---
title: "Schein's three levels of culture: a workplace guide"
description: "Schein's three levels of culture, with a 60-person company example, a sorting table and a four-hour session to find the assumptions blocking change."
url: "https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/blog/ba-tang-van-hoa-schein"
lang: en-GB
author: "Lê Quốc Khôi"
date: 2026-11-02
updated: 2026-11-03
topics: ["Change management"]
tags: ["Change management", "Organisational culture", "Schein model", "Culture change"]
---

# Schein's three levels of culture, with workplace examples

## Key takeaways

- Schein divides culture into three levels by how visible they are to an observer: artefacts, espoused beliefs and values, and basic underlying assumptions (Schein, 2010).
- Artefacts are easy to observe and hard to decipher. Espoused values may be rationalisations or aspirations. The essence of culture lies in the basic assumptions (Schein, 2010).
- The route down: list artefacts and espoused values separately, then look for where they disagree, because a basic assumption is running there (Schein, 2009).
- The 60-person distributor in this post is hypothetical, with no real data. A Great Place To Work UK article on Admiral Group is enough to practise sorting the first two levels, not enough to say what Admiral's basic assumptions are (Great Place To Work UK, 2025).
- In the two Schein texts I read, the model has three levels. Visible behaviour belongs to the artefact level; it is not a fourth.

The reception area of a 60-person building-materials distributor in Can Tho carries the slogan "The customer comes first". Yet a member of staff who wants to refund an order above VND 500,000 needs three signatures, and it usually takes three days. The owner wants staff to decide faster. Should the owner change the signing procedure, rewrite the values, or go deeper than either? The firm is hypothetical, and I invented every detail to illustrate the point. [Schein's three levels of culture](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/framework/schein-culture-levels) helps you choose which level to look at before you choose what to do.

## What are Schein's three levels of culture?

They are three ways of looking at a culture, ordered by how visible it is to the observer: artefacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. Schein uses "level" in exactly that sense, the degree to which a cultural phenomenon is visible to the observer (Schein, 2010).

> **Figure:** [Schein's three levels of culture](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/framework/schein-culture-levels) Schein's three levels of culture, from outermost to innermost (redrawn after Schein, 2010).

[Artefacts](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/glossary#artefacts-espoused-values-assumptions) are everything you see, hear and feel on meeting an unfamiliar group: its architecture, language, products, dress and forms of address, the stories told about the organisation, its published list of values, its rituals. Visible behaviour, procedures and organisation charts belong here too. The defining trait: very easy to observe and very hard to decipher (Schein, 2010).

Espoused beliefs and values are what an organisation says about how it acts: strategy, goals, philosophy. According to Schein they usually start as the belief of a founder or leader. If the group follows, sees good results and the approach keeps working, the belief becomes a shared value and then an assumption. But espoused values can also be rationalisations or aspirations, and lists of them are often so abstract that they contradict each other, as when a company claims both the highest quality and the lowest cost (Schein, 2010).

Basic assumptions are what the group takes for granted, often without noticing it believes them. Schein writes that the essence of culture lies here. Unlike values, assumptions are close to non-negotiable, so someone who does not share them tends to be seen as an outsider or as odd (Schein, 2010).

## What does the 60-person company have at each level?

Sort each observation into its level, then set level one beside level two. The table below is hypothetical, not drawn from a real business.

| Observation (hypothetical) | Level | What it tells you |
|:--|:--|:--|
| Slogan "The customer comes first" printed in reception | The print is an artefact; what it declares is an espoused value | What the company says it wants. Not yet what it does |
| Refunds above VND 500,000 need three signatures, three days on average | Artefact (procedure) | Who may decide about the company's money |
| A story told to newcomers: someone once swapped goods for a customer on their own and was named in an all-hands meeting | Artefact (story) | How the company treats people who decide for themselves |
| Branch managers lose bonus points when the refund rate is high | Artefact (reward system) | What counts as performance |
| Inference: "front-line staff cannot yet be trusted with the company's money" | Basic assumption (still a hypothesis) | Nobody wrote it down. Inferred from three artefacts that agree with each other and disagree with the slogan |

The slogan says one thing and three artefacts say another. Schein uses exactly this kind of mismatch as the way down to the deeper level. His example: an organisation espouses open communication, yet whistle-blowers and people who bring bad news are punished. He reads the assumption at the deeper level as "only positive communications are valued" (Schein, 2009).

The last row of the table remains a hypothesis. Schein warns that inferring assumptions from artefacts alone is dangerous, because the interpretation will be a projection of the observer's own reactions. Someone who believes that informality means playing around will read an informal company as inefficient (Schein, 2010). So go back to the people involved: why did the three signatures appear, and who has ever lost out through a wrong refund?

## To make staff decide faster, which level do you change?

In my reading, changing artefacts is the first step, not the finish. If the owner only removes two signatures, the story and the bonus rule still say the old thing.

Schein writes that changing basic assumptions is difficult, slow and anxiety-provoking, because it touches what people take for granted. Two tasks follow: manage that anxiety, and judge whether the group has the capacity to learn something new (Schein, 2010). The steps below are my reading, not Schein's formula:

1. State the assumption you want, in one testable sentence, such as "front-line staff decide refunds up to VND 1,000,000".
2. Change several artefacts together: the signing limit, the branch managers' bonus measure, and the story the owner tells.
3. Prepare for the first wrong refund. How the owner reacts to it becomes a new story, and a heavier one than the slogan.

