Clinical Inquiry for Phenomenon-Based Research: Lessons from Ed Schein

Abstract

Edgar H. Schein’s approach to research has been described as phenomenon-based, problem-focused and pragmatic, with an approach that is improvisational, procedural and path dependent on the subjectivity and intentionality of those engaged. This essay explores how, in the context of phenomenon-based research, Schein’s notion of clinical inquiry/research seeks to generate knowledge that is practical and useful for practitioners in particular settings and has implications for wider knowledge base. By consolidating diverse sources of knowledge on Ed Schein’s thinking on research into one essay it brings his notion of clinical inquiry/research to contribute how phenomenon-based research may be conducted.

Keywords

clinical research research design action research change

Introduction

While there is a general literature that explores Ed Schein's work and contribution to the field of applied behavioral science (e.g., Fatzer et al., 2019; Coghlan, 2024; Coghlan et al., 2025), there has been little on a focused-framing of his research approach. This approach is captured by Schein himself.

I think we need to develop a science based on good observation that is blended with a well-educated consciousness to make sense of what is going on and write about it so the others can replicate your experience. My challenge is to go see for yourself and if you see something very different write about that. (Coghlan, 2018, p. 397)

This brief overview of Schein's approach to inquiry based on questioning experience and seeking to make sense of it has resonances with what is termed phenomenon-based research, outlined by Stensaker et al. (2026) as: identifying and framing the phenomenon, building knowledge to understand and explain the phenomenon and making use of new knowledge about the phenomenon. This essay introduces Schein's approach to research by elaborating its elements and offering its applicability to phenomenon-based research and practice. By consolidating diverse sources of knowledge on Ed Schein's thinking on research into one essay it brings his notion of clinical inquiry/research to contribute how phenomenon-based research may be conducted. These insight are offered for the education of scholar-practitioners researchers.

Schein's Research Philosophy

Schein was consistently critical of current trends in management and organizational research which he saw as having a strong quantitative and pre-structured orientation and removed from research into real-life organizational issues. In his view, management research is producing over-abstract and de-contextualized information that is removed from the actual challenges of organizations. Researchers are rewarded for their ability to massage second-and third-order data and are producing “more sophisticated knowledge about less important things” (Schein, 1993a, p. 703). He proposed the ‘clinical approach’ in which researchers gain access to organizations at an organization's invitation in order to be helpful to the organization (Schein (1987, 1993a, 2008). He outlined six clinical activities: in depth observation of crucial cases of learning and change; studying the effects of interventions; focusing on pathologies and post-mortems as a way of building a theory of health; focusing on puzzles and anomalies that are difficult to explain; building theory and empirical knowledge through developing concepts which capture the real dynamics of the organization and focusing on the characteristic of systems and systemic dynamics (Schein, 1997). Clinical inquiry/research is synonymous with process consultation (Schein, 1995) whereby the consultant creates a helping relationship with a client which enables the client ‘to perceive, understand and act on the process events that occur in the client's internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client’ (Schein, 1999, p. 9). His emphasis on helping clients to perceive, understand and act may be reframed as generating practical knowledge as helping clients attend to their experience, have insights into that experience, make judgments as to whether the insights fit the evidence and then to take action (Coghlan, 2009). Observation of clients in action and subsequent conversations between the clinical researcher and clients seek to bring out experience, to test insights and form judgments about that experience and then make decisions and take action. Through these conversations, constructed meanings may be uncovered and tested, and action planned, taken and reviewed and learning and knowledge framed. Through being present in a helping role, the clinical inquiry/researcher is noticing how data are continuously being generated as the change process proceeds. While it may not be clear what this data might mean, the researcher's mode of inquiry enables the client to question, explore, understand and act upon the events as they emerge. In this way, the clinical researcher's data is real-time, generated in the act of managing change, and not data created especially for the research project. In this way it is what Mirvis et al. (2021) have called ‘sweet spot’ research which they have defined as the most favored location or combination of factors at the intersection of theory and practice that peaks to both scholars and practitioners who are interested in conceptualizing and improving their actions.

Having introduced the broad tenets of Schein's clinical inquiry, the essay introduces its more specific elements and how they may be brought to explore and exploit phenomenon-based research.

