Schein's adaptive coping cycle as a core O.D. process

Headnote

Abstract

Edgar Schein's adaptive coping cycle describes a process whereby information is received into an organization, processed and transformed into output. It is a cycle of continuous coping and adaptation which applies to all levels of systems and interlevel dynamics, and which reflects criteria for the health of a system. This adaptive coping cycle has not been afforded much attention in O.D. theory and practice. It provides a clear and useful O.D. cycle for O.D. practitioners on which assessments and interventions can be based.

Introduction

Many O.D. theorists and practitioners are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Lewin's three stages of change as the basis for O.D.. While they acknowledge that for change to occur, systems need to experience the need for change, make the necessary changes effectively and ensure the change works and survives, they find that Lewin's terminology of unfreezing, moving and refreezing is not helpful in this age of discontinuous change. Accordingly, O.D. theorists and practitioners are creating alternative frameworks for doing O.D.. In this article, I am presenting Schein's adaptive coping cycle, which I have been using as a core O.D. framework in my O.D. courses for many years. As the dynamic complexity of systemic change increases (Senge, 1990), Schein's adaptive coping cycle provides an O.D. cycle which exemplifies an organizational action research cycle and provides a framework for clinical inquiry and intervention.

In his seminal text, Organizational Psychology,, (1965, 1970, 1980), Edgar Schein presents the notion of systemic health. Drawing on the work of Marie Jahoda and Warren Bennis, he describes the 4 elements of a healthy system: a sense of identity and purpose, the capacity to adapt to changing external and internal circumstances, the capacity to perceive and test reality, and the internal integration of subsystems. As a corollary to these characteristics, he then postulates an adaptive coping cycle as a process whereby information is received into an organization, processed and transformed into output. It is a cycle of continuous coping and adaptation which applies to all levels of systems and which reflects criteria for the health of a system. As an individual I am continually taking in information, processing it and adapting my behavior and getting feedback as I move in and out of different situations. In a similar...