Edgar Schein

The Essence of Change: Brainwashing, Culture Evolution and Organizational Therapy
July 7-11

This week we will try to make sense of the whole range of learning and change phenomena that occur in individuals, groups and organizations. By reviewing and updating the various research areas I have been involved with over the last 50 years we will analyze: drastic individual change (coercive persuasion), career development, human resource planning, process consultation, group dynamics, organizational culture and the impact of subculture dynamics on critical problem areas such as "safety culture" in the nuclear and health care industry. The concepts will be illustrated by many stories based on my experiences as a researcher and consultant.

Through this analysis we will build a theory of change and learning dynamics focusing on: the elaboration of Lewin's unfreezing, changing, and refreezing model, the role of disconfirmation in initiating change, the management of survival anxiety in relation to learning anxiety, and the creation of psychological safety as the key to adult learning. Particular emphasis will be given to managed culture change, organizational health and what "therapy" for an organization consists of.

This program is designed both for beginners who want to explore various aspects of the theory and practice of organizational learning, change, and development, and for more advanced researchers and practitioners who want to explore a conceptual integration of individual and systemic perspectives. The program is primarily lectures, discussion, and daily small dialogue groups.

Monday
An overview of how coercive persuasion, career anchors, process consultation, culture and change arose as key elements in my own research and consulting career, with special emphasis of what is to be learned from the analysis of the "brainwashing" of POWs and civilians during the Korean conflict in the 1950's. First overview of learning and change dynamics.

Tuesday
Human resource planning through an analysis of career anchors, career dynamics, and job/role planning. Change as growth and job evolution.

Wednesday
The philosophy and practice of process consultation and the role of the consultant in "discovering"culture as one works with organizations. Helping systems to make their own needed changes.

Thursday
How leaders create, embed, evolve, and destroy cultural elements will be reviewed and managed culture change as a formal process will be analyzed. Is culture change different?

Friday
What is organizational health and what is organizational therapy? The role of sub-cultures and their impact on "safety culture" will be explored. Summary of change theory and change dynamics.

Edgar H. Schein, Ph.D., received his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and Stanford. His Ph.D. (1952) is from Harvard's Department of Social Relations where he majored in social psychology but was heavily influenced by clinical psychology, sociology and anthropology. After four years of work at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in David Rioch's Department of Neuropsychiatry, he moved to MIT's Sloan School where he is now Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus.

His early research on the "brainwashing" of Korean prisoners of war was published in Coercive Persuasion (1961). Subsequently, he worked on organizational socialization and career development (Career Dynamics, 1978) and organizational culture (Organizational Culture and Leadership (third edition, 2004). He wrote one of the first textbooks on Organizational Psychology, now in its third edition, developed the concept of Process Consultation (revised edition in 1999), and recently published a third edition of Career Anchors and Job/Role Planning, (2006).

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