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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Organisational culture

A visitor to Zorin Co notices that all staff, including directors, work in an open-plan office and use first names. Which level of Schein's model does this observation represent?

This is an artefact. Open-plan layout and first-name use are visible, observable features of the organisation. Artefacts are the surface level of Schein's model, and they can be seen easily but do not by themselves reveal the deeper values or assumptions behind them.

  1. AArtefactsCorrect
  2. BEspoused values
  3. CBasic underlying assumptions

Explanation

Office layout and forms of address are visible, observable features, so they are artefacts. They are easy to see but hard to interpret without understanding the deeper values and assumptions behind them.

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