Organizational Culture
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ALFRED
P.
WORKING PAPER SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
A DYNAMIC MODEL
EDGAR H. SCHEIN
WP#1412-83
FEBRUARY 1983
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
A DYNAMIC MODEL
EDGAR H. SCHEIN
WP#1412-83
FEBRUARY 1983
ly 18/83
0086H
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
A DYNAMIC MODEL^
Edgar H. Schein Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology
January, 1983
-1-
Introductlon
The
purpose
of
this
paper
Is
to
describe is and on a
argue a for
a
formal of of
model
of
organizational and culture
1
which will built
dynamic
model
learning
group
dynamics.
present
formal of definition the organizational culture and then elaborate each element
definition
as a way of explicating the implications of this way of thinking.
My
purpose
in
approaching for the
concept
in
this
manner cultures is
to
lay
a
conceptual
foundation
analyzing
organizational
which
will
make it possible for different observers and students of organizations to
begin to use a common frame of reference.
The approach
taken here
falls
into what Sanday (1979) would call the "holistic" approach, as distin-
guished from the "semlotic" or "behavioral," though taking a
I
hope to show that by
dynamic
evolutionary
point
of
view
I
one
can
incorporate
in
a
useful way all three of these approaches,
am making the assumption that
one needs to know more than the "shared understandings" which the semlotic
view advocates, in that even if we understand an organization well enough to live in it, we do not necessarily understand how an organization got
to
be that way, or where
it to
is
^<
0-
J^/^-S3
,
c.-r^^ ^
ALFRED
P.
WORKING PAPER SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
A DYNAMIC MODEL
EDGAR H. SCHEIN
WP#1412-83
FEBRUARY 1983
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
A DYNAMIC MODEL
EDGAR H. SCHEIN
WP#1412-83
FEBRUARY 1983
ly 18/83
0086H
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
A DYNAMIC MODEL^
Edgar H. Schein Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology
January, 1983
-1-
Introductlon
The
purpose
of
this
paper
Is
to
describe is and on a
argue a for
a
formal of of
model
of
organizational and culture
1
which will built
dynamic
model
learning
group
dynamics.
present
formal of definition the organizational culture and then elaborate each element
definition
as a way of explicating the implications of this way of thinking.
My
purpose
in
approaching for the
concept
in
this
manner cultures is
to
lay
a
conceptual
foundation
analyzing
organizational
which
will
make it possible for different observers and students of organizations to
begin to use a common frame of reference.
The approach
taken here
falls
into what Sanday (1979) would call the "holistic" approach, as distin-
guished from the "semlotic" or "behavioral," though taking a
I
hope to show that by
dynamic
evolutionary
point
of
view
I
one
can
incorporate
in
a
useful way all three of these approaches,
am making the assumption that
one needs to know more than the "shared understandings" which the semlotic
view advocates, in that even if we understand an organization well enough to live in it, we do not necessarily understand how an organization got
to
be that way, or where
it to
is
References: University of Chicago Press, 1950. Sloan School of Management, MIT, Working Paper itw 1279-82, 1982. New York: Wiley, 1976, The Silent Language New York: Doubltday, 1959. London: Penguin, 1978, Harrison, R, Sept .-Oct., 1972.