Edgar H. Schein 1928-2023: A Reflective Appreciation by David Coghlan

Abstract

Edgar H. Schein’s name may not be known to action researchers outside of the realm of organizational psychology and organization development. For over fifty years he held the position of Professor of Management at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. He was one of the first to formulate the field of organizational psychology in 1965 and led the development organization development (OD) through his editorship of the pioneering Addison-Wesley OD series in 1969. For almost seventy years he has creatively and systematically shaped theory and practice in areas such as: organization development and change, career dynamics, the cultural dynamics of complex systems and leadership. Other contributions that are found in articles, book chapters, interviews, You Tubes include his reflections on learning and education and notions of organizational therapy, organizational socialization, dialogue and the role of anxiety in organizational change. With such an extensive corpus over such a long period, Schein been termed a “transcendent thought leader” and it is in this spirit that I select one strand of his work for Action Research readers so as to acknowledge his place in our field and to sustain his legacy. Since 1969 Schein has framed and developed a philosophy of being helpful that has become mainstream in both the academic and practitioner literatures. He has termed this philosophy process consultation, clinical inquiry/research and humble inquiry respectively and it is in these terms that I structure this appreciative reflection.