Edgar Schein’s Three Layers of Organizational Culture

Edgar Schein’s Three Layers of Organizational Culture

Three Layers of Organizational Culture.


Edgar Schein – born March 5, 1928 – passed away at the age of 94. Ed was a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and significant contributor to the field of organizational management and culture change. He wrote the fantastic books “Humble Inquiry“, “Humble Leadership” and “Humble Consulting“. These introduce the beautiful concept of “here-and-now-humility“, which is certainly a subject for a future newsletter.

Schein’s landmark book, “Organizational Culture and Leadership”, builds on the 1984 article and popularized the three‐level model for practitioners and scholars alike.

Edgar Schein’s Organizational Culture triangle says that there are different layers to the cultures within organizations. There are shallow layers that have some impact on an organizations culture or which may be some indication of what a culture is actually like. There are also deeper layers which provide a much greater insight into what a culture is actually like.

Artifacts
Artifacts are the visible signs of an organizational culture. They are the shallowest indicator of what an organization’s culture is actually like. Artifacts can include things like posters, dress-codes, job-titles used and the style and design of workspaces.
While analyzing artifacts may give you some insight into what an organization’s culture is like, they won’t provide much insight. Similarly, while changing an organization’s artifacts might lead to some change in culture, it won’t achieve significant change.

Espoused Values
Espoused values are the things that an organization says about its culture and ways of working. These are deeper indicators and levers of culture than artifacts, but shallower than underlying beliefs.
Espoused values include things like organizational values and behaviors, company or employee charters, team contracts, perhaps vision and mission statements and the types of things promoted through newsletters and so on.
Analyzing espoused values will provide some insight into an organization’s culture, and changing them will provide some level of change to organizational culture. The effects though won’t be huge.


Underlying Beliefs
The underlying beliefs held by members of an organization are significantly deeper indicators of an organization’s culture than either its artifacts or espoused values. They reflect the way that the organizational really works on the inside.
Underlying beliefs held by employees of an organization include assumptions about how they should work with each other. They also include beliefs about what behaviors will really lead to workplace success of failure. For example, many organizations espouse that remote working is a great thing, however employees may have underlying beliefs that you need to be physically present at work to be recognized by the organization.
Employees’ underlying beliefs are the strongest indicator of what an organization’s culture is actually like. This makes them the strongest levers of organizational change. However, they are also the hardest levers to influence.









Reference - 

  • Schein, E. H. (1984). Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture. Sloan Management Review, 25(2), 3–16.
  • Kilmann, R.H., Saxton, M.J. and Serpa, R., 1986. Issues in understanding and changing culture. California Management Review, 28(2).
  • Schein, E.H., 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership. 4th ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Ouchi, W.G. and Wilkins, A.L., 1985. Organizational culture. Annual review of sociology, 11(1), pp.457-483.
  • Kenny, G., (2012). Diversification: Best practices of the leading companies. Journal of Business Strategy, 33(1), 12-20.
  • Ojo, O. (2020). Organizational Culture and Corporate Performance: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria. Journal of Business Systems Governance & Ethics. 5(2), 
  • Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge.
  • Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T.A., 2022. Organizational Behavior. 19th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education.


Comments

  1. Himasha AmarathungaJuly 30, 2025 at 3:51 AM

    Schein's model breakdown is perfect, Author.
    As this model Schein (2010), during the level of underlying assumptions real cultural change begins. In your view, how can leaders identify these assumptions without breaking the trust?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dilanka SadeeshwaranathJuly 31, 2025 at 12:02 AM

    You’ve done well to highlight that deeper layers (underlying beliefs) are the most powerful yet hardest to change, aligning with Schein’s foundational work (Schein, 2010).

    To further strengthen this, you could integrate practical applications or case examples—for instance, how companies have successfully shifted underlying beliefs to drive culture transformation. Additionally, recent studies (e.g., Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015) emphasize that sustainable cultural change requires aligning all three layers simultaneously, which could enrich your analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gayathri KaushalyaJuly 31, 2025 at 8:47 AM

    Hi suvini Edgar Schein’s “Three Layers of Culture” framework is powerful in illustrating how artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions interconnect. This post does a fantastic job of breaking down each layer and showing how they influence employee behaviours and organizational identity. Clear, insightful, and highly applicable—thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sanduni LakchaniJuly 31, 2025 at 9:41 AM

    You’ve explained Schein’s model in a very approachable way. I appreciate how you connected each layer to real workplace practices. As Dewar (2025) puts it, “Understanding the invisible layers of culture helps leaders decode employee behavior and shape the visible ones.” This framework is crucial for deep cultural assessment and change initiatives.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tharmalingam KuganeshanAugust 1, 2025 at 12:46 AM

    A well-articulated explanation of Schein’s three-layer model! I particularly liked how you broke down each level artifacts, espoused values, and underlying beliefs that making the complex theory easy to understand. The example about remote work vs. actual beliefs was spot-on. One suggestion: including a brief real-world case study showing how these layers interact in practice could further enrich the analysis. Great job highlighting the depth of cultural transformation!

    ReplyDelete
  6. NishadiAugust 1, 2025 at 9:52 AM

    What a powerful tribute to Edgar Schein’s legacy. His three-level model remains such a practical lens for understanding culture. The part about underlying beliefs really struck me—it’s so true that what people really believe shapes everything. Thank you for breaking it down so clearly and honoring his important work.

    ReplyDelete

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