ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

208 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIPmembers of the organization because either they initiated the processand have something to gain by revealing themselves to the clinician,consultant, or researcher (hereafter called the researcher/consultant)or, if the consultant initiated the project, they feel they have somethingto gain from cooperating with him or her.Often, the researcher/consultant is invited into the organizationto help with some problem that has been presented, but then, inthe process of working on the problem, he or she discovers culturallyrelevant information—particularly if the process consultationmodel is used, with its emphasis on inquiry and helping the organizationto help itself (Schein, 1999a). If the initiative comes from anoutsider who has obtained permission to “study” some segment ofthe organization, the clinical approach argues that the cultural datawill not be valid until the members of the organization feel theyhave something to gain and that in some way they will be helped.In other words, to gather valid cultural data the “subjects” mustcome to view themselves in some sense as “clients” who will behelped in some way by the research process. Only when the outsiderin effect becomes a researcher/consultant, will he or she be able togather valid cultural data.What makes this data gathering method more powerful thanthe other methods reviewed is that if the researcher/consultant ishelping the organization, he or she is thereby licensed to ask all kindsof questions that can lead directly into cultural analysis and therebyallow the development of a research focus as well. Both the consultantand the client become fully involved in the problem solvingprocess; therefore the search for relevant data becomes a joint responsibility.This process does not avoid the potential biases of hiding,exaggerating, and blowing off steam, but in the clinical modelthe researcher/consultant has the license to go beyond this, to askfurther questions and even to ask the respondent to help figure outwhat is going on.The researcher/consultant is not, of course, limited to the datathat surface in specific diagnostic activities such as individual or groupinterviews. In most consulting situations there are extensive oppor-