies, is dealing with cultural change and leadership issues involving the development of a new global infrastructure to more efficiently engage and win large mega-deals requiring resources from multiple country locations. This book very clearly describes the various cultural issues and the important role of leadership in cross-cultural integration. It covers theory behind cultural behavior, but more importantly, it provides real-world insight into cultural dynamics. Moreover, it provides clear tactical advice for assessing your own company's cultural dynamics. It provides good, sound leadership advice in the context of cultural integration and change management.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic in the Functionalist Culture Managment Genre
Review: I have to confess up front I'm a skeptic about the efficacy of "culture management." It's been a fad that, unfortunately, a lot of companies have wasted a lot of time and money on. As a graduate student in organizational sociology, I love studying organizational culture, but I haven't found much in the "applied" culture literature that persuades me that business firms ought to be nearly as transfixed by the allure of tweaking their culture as they have been. There's absolutely been a lot of hacks making money selling crackpot ideas to companies on the premise that strong culture=high profits. Oh well, consultants have to make a living too I guess. I just wish it wasn't giving organizational culture theory such a bad name. Anyhow, Schein is an exception to the rule. Certainly nobody could bad-mouth his academic credentials--having studied at University of Chicago, Stanford and Harvard--he's pretty much about as solid an organizational consultant as you're going to find. As for this book, it is indeed a classic of the functionalist approach to culture management.

Now, functionalism has gotten a bad name in sociology over the years. Critics call it an inherently conservative theory, focused only on what holds groups together, while at the same time entirely unable to account for conflict and other forces that pull groups apart. Some say functionalism is inherently tautological. I happen to like Durkheim myself and think we ought to cut him some slack for excessively functionalizing the world because he gave us the field of sociology as a gift. But somehow the disease of functionalism spread into psychology after the sociologists dropped it. Anyway, Schein has got the disease now, and man, he has it BAD! (He's trying to give Talcott Parsons a run for his money).

Anyway, on the good side, his "Clinical Approach" methodology to diagnosing culture problems is one of the better approaches out there. It's very systematic and tries hard to go deep into understanding more than just a few superficial aspects of organizational culture. Thankfully, Schein doesn't advocate any type of culture survey. As a rule, avoid culture surveys--they mean nothing, or next to nothing. So anyway, does this clinical approach really work? Hell, I don't know--I mean, do any of these approaches really work? In general, the evidence doesn't tend to support the idea that culture management accomplishes what it claims to. But, having said that, Schein certainly has a better methodology than most of his counterparts. I think if you had a professional come into your company and use his Clinical approach, you'd certainly learn alot about what your people believe. On the other hand, I have doubts that this would make a good do-it-yourself project. Schein's approach is a major research undertaking. I don't think your average manager could read this book and then go do the Clinical approach to diagnosing culture problems. It's pretty hard to operationalize some of his ideas.

In any event, if you're a grad student or a researcher studying culture, you certainly want to read this book. It is widely referenced in the org culture literature and Schein represents a high water mark for functionalist org behaviorists. If, on the other hand, you're trying to fix your screwed up organizational culture, you could certainly do worse than to read this book. You might get a useful nugget or two out of it. If you want the full treatment though, I suspect you're going to have to call the maestro himself and have him send in his team of consultants (or what ever he has).

Rating:
Summary: A Classic in the Functionalist Culture Managment Genre
Review: I have to confess up front I'm a skeptic about the efficacy of "culture management." It's been a fad that, unfortunately, a lot of companies have wasted a lot of time and money on. As a graduate student in organizational sociology, I love studying organizational culture, but I haven't found much in the "applied" culture literature that persuades me that business firms ought to be nearly as transfixed by the allure of tweaking their culture as they have been. There's absolutely been a lot of hacks making money selling crackpot ideas to companies on the premise that strong culture=high profits. Oh well, consultants have to make a living too I guess. I just wish it wasn't giving organizational culture theory such a bad name. Anyhow, Schein is an exception to the rule. Certainly nobody could bad-mouth his academic credentials--having studied at University of Chicago, Stanford and Harvard--he's pretty much about as solid an organizational consultant as you're going to find. As for this book, it is indeed a classic of the functionalist approach to culture management.