Elements of Schein's Research Approach

In his reflection on the work of Ed Schein, his friend, and long-term colleague at the MIT Sloan School of Management, John Van Maanen identified Schein's work as mostly phenomenon-based, problem-focused and pragmatic (Van Maanen, 2019). He summarized Schein's approach as improvisational, procedural and path dependent on the subjectivity and intentionality of those engaged. In Van Maanen's view, abductive reasoning characterized Schein's work – an engagement in continuous cycling of observation and questioning until a satisfying understanding is found. Knowledge comes through surprises and accumulates and develops over time as experiences throw up questions and provisional explanations which are tested through further experiences and questioning. Table 1 provides an overview, with the addition of relational as an element missing from Van Maanen's list.

Table 1.

Elements of Schein's Research Approach.

Elements of Schein's Approach	Description
Phenomenon-based	A phenomenon is an experience whether inner or outer, observed in a setting or experienced directly that is questioned, where insight is sought and leading to an affirmed judgement
Problem-focused & pragmatic	Seeking understanding and explanation of what is practically puzzling.
Improvisational	Abductive reasoning into puzzling data as they unfold
Procedural	Humble inquiry
Path dependent on the subjectivity and intentionality of those engaged	Interiority of researchers and clients to be self-aware and self-reflective, questioning their own assumptions, biases and filters as they come to affirm knowledge.
Relational	Level Two relationships

Phenomenon-Based

A phenomenon is an experience whether inner or outer, observed in a setting or experienced directly that is questioned, where insight is sought and verified and leading to an affirmed judgment (Cronin, 2017). The elements of phenomenon-based research have been articulated by Schwarz and Stensaker (2014, 2016). It uses empirical data to construct theory and is of use to academics and practitioners. It contributes to and extends a body of knowledge and adds constructs to organizational and managerial phenomena. These, they point out, may be contrasted with the elements of theory-driven research.

To take two of Schein's many significant and influential contributions to the field of applied behavioral science – his socio-psychological change model and his organizational culture framework – these may be seen as instances of his phenomenon-based approach. In the case of the former, in 1953 during his tenure in the US military psychology service, he was assigned to a project that evaluated and treated military personnel who had been captured by the North Koreans (Schein, 2016a). These personnel were considered to have been indoctrinated and had allegedly collaborated with the enemy. Repatriates were returned to the US from Korea by ship, and on the voyage, they were assessed psychologically and given therapy by psychiatric teams. Schein has recounted how his ship was delayed for three weeks, and during that time, he set up a booth and interviewed repatriates by asking them to tell him the stories of their imprisonment. From these accounts he framed his model of coercive persuasion, a sophisticated brainwashing technique through socio-psychological methods (Schein et al., 1961). In constructing his model Schein framed three purposes it would perform.

It would provide a theoretical structure that would permit the organization of the many and varied experiences through meaningful categories.

It would provide theoretical categories which would make it possible to understand the coercive persuasion process and its effects.

It would provide some basic categories for a more general theory of social influence, which he had come to term ‘coercive persuasion’ (Schein et al., 1961).

Schein brought his model of the socio-psychological dynamics of change to the field of organization development and change to provide a structure for understanding how people respond to forces driving change and are enabled to unlearn and reduce restraining forces, change and achieve an appropriate level of sustainability (Schein, 2002; Coghlan, 2021).

With regard to the development of his definition of organizational culture and his three levels framework of artifacts, values and basic assumptions (Schein & Schein, 2017), Schein is very clear as to how they originated.

When I decided to write about organizational culture, I found that my research data were primarily the observations I had made during my actual consulting visits. I found once again that the most relevant data come, not from surveys or experiments, but from direct observation and direct personal experience (Schein, 2006, p. 296).

Schein's work with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDP) sought to understand the culture of this agency that spearheaded Singapore's rapid economic development (Schein, 1996). On the basis of his academic reputation, Schein was invited to undertake an academic and critical analysis of the EDB as an organization which had contributed to Singapore's economic success. Over a period of two years, he studied how the EDB was formed, its organizational structure and policies and how its leadership operated. He sat in on board meetings, interviewed relevant people both inside and outside the organization and framed the dynamics of its culture. In reflecting on the research method, Ed emphases the relational process between himself and the members of the EDB.

Problem-Focused and Pragmatic

Being problem-focused and pragmatic are complementary to being phenomenon-based in that they seek understanding and explanation of what is practically puzzling. As introduced above, Schein's adoption of the term clinical to frame understanding and treating organizational dysfunctions and pathologies as a clinician would. He reflected

What makes me talk a lot about it as a clinical process is that it is always geared to the organization feeling that something is not right, that it is always trying to fix something or improve something…It is always biased towards some improvement process (Quick & Gavin, 2000, p. 33).

