Practicing Organization Development, 5th Edition

CHAPTER THIRTEENCulture Matters in Organization Development

Peter A. Schein

“The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.”

Ed Schein said this many times to me and to our clients in the years we worked together. The last book Ed and I wrote about organizational culture was subtitled Culture Change Leadership because the leadership of people always involves culture, and leading creates change. An over-arching goal of OD can therefore be thought of as deep partnering with leaders in creating and adapting the cultures of their organizations. Ed Schein believed this existential goal—understanding, fostering, and changing culture—may in fact demand OD’s attention above and beyond all other improvement initiatives. This chapter reviews a Schein culture model that has evolved over the past forty years to emphasize that leaders must be mindful of their organizations’ culture every day by seeing, hearing, and feeling what is working and what is not. Organization Development leaders can help by sharing this mindfulness, helping organizational leaders find the time and space to put culture matters first, alongside strategy and profitability.

WHAT IS CULTURE AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Ed reassured us that we can always start our exploration of culture with the comfortable analogy to individual personality. Maturity comes from learning how to deal with challenges and developing identity composed of values around our successes and failures. Organizations ...