Now, functionalism has gotten a bad name in sociology over the years. Critics call it an inherently conservative theory, focused only on what holds groups together, while at the same time entirely unable to account for conflict and other forces that pull groups apart. Some say functionalism is inherently tautological. I happen to like Durkheim myself and think we ought to cut him some slack for excessively functionalizing the world because he gave us the field of sociology as a gift. But somehow the disease of functionalism spread into psychology after the sociologists dropped it. Anyway, Schein has got the disease now, and man, he has it BAD! (He's trying to give Talcott Parsons a run for his money).

Anyway, on the good side, his "Clinical Approach" methodology to diagnosing culture problems is one of the better approaches out there. It's very systematic and tries hard to go deep into understanding more than just a few superficial aspects of organizational culture. Thankfully, Schein doesn't advocate any type of culture survey. As a rule, avoid culture surveys--they mean nothing, or next to nothing. So anyway, does this clinical approach really work? Hell, I don't know--I mean, do any of these approaches really work? In general, the evidence doesn't tend to support the idea that culture management accomplishes what it claims to. But, having said that, Schein certainly has a better methodology than most of his counterparts. I think if you had a professional come into your company and use his Clinical approach, you'd certainly learn alot about what your people believe. On the other hand, I have doubts that this would make a good do-it-yourself project. Schein's approach is a major research undertaking. I don't think your average manager could read this book and then go do the Clinical approach to diagnosing culture problems. It's pretty hard to operationalize some of his ideas.

In any event, if you're a grad student or a researcher studying culture, you certainly want to read this book. It is widely referenced in the org culture literature and Schein represents a high water mark for functionalist org behaviorists. If, on the other hand, you're trying to fix your screwed up organizational culture, you could certainly do worse than to read this book. You might get a useful nugget or two out of it. If you want the full treatment though, I suspect you're going to have to call the maestro himself and have him send in his team of consultants (or what ever he has).

Rating:
Summary: Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar Schein
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Diagnosing Culture the Key to Organizational Change
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Most important new framework of organizational behavior
Review: Mrs. Schein Organizational Culture framework must be one of the most important ones to study and understand organizational behavior. Mr. Schein's clinical psychology approach lead us to a very deep explanation about what kind of personal, groups and organizational dynamics are involved in the process of stability and change in an organization. A very interested framework including inconscious references. The clinical diagnostic approach Mr. Schein offers here is a very interesting methodology every organizational research or practitionaire must know and think about.

Rating:
Summary: Practical Approach to Diagnosing Culture
Review: Organizational Culture and Leadership is a classic work in the field of Organizational Culture Theory and as such it is a good reference to have. The frustration that many companies have, however, is putting theory into practice and unfortunately this book falls short of helping anyone (apart from O.D. PhD's) to do just that. A practical approach to the evaluation and transformation of culture would be more useful for the vast majority of companies.

For example an iterative approach to transformation and alignment using objective diagnostic tools (like the OCP Method developed by O'Reilly, Chatman and Caldwell) and the application of practical "bite-size" changes like leadership development/behvioral change; compensation system change, recruiting model change, organizational structure change, etc. is far more impactful and perhaps more importantly far more implementable. And, of course, as in any change effort, it is important to know whether you are making progress which is all the more reason to utilize an objective and validated measurment/diagnostic method or tool.

I really like Kaplan and Norton's work in tying Culture to Strategy in this area (check out their recent HBR article) and the work ThinkShed is doing based on O'Reilly, Chatman and Caldwell's OCP methodology...very practical, very measurable, very effective and being a web based tool, very very implementable.