Reinvigorating the struggling organization: the unification of Schein's Oeuvre into a diagnostic model

With many scholars identifying organizational development and change as increasingly fragmented, it is time to push for coalescence by reuniting the field with its central principles. The work of Edgar Schein is used to derive a model that achieves this task by combining context, content, and process theories of change. This model also supports Schein's contribution to a growing body of knowledge based on the central tension between autonomy and structure. Integrating Schein's theories of career dynamics, process consultation, and culture change, along with the latter's subthemes of psychological safety and resocialization, this model contributes to the scientific body of knowledge by providing a guiding framework that uncovers the central tension as it permeates the context, content, and process of change. To provide practical validity, the model is used in a case study involving Unified Financial Services, a large financial services firm implementing a radical cultural change involving career development.