CHAPTER 7

Notes Towards a Better Understanding of Process

An Essay

Edgar H. Schein

MANY YEARS AGO I learned about “process” from my long hours in Training Groups at Bethel, Maine, workshops. In my consulting, I felt myself focusing on process issues in groups and, in the meantime, I had learned a great deal about interpersonal dynamics, leading to several coauthored books on these “processes.” In my later work on Career Dynamics, I studied the socialization “process” intensely and, most recently, the studies of Organizational Culture have again led to a focus not on structure or typologies of culture, but on cultural dynamics and “process.”

In spite of this persistent focus on “process,” when a layperson asks me what I mean by “process” I am ...

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