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

Marden Bank's board publicly states a value of 'customer integrity'. However, sales staff are paid large bonuses for volume targets, and colleagues who raise concerns about mis-selling are quietly sidelined. Using Schein's levels of culture, what does this situation most clearly show?

A gap between espoused values and underlying assumptions. The bank claims customer integrity, but rewarding volume and sidelining those who raise concerns shows the real assumptions driving behaviour are different. In Schein's model, actual behaviour reveals deeper assumptions more reliably than stated values.

  1. AA gap between espoused values and the underlying assumptions that drive actual behaviourCorrect
  2. BA weakness in the artefacts, since the bank's logo and premises are inconsistent
  3. CA strong shared set of basic assumptions that matches the stated values
  4. DA cultural web with no significant control systems

Explanation

In Schein's model, espoused values are what the organisation says it believes, while underlying assumptions are what actually guides behaviour. Here rewards and treatment of whistleblowers reveal that assumptions favour sales volume over integrity. The mismatch is not about visible artefacts, and the values and assumptions are not aligned.

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