During a recent culture-related discussion, there was an interesting conversation on why certain culture related initiatives fail in certain organizations when they are successfully implemented elsewhere. This led me to write this article on the “Three Levels of Culture” as a foundation for few other articles to follow.
“Culture is easy to sense, but hard to measure”. When everything is going smoothly, most of us don’t even talk about culture, but when something goes wrong or needs fixing, culture becomes a common topic of discussion.
Edgar Schein, a prominent organizational psychologist and management theorist, proposed the “three levels of culture” model to understand and analyze organizational cultures. According to Schein, culture is deeply ingrained within an organization and influences its members’ behavior, values, and assumptions.
The three levels of culture are:
- Artifacts
- Espoused Beliefs & Values
- Underlying Beliefs
Artifacts:
This is the tip of the iceberg. Artefacts include the physical environment, dress code, office layout, ceremonies, rituals, free food, foosball tables and other observable elements. While some leaders may consider these artefacts as “THE” culture, they are just one component of organizational culture. Artifacts represent the most visible level of culture and include tangible elements that people can easily observe.
Espoused Beliefs & Values:
“Espoused Beliefs & Values” are explicitly stated beliefs, values, and norms that are shared and communicated by the organization. This level includes the mission statement, vision, policies, principles, tag lines, and other formal expressions of the organization’s values. For an organization to promote a desired culture successfully, employees must have clarity on these espoused beliefs and values. They provide a framework for decision-making, and employees can use them to assess whether their behaviors/actions align with the organization’s stated values.
Underlying Beliefs:
At a deeper level, “Underlying beliefs” are held by employees and include assumptions about how they should work with colleagues and the behaviors that lead to success or failure. These beliefs are often subconscious and deeply ingrained, not explicitly written or spoken about. Examples of underlying beliefs may include notions like “If there’s a will, there’s a way”, “Our department is more superior than others”, “The boss knows better than me”, “I cannot go wrong”, “Women are less suited for leadership roles”, “Digital communication is less meaningful than face-to-face interaction” and “One shouldn’t question adults” among others.
This being one of the best sources to build up on any culture related discussion, where do you think we should put more focus & energy in defining a desired culture? See whether you can reflect on this! I’ll set up a poll soon.
- Artifacts
- Espoused Beliefs & Values
- Underlying Beliefs
- All of above
————-
Charitha Bandara is an HR Professional with more than 23+ years of corporate exposure, specializes & passionate in the areas of Coaching, Culture, Leadership/Management/Team/People Development. As a trainer & a consultant, he has conducted 1,000+ corporate training sessions during last 15 years and trained over 66,000+ participants.
#culture #culturematters #tranformative #journey #charitha #bandara #cb #artifacts #beliefs #values #edgar #training #management #coaching #leadership #articles
