Culture · diagnosis & change01
Schein’s three levels of culture
Move from visible routines to the beliefs beneath them, and investigate why stated values and daily decisions can diverge.
Edgar H. Schein4 min
The culture collection
Look beneath the surface.
Understand how work really happens: what people assume, what gets rewarded, and which routines keep a pattern in place. Eight models, with practical applications and honest limits.
Start with the culture diagnosis playbook: Schein for depth, Cameron and Quinn for priorities, and the Cultural Web for practices to change. This is a useful reading route, not a universal formula.
Choose the question before the model.
| Model | Best starting question | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Schein | Why does this behaviour feel normal? | Assumptions need investigation. |
| Deal & Kennedy | How do risk and feedback shape work? | Different activities have different stakes. |
| Handy | Where does authority really sit? | Several organising logics can coexist. |
| Cameron & Quinn | Which priorities are competing? | No quadrant is always best. |
| Hofstede | What national-level context might matter? | Group averages do not describe individuals. |
| Cultural Web | Which practices reinforce this pattern? | A map remains a hypothesis. |
| Denison | How do culture and effectiveness relate? | Association alone does not prove causation. |
| McKinsey 7-S | Do our arrangements support our direction? | Alignment is broader than culture. |
No matches. Try a broader term or clear the filters.
Culture · diagnosis & change02
Deal and Kennedy’s culture model
Explore how the stakes of decisions and the speed of learning about their outcomes shape working habits.
Terrence E. Deal4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change03
Handy’s four organisational cultures
Understand where authority comes from: personal influence, defined roles, specialist expertise or professional autonomy.
Charles Handy4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change04
Cameron and Quinn’s Competing Values Framework
Compare collaboration, innovation, competition and control without assuming that one culture is always best.
Kim S. Cameron4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change05
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions at work
Use national-level comparisons to ask better questions about international work, without stereotyping individuals.
Geert Hofstede4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change06
Johnson and Scholes’ Cultural Web
Trace the stories, routines, symbols and systems that keep an organisation’s assumptions in place.
Gerry Johnson4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change07
The Denison organisational culture model
Connect mission, adaptability, involvement and consistency with a disciplined discussion of organisational effectiveness.
Daniel R. Denison4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change08
McKinsey’s 7-S framework
Check whether strategy, structure, systems and people arrangements support the same direction.
McKinsey4 min
Culture · diagnosis & change09
Choosing and combining culture models
A practical route from understanding culture to selecting a change and evaluating what happens.
ADM HR editorial synthesis4 min