Learning to Help Through Humble Inquiry and Implications for Management Research, Practice, and Education: An Interview With Edgar H. Schein

Abstract

For more than 50 years, Edgar H. Schein, the Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, has creatively shaped management and organizational scholarship and practice. He is the author of 15 books, including Process Consultation Revisited, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Career Anchors, Organizational Psychology, Career Dynamics, and Helping, as well as numerous articles in academic and professional journals. Novelty, clarity, and relevance have always been the guiding principles of his work. In this interview, Schein moves on from his key formative learning experiences to focusing on humble inquiry as the key to building and maintaining the helping relationship. Comprised of both a helper's attitude and behavior, humble inquiry embodies "accessing one's ignorance" and becoming open to what the helper and the helped may learn from each other through observation, genuine empathic questioning, careful listening, and suspension of judgment. Schein not only identifies several challenges within management research, practice, and education, but also offers provocative recommendations to those involved.