Edgar H. Schein's contribution to organization development and change

David Coghlan

Chapter 1 in Cases in Organization Development and Change, 2026, pp 2-10 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Major Focus of the Case: It is appropriate that the first case in this book is a study of the life and contributions of organization development (OD) pioneer Dr. Edgar Schein. Dr. Schein was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and moved to the U.S. at age 10 with his parents when his father, a physicist, became a professor at the University of Chicago. Dr. Schein earned a BA at the University of Chicago, an MA in Social Psychology at Stanford, and a PhD in Social Psychology at Harvard. Dr. Schein began his academic career at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1956. He retired as Emeritus Professor and Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and remained involved at MIT for a period of 65 years. He is considered one of the early founders of the fields of organizational psychology and organization development, with a major book in organizational psychology published in 1965 and a major book published in organization development along with being an editor of the first OD series of books in 1969. He is best known in OD for his pioneering work in process consultation, organization culture, humble consultation and leadership, and career development. After retiring from MIT he founded the Organization Culture and Leadership Institute and continued working with his son Peter as an OD consultant, coach, and trainer and publishing books and articles until he passed away at age 94 in 2023.

Keywords: Edgar H. Schein; Organization development and change; Systems view of organizations/organizational effectiveness; Chris Argyris; Richard Beckhard; Warren Bennis; Action research; Process consultation; Lewin-Schein socio-psychological model of change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035340965
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