Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 464 pages
- Published by: Jossey-Bass
- Edition: 3rd Edition September 1, 2004
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0787975974
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0787975975
-
Book Dimensions:
8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
- Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
“This easy-to-read, practical guide is packed full of ideas, tools and techniques for influencing culture…” (
Health Service Journal, 21st October 2004)
"Professional groups maintain their authority by…having specialised language, rituals and rules (Schein, 1992)." (
Nursing Times, September 2006)
Product Description
In this third edition of his classic book, Edgar Schein shows how to transform the abstract concept of culture into a practical tool that managers and students can use to understand the dynamics of organizations and change. Organizational pioneer Schein updates his influential understanding of culture--what it is, how it is created, how it evolves, and how it can be changed. Focusing on today's business realities, Schein draws on a wide range of contemporary research to redefine culture, offers new information on the topic of occupational cultures, and demonstrates the crucial role leaders play in successfully applying the principles of culture to achieve organizational goals. He also tackles the complex question of how an existing culture can be changed--one of the toughest challenges of leadership. The result is a vital resource for understanding and practicing organizational effectiveness.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Organizational Culture and Leadership (Jossey-Bass Psychology Series) (Paperback)
"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.
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