| Course | BU 302 Leadership and Organizational Behavior |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Organizational culture read |
| Length | About 1,140 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 302 Unit 7
Clean Trucks, a Speed Board and a Half Page on Heat: An Organizational Culture Read of a Landscaping Company Using Schein's Three Levels
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 302: Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Instructor Name
April 15, 2026
Clean Trucks, a Speed Board and a Half Page on Heat: An Organizational Culture Read of a Landscaping Company Using Schein's Three Levels
This paper reads the culture of Greenline Grounds, the made-up commercial landscaper at the center of this course, using the three levels described by Schein and Schein (2017). It starts with artifacts, the things a visitor could see and hear, moves to the values the company states publicly and then names the assumptions that appear to operate underneath, keeping the three levels separate. Where stated values and operating assumptions disagree, the paper treats that gap as its central finding. A short section covers subcultures, and the paper closes on what this culture would do to a proposed change in how crews are rewarded.
The Framework
Schein and Schein (2017) describe organizational culture as operating at three levels. Artifacts are the visible structures and processes of a group: its physical space, language, rituals, stories and published documents. They are easy to observe but hard to interpret. Espoused beliefs and values are what the organization says it values, found in mission statements, websites and managers' explanations. Basic underlying assumptions are the beliefs people no longer notice they hold, which steer behavior without being said aloud or questioned. Robbins and Judge (2019) describe the same idea more simply as a system of shared meaning that distinguishes one organization from others and shapes how members behave when no rule applies. Schein and Schein caution that artifacts should not be interpreted too quickly, and that assumptions should be inferred from patterns across many artifacts rather than from a single observation.
Level One: Artifacts
The equipment yard is the first thing a visitor sees, and its trucks are spotless. Each carries the company's green wrap, and crews wash them every Friday afternoon, on the clock. Inside the break room, a whiteboard ranks the maintenance crews by their weekly pace in sites finished, and a plaque beside it names the Crew of the Month, chosen by the same number. Client callbacks are tracked in the office software but are not posted anywhere crews can see them.
Crews rarely use the break room for lunch. Most eat in their trucks at a property, and several crew leads say they prefer not to lose the drive time back to the yard. Radio traffic in the morning mixes English and Spanish, and crew leads switch between them easily. Two safety posters from an equipment manufacturer hang near the time clock; both are faded and date from several years ago.
The onboarding packet for new crew members has three pages on uniforms, the time clock and truck care, and half a page on working in heat, which advises drinking water and taking breaks in the shade. New hires ride with a crew on their first day. The calendar holds a short safety talk each Monday at dawn and a Thursday session three times as long where account and operations managers meet without any crew lead present.
Level Two: Espoused Values
The company's website states three values: "Safety first. Quality always. Our crews treat your property like their own." The owner repeats the first two in the Monday huddle at the start of each season, and the account managers use the third in sales presentations. The values are short, familiar in the industry and consistent with what clients want to hear.
Level Three: Operating Assumptions
Three assumptions can be inferred from patterns across the artifacts. The first is that speed is what counts. The whiteboard, the Crew of the Month plaque and the bonus introduced last season all measure properties per day, while callbacks, the main measure of quality, are kept out of sight. When the company decides what to display, reward and celebrate, it chooses speed every time.
The second assumption is that the office manages clients and the field does the work. Crew leads, who see each property weekly, do not attend the Thursday meeting where client requests are reviewed, and the communication breakdown analyzed in Unit 5 occurred because a client promise passed from an account manager to operations without reaching the crew with its date. The third assumption treats summer heat as something the job simply includes, not a hazard the company must manage. The half page on heat in the onboarding packet, the faded posters and the absence of scheduled rest breaks in the daily routine point to a belief that experienced workers handle heat on their own. Federal occupational health guidance urges employers to control heat exposure through acclimatization for new and returning workers, scheduled rest and access to water and shade, not only through individual judgment (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2016).
The Gap Between Values and Assumptions
The central finding is that two of the three espoused values conflict with the operating assumptions. "Quality always" is contradicted by a reward system and a set of visible displays that favor speed and hide quality. "Safety first" is contradicted by the thin treatment of heat, the most serious daily hazard for outdoor crews in an Atlanta summer. The third value, treating a property like one's own, is partly supported by the clean trucks, which show that appearance matters to the company, but it is undercut by the rise in callbacks after the speed bonus began.
The gap does not mean the company is insincere. Schein and Schein (2017) note that espoused values often express what leaders aspire to, while assumptions reflect what the group has learned works. Greenline learned to grow by finishing more properties, and its assumptions reflect that history.
Subcultures
Greenline is small, but it holds at least three subcultures. The maintenance division, measured by speed, differs from the installation division, where jobs are bid at fixed prices and judged on finished quality. The office staff and account managers, who deal with clients, differ from field crews, who deal with properties. Returning seasonal crew members, who know the routines and the heat, differ from new hires, who learn the culture from the crew they ride with on day one. Any change will land differently in each.