This suits you if you can live with a few mistakes and will change the bonus rule too. If not, dropping a signature only tidies the surface.

## What does Admiral Group show, and what does it not show?

It shows how to sort; it does not show basic assumptions. Great Place To Work UK's article (2025) on [Admiral Group](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/case/admiral-group-culture) is a public document, enough for practising [organisational culture](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/glossary#organisational-culture) on the first two levels (Great Place To Work UK, 2025).

Sorted by me as artefacts, what the article reports: the "Share In Our Future" commitment, under which every colleague receives company shares twice a year. In 2020 staff were still paid in full. Sorted by me as espoused values, what the article reports: customers at the heart of the business and belief in the power of the team, as it describes the company's early years; the group's chief executive says the company believes people who like what they do, do it better (Great Place To Work UK, 2025).

The article says nothing on basic assumptions. I could guess "staff are motivated and trustworthy", the opposite of the assumption Schein uses as his example, that people will take advantage of you (Schein, 2010). That is only a guess, since the article has no interviews or observation to test it.

On the source: the author sells workplace certification, and the page ends with an invitation to get certified (Great Place To Work UK, 2025). It ties culture to Admiral's growth using the author's own rankings and a study I have not read. I use Admiral only to illustrate sorting.

## Three levels or four, and how does this differ from the cultural web?

In the two Schein texts I read, the model has three levels. Visible behaviour, the group's climate and its procedures are all filed under artefacts (Schein, 2010). If you meet a four-level diagram, ask where the extra level was split off. I have not traced any four-level diagram back to Schein.

The [cultural web](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/framework/cultural-web) is a different framework. According to the library's framework page, it puts a core paradigm in the middle, ringed by stories, symbols, rituals and routines, power structures, control systems and organisational structures. Schein goes by depth; the web goes by lever. In my reading, Schein helps you guess which assumption to change, and the web helps you list which artefacts to change at the same time.

## What can you do in one meeting to dig down to assumptions?

Schein proposes a session of about four hours with several colleagues, perhaps some newcomers, and a facilitator who knows a little about the concept of culture (Schein, 2009). I summarise the steps he writes, from the excerpt I read:

1. Pick a concrete business problem, such as "slow replies to customers". Without one, he says, the culture analysis may seem pointless.
2. Remind the group of the three levels, then list artefacts. Ask newcomers: what is it like to come to work here? He suggests categories such as working hours, how meetings run, how decisions are made and how disagreements are handled.
3. List espoused values on a separate page, then compare each value with the artefacts in the same area. Where they disagree, a deeper assumption is running; look for it.
4. Repeat with another group if the picture stays muddy, then separate the assumptions that help from those that hinder.

Schein says that even if you repeat the session several times, it takes less time and energy than a questionnaire survey or one-to-one interviews (Schein, 2009). That is his judgement; I have not checked it. The session produces hypotheses, not scores.

## Going deeper: what did I read, and where are the limits?

The library lists two Schein books: the fourth edition of *Organizational Culture and Leadership* (2010) and *The Corporate Culture Survival Guide* (2009). For the first I read chapter 2 of the third edition (2004) in a copy found online, and used it to confirm the three levels and the examples. For the second I read an excerpt that includes the four-hour session. I have not read the 2010 edition or most of either book, so the post gives no page numbers. I also read only the Great Place To Work UK page, not the study it cites, and for Johnson and Scholes I relied on the library's framework page.

I have not read any independent research criticising Schein's model. Use the three levels as a frame for diagnosis and questions, not as a validated result. Whether culture can be changed at all is contested; see [three views on changing culture](https://staging.khoi.co.uk/en/glossary#culture-changeability-views). This post does not pick a side.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do Schein's three levels of culture differ?

They differ in how visible they are to an outsider. Artefacts are what you see and hear on walking into a group. Espoused values are what the group says about itself. Basic assumptions are what the whole group takes for granted, so they are rarely spoken. Schein holds that the essence of culture lies in the last level (Schein, 2010).

### How can I tell whether a company's stated values are real or just a slogan?

Set them beside artefacts in the same area: procedures, rewards and punishments, the stories people repeat. Schein suggests keeping two separate lists and looking for where they disagree, because a mismatch shows a deeper assumption at work (Schein, 2009). If a procedure blocks exactly what the slogan promises, the slogan is the weaker party.

### Can a company's culture be changed?

Schein does not say no. He writes that changing basic assumptions is difficult, slow and anxiety-provoking, and names two tasks: managing that anxiety and judging whether the group has the capacity to learn something new (Schein, 2010). He also advises making use of the assumptions that already help, rather than treating culture only as an obstacle (Schein, 2009).

## References

- Great Place To Work UK (2025) *How great culture helped Admiral become a £10 billion business*. Great Place To Work UK. Available at: https://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/resources/how-great-culture-helped-admiral-become-a-10-billion-business (Accessed: 2026-11-01).
- Schein, E.H. (2009) *The Corporate Culture Survival Guide*. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Schein, E.H. (2010) *Organizational Culture and Leadership*. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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