Improvisational

A significant element of Schein's work is improvisational, as the clinical researcher is confronted by a series of observations and questions in the present tense as the relationship develops and interventions are made in the system. Abduction is the prevalent mode of reasoning as clinical inquiry/research occurs in the present tense (Coghlan & Shani, 2021). There are continuing cycles of observation, interaction, questioning, action and review as the clinical researcher engages in inquiry or as Golden-Biddle (2020) describes it, a cycle of belief, surprise, doubt and inquiry. Abductive reasoning yields plausible explanations about puzzling phenomena and so it accords with the operation of insight into an experience following a question, such as, what is going on? As Schein summarized

…we don’t really know what is going on and what we should do about it… Our job is to use our knowledge and experience to inquire intelligently and without too many preconceptions and prejudices to find out what is really going on. And in this process we maintain a clinical orientation so we can help our clients understand what is going on as well…. We must have the skills of the effective ethnographer and the intervention skills of the effective clinician (Schein, 2010, p. 98).

Procedural

The foundation of clinical inquiry is the disposition of being “humble,” which, is “the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person” grounded in “the attitude of listening more deeply to others’ responses to our inquiry, responding appropriately and revealing more of ourselves in the relationship building process” (Schein & Schein, 2025, p. 3). Schein and Schein argue that humble inquiry is both an attitude and a skill, involving listening deeply and responding appropriately in a manner that enables clients to perceive, understand and act on the issues on which they are seeking help (Schein, 1999).

Schein and Schein (2025) describe several types of inquiry and frame a typology of interventions. The overall approach is that of humble inquiry approach and the clinical researcher listens carefully and prompts the elicitation and exploration of the story of what is taking place, thereby demonstrating clients’ ownership of the issues and the facilitative role of the clinical inquiry/researcher. The second type of inquiry is, what Schein calls diagnostic inquiry, in which clinical researchers begin to manage the process of how the content is analyzed by the other by exploring: i) reasoning processes, ii), emotional processes and iii) actions. The third type of inquiry is what Schein calls confrontive inquiry. This is where clinical inquiry/researchers, by sharing their own ideas, challenge the other to think from a new perspective. These ideas may refer to i) process and ii) content and focus on possible decisions and actions.

Dependent on the Subjectivity and Intentionality of Those Engaged

Schein has made the case for clinical researchers to be self-aware and self-reflective, questioning their own assumptions, biases and filters. As he remarked, “One should operate with self-insight and a healthy skepticism, so that one does not misperceive what is out there to make it fit our preconceptions” (2008, p. 276). In his work he consistently demonstrated his practice of interiority, where he showed how he was thinking as he engaged with clients and fellow scholars (Coghlan, 2023). His engagement with clients in order that so that they could perceive, understand and act on process events was directed to their interiority.

Relational

What Van Maanen's list is missing is relational. At the heart of Schein's approach is his emphasis on developing relationships, which he has defined as a “set of mutual expectations about each other's future behavior based on past interactions with one another” (Schein, 2016b, p. 28). He distinguished four levels of relationships so as to enable people to understand relational complexity and the crucial processes of managing relationships. Level Minus One marks a negative relationship that is built on power and dominance with the more powerful exploiting, coercing and manipulating the other. Level One is a transactional relationship based on formal role definitions and characterized by professional distancing. Level Two marks relationships where people get to know one another as individuals and develop a deeper degree of openness and trust than in Level One. Level Three relationships are characterized by close friendships, intimacy and love. He constantly has made the case that what constitutes humble inquiry, humble consulting and humble leadership is a Level Two relationship which supersedes the Level One professional distancing (Schein, 2016b; Schein & Schein, 2025). His emphasis on relationships is at the core of collaborative research (Shani et al., 2023). In a reflective note written before his death, Schein wrote

In a summary way I can say that I have learned that the essence of understanding and working with human systems is to focus on relationships rather than individuals and on the process of how we relate rather than the structure (Coghlan, 2024, p. 161).

