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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Leadership and organisational culture

At Kestrel Consulting, a senior manager says: 'Our stated values are innovation and openness, yet in meetings people never challenge the partners, and the office layout reflects strict seniority.' Using Schein's three levels of culture, what is the manager describing?

The manager is describing a gap between Kestrel's espoused values of innovation and openness and its basic underlying assumptions, which show in artefacts such as seniority-based layout and in behaviour such as not challenging partners. This is Schein's three-level model, where assumptions drive real behaviour.

  1. AA gap between espoused values and the underlying basic assumptions shown through artefacts and behaviourCorrect
  2. BA misalignment between Johnson and Scholes's stories and symbols and the paradigm
  3. CA mismatch between Hofstede's power distance and individualism dimensions
  4. DA conflict between the cultural web's control systems and organisational structures

Explanation

Schein's levels are artefacts, espoused values and basic underlying assumptions. The visible artefacts (seating by seniority) and behaviour (not challenging partners) reveal assumptions that contradict the espoused values of openness. The other options use different models and do not describe the case as framed.

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