Cultural Awareness Theory
Schein’s (1992) cultural awareness theory is the overarching theoretical
framework in this study. The concept of culture is often difficult to identify primarily
because its parts are usually imperceptible. Only the most basic components of an
organization’s culture are visible to members belonging to that specific organization.
Schein’s cultural awareness model (Figure 3) is often depicted as an iceberg that
illustrates the hierarchy of cultural components. The visible cultural components
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compose the peak, while deeper level cultural foundations are submerged and are not
visible to the eye. The artifacts are visible, while norms, values, and basic assumptions
are not seen (Schein 1992).