What is the Levels of Culture? Definition and meaning

Levels of Culture

Definition: the Levels of Culture is a model of organization cultures by Schein ('92) describing 3 levels at which culture is playing a role:
1. Artifacts. The organizational structures and business processes. Even if these "artifacts" are visual and at the surface, they are still hard to understand.
2. Espoused values. Beneath the artifacts are conscious strategies, corporate goals and philosophies.
3. Basic assumptions and values (e.g. nature of humans, human relationships and activity, reality and truth). Represent the core, or essence, of culture. Are difficult to discern because they exist at a largely unconscious level. Yet they are key to understand why things happen in a particular way.

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More on organization culture: Considerations Changing Organization Cultures, Culture Types, Dimensions of Culture, Employee Ownership, Esprit de Corps, more...

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