The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER SEVENTEENCULTURE ASSESSMENT AS AN OD INTERVENTION

Edgar H. Schein

Most culture-related interventions do not involve culture change. Instead, they are interventions into some aspect of how the organization works that can actually be changed using the culture rather than changing it. Most clients do not understand the nature of culture and therefore often label something as cultural that may not be cultural at all. This chapter explores how OD practitioners can work with organizations on cultural issues in such a way as to enable members of the organization to identify important cultural assumptions and to evaluate the degree to which those assumptions aid or hinder changes that the organization is trying to make. A cultural assessment ...