Biography

Edgar Henry Schein (born 1928), a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has made a notable mark on the field of organizational development in many areas, including career development, group process consultation, and organizational culture. He is generally credited with inventing the term "corporate culture". (The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase "corporate culture" as far back as "1966 Acad. Managem. Jrnl. 9 362/2".)

Edgar Schein investigates organizational culture, process consultation, the research process, career dynamics, and organization learning and change. In Career Survival: Strategic Job and Role Planning (Pfeiffer, 1994), he presents concepts and activities for managers and employees based on research he first reported in Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organization Needs (Addison-Wesley, 1978). In his book, Strategic Pragmatism: The Culture of Singapore's Economic Development Board (MIT Press, 1996), he describes how the board created the Singapore economic miracle. His recent books are Process Consultation Revisited: How to Build the Helping Relationship (Addison-Wesley, 1999); and The Corporate Culture Survival Guide (Jossey-Bass, 1999). His most recent book, DEC is Dead; Long Live DEC (Berett-Kohler, 2003), is a cultural analysis of the rise and fall of Digital Equipment Corporation.