Corporate culture: what the tree metaphor truly reveals

Edgar Schein (1928–2023) devoted his research life to an apparently simple question: why is it so difficult to change an organisation? His answer is captured in a formula that has become a worldwide reference in management science: 'Organisational culture is the set of basic assumptions that a group invents, discovers or develops to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration.'

This definition matters because it recentres culture not on declared values, those posted on the walls of open-plan offices, but on the patterns of thinking and behaviour that the group has developed over time to solve its actual problems. These assumptions are often unconscious, implicit and taken for granted by members of the organisation.

The tree metaphor: roots, trunk and foliage

To make these different levels of culture visible, a botanical metaphor proves particularly illuminating.

The roots represent fundamental values, the invisible but essential principles that structure the worldview of founders and historical leaders. They are not seen from the outside. Yet everything comes from them.

The trunk represents norms, how values translate into shared behavioural rules. What is said and not said in meetings? How are conflicts managed? What is rewarded and what is sanctioned, even implicitly?

The branches and foliage represent observable behaviours and strategies, what is visible of culture on a daily basis: rituals, language, artefacts, processes.

The most common mistake in cultural transformation programmes is to work only on the foliage, visible behaviours, without touching the roots or the trunk. Words are changed without changing beliefs. And the leaves fall at the first storm.

« Organisational culture is the invisible cement that unites the members of a company. »

— Edgar Schein

The Orange case: when stated values betray actual practices

The France Télécom, now Orange, affair remains one of the most painful case studies in French management history. Between 2008 and 2010, thirty-five employees took their own lives in a context directly linked to working conditions. A crisis that tainted the company's governance all the way to criminal prosecution.

What is striking about this tragedy is the chasm between the values officially displayed by the organisation, wellbeing, performance, humanism, and the actual managerial practices: systematic pressure to leave, deliberate destabilisation, denial of suffering.

Schein had identified this structural risk. When stated values diverge durably from observable managerial behaviour, the real culture of the organisation is not the one displayed. And it is the real culture that governs behaviour, emotions and the health of employees.

The lesson for leaders is direct: an organisation's cultural credibility is measured by the alignment between what it says and what it does. Every managerial decision is a cultural signal, far more powerful than any speech about values.

Culture as a strategic lever: under what conditions?

Culture is not only a risk factor. Schein and decades of strategic management research converge: organisations that develop a strong, coherent culture, aligned with their strategy and practices, durably outperform their competitors.

But for culture to become a real strategic lever, three conditions are necessary.

First, the leader must be the primary carrier of the culture. Not through speeches, but through daily behaviours, decisions, the way they handle mistakes, manage conflicts and embody or betray the values they proclaim.

Second, culture must be diagnosed before it is transformed. Using tools like McKinsey's 7S model, which places shared values at the centre of organisational analysis, enables rigorous mapping of cultural coherences and misalignments.

Third, cultural transformation is a long process, not a one-off initiative. The basic assumptions Schein speaks of often have decades of history behind them. Changing them requires patience, consistency and unwavering conviction on the part of the leadership team.