A former MIT professor at the Sloan School of Management, Edgar Schein has made compelling contributions in the area of ??organizational development in many aspects, including career development, process and organizational culture.
Schein's organizational culture model was born in the 1980s. Schein (2004) identifies three distinct levels in organizational cultures:
Artifacts and behaviors
Adopted values
The unspoken assumptions
Artifacts include all tangible, overt, or verbally identifiable elements in any organization. The architecture, the furniture, the dress code, the office jokes, all illustrate organizational artifacts. Artifacts are visible elements in a culture and can be recognized by people who are not part of the culture.
The values ??expressed are the values ??and rules of behavior of the organization. This is how members represent the organization both for themselves and for others. This is often expressed in official philosophies and public statements of identity. It can sometimes be a projection for the future, what members hope to become. Examples of this are the professionalism of the employees, or a "family first" mantra. Problems can arise if the values ??defended by the leaders do not conform to the deeper tacit assumptions of the culture.
The shared basic assumptions are deeply rooted, taken for granted, behaviors that are usually unconscious, but are the essence of culture. These assumptions are generally so well integrated into office dynamics that it is difficult to recognize them from within.