Reflection

While Schwarz and Stensaker (2014) have issued a challenge to take off theoretical straitjackets to engage in phenomenon-based research, this essay adds to that challenge - to remove methodological straitjackets by drawing on Schein's clinical inquiry for phenomenon-based research. The elements of Schein's clinical inquiry meet the collaborative process of phenomenon-driven research: identifying and framing the phenomenon, building knowledge to understand and explain the phenomenon and making use of new knowledge about the phenomenon, as argued by Stensaker et al. (2026).

Figure 1 expresses how the elements of Schein's approach - problem-focused, pragmatic, as improvisational, procedural and interiority (path dependent on the subjectivity and intentionality of those engaged) – may be mapped within the familiar operations of human cognition. The foundation of all human knowing is its invariant structure comprising experience, understanding and judgment (followed by decision and action when demanded) (Cronin, 2017). Experience occurs at the empirical level of consciousness and involves the interaction of inner and outer events and hence is the basic engagement with phenomena. When we question what we experience we receive insights or understanding which are acts of grasping patterns in data. The questioning is problem-focused, pragmatic, procedural and considers the interiority of those involved and is engaged through iterative cycles of further observation, questioning and interactions, in the mode of abductive reasoning. While we might receive an insight, it is improvisional and needs to be verified as to whether it fits the evidence. This is the work of judgment—a reflective process where we ask, “Is it so?” We marshal and weigh evidence to assess whether a conclusion is warranted. This occurs at the rational level of consciousness and is the moment of knowledge. Running through this process of knowledge production is relationality – the building of Level Two relationships through the practice of humble inquiry.

Figure 1.

Schein's clinical inquiry for phenomenon-based research.

Figure 1 is both conceptual and practical. It is conceptual in formulating cognitional theory by describing how human knowing takes place (Cronin, 2017). It is practical in providing a concrete map of how the experience of puzzling phenomena may be questioned and answers pursued as through Schein's clinical inquiry method (Coghlan, 2009).

Lest coming to know be conceived as a purely mechanistic process governed only through scientific methods, Schein (1993b) has added his particular angle by portraying himself as an artist. He noted that his experience of the traditional model of science was somewhat limiting and depressing; and that it did not influence him. He reported that what excited him was the ability to represent something that was meaningful to others, and to do so was partly an artistic skill. He considered that the features of the artist should be regarded as a model for behavioral scientists working with human systems. In seeing artistry in his own work, Schein referred to himself as a creative opportunist, illustrating how insights into phenomena come unexpectedly and how he has creative outbursts when things click. Hence, he reflected.

I see ‘artistry’ in my work at several levels. My insight onto phenomena came unexpectedly and often at times when I was not thinking about that phenomena at all. It was therefore always wise for me to juggle several intellectual domains at the same time instead of working on one thing until I was finished. I see in my writings the same kinds of ‘problems’ of how to render something that artists talk about. I have creative bursts when everything seems to click and a paper or part of a chapter just flows in an uninterrupted way (1993b, pp. 50–52).

As coming to know comes through questioning experiences and attending to insights which come in unexpected ways or forms, an attentiveness to different modes of knowing, what Heron and Reason (1997) call “the extended epistemology”, is critical. In this vein, the notion of the scholar-practitioner as artist adds a dimension to those who are observing a puzzling phenomenon, following their line of questioning in a manner that fits their personality or research tradition, rather than following the rigid rules of theory-driven inquiry.

A corollary to adopting clinical inquiry practices to phenomenon-based research are its implications for the education and training of researchers.

Implications for Researcher Education

Two general challenges for the education of researchers may be identified. Many schools and research programs restrict research education to theory-driven quantitative and qualitative approaches and exclude paradigms of phenomenon-based inquiry and clinical inquiry/research, The first challenge, therefore, is to expand their notion of research to include the phenomenon-based orientation, as argued by Schwarz and Stensaker (2014). The second challenge is to include education and training in building and maintaining collaborative research relationships so that trainee researchers may form and enjoy close collaborative working relationships with the co-researchers in inquiring into phenomena.

Conclusion

The quotation from Ed Schein at the outset of this essay has provided the foundation for exploring how, in the context of phenomenon-based research, his notion of clinical inquiry/research seeks to generate knowledge that is practical and useful for practitioners in particular settings and has implications for generating knowledge. By consolidating diverse sources of knowledge on Ed Schein's thinking on research into one essay it brings his notion of clinical inquiry/research to contribute how phenomenon-based research may be conducted.

Footnotes

ORCID iD

David Coghlan

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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