Edgar Schein’s Three Layers of Organisational Culture

Three Layers of Organisational Culture

This week, on January 26 2023, Edgar Schein (born March 5, 1928), died aged 94. Edgar was a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and significant contributor to the field of organisational management and culture change. Ed wrote the fantastic books “Humble Inquiry“, “Humble Leadership” and “Humble Consulting“, which introduce the concept of “here-and-now-humility“, which is certainly a subject for a future newsletter.

In 1965, Ed Schein, together with Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California, wrote “Personal and Organizational Change through Group Methods: The Laboratory Approach“. I have a first edition copy of this on my office bookshelf, because, as far as I’m aware, it’s the first time that the term “psychological safety” appears in the academic literature. Schein and Bennis describe psychological safety as reducing “a person’s anxiety about being basically accepted and worthwhile”.
 

In 1992, Schein wrote “How Can Organizations Learn Faster? The Problem of Entering the Green Room“. In it, he described psychological safety as essential for people to overcome defensiveness and “learning anxiety” at work, particularly if they’ve made a mistake or something hasn’t gone to plan. He said that psychological safety allows people to focus on shared goals rather than self-protection. (Thanks to Amy Edmondson and her excellent book “The Fearless Organization” for the signpost to Schein’s research.)

One of Schein’s major contributions to the field of organisational development was his model of the three “levels” of organisational culture. Described in his 1985 article in “Issues in Understanding and Changing Culture” in the California Management Review journal, these are Schein’s three levels of culture:

Schein’s Three Levels of Organisational Culture

1- Artefacts. These describe any overt, visible, describable aspects of the organisation. Think things like branding and logos, office design, dress code, policies and tools. Things that you can see.
2- Espoused values. This is how people would describe the organisation, in current or aspirational terms. These include missions, goals, value statements, and social contracts.
3- Underlying assumptions. These are unconscious, unspoken, hard to articulate elements of the organisation, particularly from within. They include the “real” but unspoken aim of the organisation (to make the owner or shareholders wealthy? To serve the public? To create jobs?) and underlying beliefs about quality, speed, or safety.
 

The idea espoused by Schein is that the underlying assumptions of an organisation give rise to the espoused values. The espoused values then drive people to create the organisational artefacts – which are at the surface: easy to see and change. However, the underlying assumptions are the heart and soul, the undertone of the organisation that we cannot easily see or determine – and if we want to change an organisation, it is here, in the depths of organisational culture, that we must work. Shared tacit assumptions influence everything that happens in an organisation, but they’re difficult to uncover, and even more difficult to change. If we don’t discover or understand these underlying assumptions, any organisational change may not succeed anywhere other than at surface level.

Applying Schein’s layers in reverse

Conversely, it’s also possible to work “top-down” in Schein’s model. By introducing new artefacts such as tools, systems or policies, we can begin to influence the espoused values of the organisation. Over time, these can filter down into the fundamental underlying assumptions.

For example, if we update the parental leave policy to provide equal, paid, long-term parental leave for both parents, we’re stating that the organisation considers parenting to be the role of both parents equally, rather than primarily a woman’s responsibility. This outward stance gradually embeds in the organisation toward a foundation of gender equity, and may well lead to further changes back “up” the hierarchy.

Psychological Safety

And this is where a lot of work in fostering greater psychological safety in an organisation must focus. If the underlying assumptions support psychological safety, great – we can work to instil behaviours, practices and tools to foster greater psychological safety. If the underlying assumptions of an organisation do not support fostering psychological safety, we must address why.

Remote and virtual work

Edgar Schein’s model of organisational culture remains especially relevant today, particularly when considering remote work, diversity and inclusion. Remote work, accelerated by the Covid pandemic, changed traditional organisational artefacts such as physical office spaces and face-to-face interactions, and pushed companies to rethink their approach to collaboration and communication tools. This shift has significant implications for Schein’s espoused values, as organisations must now articulate and reinforce their culture and values in a virtual environment.

Diversity and Inclusion

In respect to diversity and inclusion, underlying assumptions of an organisation play a key role. These deeply embedded beliefs can either foster an inclusive culture or, conversely, sustain systemic (and harmful) biases. Organisations striving for genuine inclusivity must confront and reshape these foundational assumptions. The authenticity and effectiveness of DEI efforts are rooted in the underlying assumptions about the organisation’s role and responsibility in society. Thus, Schein’s model serves as a useful framework for understanding and navigating the complexities of modern organisational behavior, highlighting how surface-level changes in an organisation are often symptomatic of deeper cultural dynamics.

Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Here’s a fascinating piece by Becky Kane diving into Shopify’s recent announcement that they were cancelling all recurring meetings. “Effective immediately, all recurring meetings with more than 2 people would be automatically removed from company calendars – canceling 76,500 hours of meetings per year in one fell swoop.” Whilst uninterrupted focus time is invaluable, even crucial, all that communication has to happen somewhere, so most likely it’ll move to Slack, emails, whatsapp messages, and, I suspect, unofficial secret meetings. Becky shows what true asynchronous work looks like in this great graphic.
 

I feel very honoured to have been invited to co-host not just one, but three episodes of Rebranding Safety with James MacPherson of Risk Fluent. The first episode is available here on YouTube, or here as audio, where we discuss the fundamentals of psychological safety in relation to risk, key names in the field, and why psychological safety is the precursor to physical safety.
 

This is fascinating research showing that Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons were “virtue locales”, or “physical manifestations” of social responsibility and psychological safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are often trusted places where culturally appropriate health interventions could be implemented. I love the idea that there exist these valuable “locales” where people who belong to different groups feel more psychologically safe, and these can in turn provide powerful avenues for greater social impact.

Listen to this episode of the HBR IdeaCast with Professor Amy Edmondson and INSEAD associate professor Mark Mortensen, called “Money, Flexibility, Development? Figuring Out What Employees Really Value”: Studies show that, over the long term, in addition to higher salaries, stock options or flexible working, employees also value aspects of work that they overlook in the short term, such as community and opportunities for growth.

Things to do and try

Here’s a fabulous resource from UK firm the Co-operative Group. Designed for their own internal use, they’ve opened it up so anyone can access the valuable tips and tools inside. Here’s the section for “Getting Started in Facilitation“, from which I’m sure you’ll find a bunch of other useful resources, activities and workshops.

This week’s poem:

You are old, Father William, by Louis Carroll, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865.

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
    “And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
    Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
    “I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
    Why, I do it again and again.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned before,
    And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
    Pray, what is the reason of that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
    “I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—
    Allow me to sell you a couple.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “and your jaws are too weak
    For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
    Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

“In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,
    And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
    Has lasted the rest of my life.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “one would hardly suppose
    That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
    What made you so awfully clever?”

“I have answered three questions, and that is enough,”
    Said his father; “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
    Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!


Like many poems in Alice in Wonderland, this is a parody of a poem by Robert Southey called “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them”, published in 1799.

The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them, by Robert Southey, 1799

“You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“The few locks which are left you are grey;
You are hale, father William, a hearty old man;
Now tell me the reason, I pray.”

“In the days of my youth,” father William replied,
“I remember’d that youth would fly fast,
And abus’d not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last.”

“You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“And pleasures with youth pass away.
And yet you lament not the days that are gone;
Now tell me the reason I pray.”

“In the days of my youth,” father William replied,
“I remember’d that youth could not last;
I thought of the future, whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the past.”

“You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“And life must be hast’ning away;
You are cheerful and love to converse upon death;
Now tell me the reason, I pray.”

“I am cheerful, young man,” father William replied,
“Let the cause thy attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remember’d my God!
And He hath not forgotten my age”