What This Culture Would Do to a Change
Unit 3 recommended adjusting the crew lead bonus for callbacks and posting callbacks beside properties per day. This culture would resist that change at first, because it challenges the assumption that speed is what counts and makes visible a number the company has kept hidden. Crew leads who have won the Crew of the Month plaque by speed may see the change as moving the goalposts. The change is more likely to succeed if it is presented as honoring the stated value of quality, if crew leads help design the callback measure and if the plaque is redefined at the same time. Greenline Grounds and everything observed here are composites created for this course.
References
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (2016). Criteria for a recommended standard: Occupational exposure to heat and hot environments (DHHS Publication No. 2016-106). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2016-106/
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational behavior (18th ed.). Pearson.
Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). Wiley.
The Herzing BU 302 Unit 7 instructions
The culture unit asks students to analyze an organization's culture, usually with Schein's model of artifacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. Most rubrics want observable evidence first, stated values quoted from the organization, assumptions inferred from patterns with the evidence named, and discussion of any gap between what is said and what is done. Many sections also ask about subcultures and about how the culture would affect a change. Visiting a workplace briefly is acceptable if you describe only what you observed. Cite the model and any outside sources in APA 7, and keep the three levels clearly apart. Photographs or notes from a visit help, as long as you describe only what anyone could see.
How this BU 302 Unit 7 example is built
The sample explains Schein's levels and a textbook definition of culture, then spends a full section on artifacts: the yard, the break room, lunch habits, radio, posters, the onboarding packet and the meeting calendar. A short section quotes the three stated values. The assumptions section infers three beliefs, each from several artifacts, and brings in federal heat guidance to judge the third. A gap section treats the conflict between stated quality and safety values and the operating assumptions as the main result and explains why such gaps form. Subcultures follow, and the closing section predicts resistance to a quality-adjusted bonus and how to reduce it.
BU 302 Unit 7 rubric: what full points look like
Herzing's rubric for the culture read usually covers use of the model, quality of evidence, the inference of assumptions, analysis of gaps and writing. Model use earns full points when all three levels appear and stay distinct. Evidence is judged by concrete artifacts a visitor could observe. The inference criterion rewards assumptions tied to several artifacts rather than to one. Gap analysis, often weighted heavily, looks for an explanation of why stated values and behavior differ, not just a statement that they do. Discussion of subcultures and of the culture's effect on change earns additional credit. A read that predicts how the culture would react to a specific proposal shows the analysis can be used, not only described. Citations and clear organization by level complete the grade.
Common BU 302 Unit 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A common mistake in Unit 7 is organizing the paper by theme and mixing artifacts, values and assumptions in the same paragraphs. Another is treating the mission statement as evidence of culture. Students often infer an assumption from a single observation, which the model warns against. Some papers find a gap and stop without explaining it. Others describe a large organization as if it had one culture and ignore subcultures. Finally, be fair; a gap between values and behavior usually reflects what the organization learned works, not dishonesty, and saying so makes the analysis more credible. Stronger papers usually spend the most space on artifacts, since everything later depends on them.
Get a BU 302 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 7 instructions and the rubric from your BU 302 classroom, plus the culture model your section reads. We write a custom example that records artifacts before inferring anything, quotes stated values exactly, ties every assumption to evidence and concentrates on the gap. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 302 Unit 7 questions, answered
How do I read culture at a place I only visit?
Work from what is observable and say what your position lets you see. A contractor or a new hire has a genuine vantage point, and a read that states its limits comes across better than one claiming full access. Where you cannot see the assumptions operating in another department, name that as a limit rather than filling it with a guess.
Can I quote my employer's published values?
Published material is fair to quote, since anyone can read it. What is not fair is internal documentation: engagement survey results, meeting minutes, policy drafts and anything shared with staff in confidence. Keep the quotation to what the organization has put in public and build the rest of the read from behavior you could describe to a stranger.
What if the values and the behavior actually match?
Then say so and show it, which is rarer and harder than finding a gap. Alignment only convinces when the artifacts are specific: a stated value about safety supported by what happens when somebody raises a concern, for instance. A read reporting alignment without that evidence looks like the writer stopped at the first level.
Where can I find a free BU 302 Unit 7 sample paper?
The finished BU 302 Unit 7 culture read is posted above and free to read, organized by Schein's three levels. If you are analyzing a different organization, send your assignment and a free custom read will be prepared on that setting, normally within 48 hours.
What if values and behavior match in BU 302 Unit 7?
Then say so and show the evidence. The sample finds one stated value partly supported, since clean trucks show that appearance matters, even as two others conflict with behavior. A culture read does not need a gap to be strong, but it does need evidence for every claim.