Organizational Symbolism Research Articles

Revitalisasi Gerakan Pembaruan Persatuan Persis (Persis)

This article describes the work of Persatuan Islam (Persis) as an Islamic organization that was born in 1923 in Bandung. Exactly, like Muhammadiyah, is a reformer group in which it has a distinctive religious outlook, founding figures, and strategies to develop organizational symbols. However, unlike Muhammadiyah, including Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which is growing rapidly, Persis is experiencing delays, running slowly. This can be observed through at least three roles: political movements, cultural da'wah, and educational institutions. In this qualitative research based on library research, it is necessary to revitalize. It is necessary to evaluate and reflect on their work so far, starting with religious doctrine, distribution of cadres in the socio-political field, and the development of educational institutions.
 Keyword: Persistence, Renewal, Movement Revitalization

Aesthetic Leadership and Organizational Symbolism Experienced at the Paintbrush Factory in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The study of organizational symbolism in the 1980s brought into discussion aspects referring to the image, the sentiments, and the representative values of an organization, pointing to an aesthetic sensibility that can generate meaning. This paper is part of a larger endeavor that examines the latest developments of the methodological models pertaining to organizational aesthetics. Starting from the categories of research in the field of organizational aesthetics proposed by Taylor and Hansen in 2005, I attempt to analyze an art space phenomenon, the Paintbrush Factory in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2009–22). I focused on aspects of aesthetic leadership and the day-to-day experience of those involved in Paintbrush Factory, especially at the peak of its existence (2009–13), with the aim of finding an appropriate methodological model for research such a complex enterprise as well as to discover lessons that can be learned in terms of its impact and legacy.
 The Paintbrush Factory brought a memory of the past to light (through the conversion of a communist space), acquiring an exemplary role in contemporary art (through the type of network developed by this spontaneous, contextual space). The presence of individuals (involved in the management of this art space, artists, or participants in events) was observed in light of the “intelligence of the feeling” and of various symbolic effects. Thus, the Paintbrush Factory is an example of the transformations undergone by an industrial space, which became a creative model of cultural management, a cultural brand with a unique mode of organization: a federation.

Urgent Necessity of Issuing Regulations concerning Government Ban on Displaying Organizational Symbols

Back in 2017, the government dismissed a mass organization called Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia or HTI. This dismissal referred to the activities organized by HTI that was believed to pose a threat to the political sovereignty of the state. On one hand, the symbol of HTI is still visible to the public’s eye on media and in all forms. Organizational symbols, believed to represent an identity and the soul of movement, have been used by several mass organizations. This research is focused on the analysis of the urgent necessity of issuing the regulations that ban the use of organizational symbols that have long been banned by the government. With normative legal method, statutory, historical, and conceptual approaches, this research has revealed that the urgency of issuing the regulations banning the organizational symbols principally refers to Pancasila (the Five Principles) as the source of law, the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, Provisions of People’s Consultative Assembly, laws, and legal history of regulating mass organizations and the concept of Human Rights as referred to by the people of Indonesia

Retaliation against employees in the USA: an analysis in terms of organizational behavior

Purpose – The number of retaliation charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been increasing dramatically over last decade. This analysis is grounded on the USA regulations and a merged city and a county local government in the USA. Organizational analysis was based on the work of Bolman and Deal (2008). This study's aim was to explore the relationships between organizational behavior and retaliation against employees in the USA and increase attention among scholars for further research as well. Although retaliation is classified under discrimination it is taken as a special charge. Methodology– The recent lawsuit examples demonstrate the apparent costly conflict within the local government, organizational structure and its systems are reviewed to explore if they are causing negative conflicts in the organization. Bolman and Deal's (2008) strategy is applied to the studied local government in the USA. To be able to understand the relationships between the local governmental structure and retaliation problems is deeply analyzed on structural, human resources, political, and symbolic frames. Most of the retaliation cases took place at the Division of Community Correction. To explore if there are internal contributors’ effects to the problem requirements for a job application and job descriptions of a correction officer are investigated and compared with other organizations’ job description for the same position, as well as training requirements. Findings – This study revealed several problems that the studied local government needs to address to prevent retaliation cases. First of all, the local government doesn’t have an established culture, and because of that, the employees are not sure how to behave or act when they face challenges. Although organizational symbols exist to eliminate confusion, ambiguity to provide direction, to secure hope and faith in organizations, the local government doesn’t have clear symbols. While stories convey values and serve as powerful modes from the tyranny of facts and logic, the local government’s employees are afraid of speaking out about some issues, and bad stories pass from employees to employees. In terms of policies, the study discovered that whatever stated officially is not in use. Harassment training is given to new beginners and never reoffered to current employees. Broken and unclear communication is another finding that might be leading to organizational problems. Conclusion – The increasing number of costly retaliation cases in the United States needs more attention to the causes to solve this problem. Public agencies are funded by taxes paid by households and companies to the government to receive services such as water, roads, education etc. Public agencies’ high lawsuit settlement payments jeopardize the public’s rights to have services. These problems have some indirect costs which should be taken into account. Currently, little attention is paid to the subject by scholars, and therefore it needs to be explored more. The results of the study would apply to many organizations including public and private sector.

Do Not Neglect the Power of Symbols on Employee Performance: An Empirical Evidence From Turkey

Symbols, which are considered as a reflection of an organization’s culture, also provide clues about an organization’s character and value system. The positioning of symbols in the business world and academic studies thus remains an important issue. This study, which measures the effects of organizational symbolism on organizational commitment and firm performance, carries out a scale development study to evaluate the concept of symbolism. For this analysis, a questionnaire was provided to 727 family-owned business employees. In the scale development section, the organizational symbolism was divided into three dimensions, where it was observed that structural and administrative symbolism, along with outward symbolism, affect organizational commitment and firm performance, although narrative and discursive symbolism do not affect organizational commitment and firm performance. The findings are partially consistent with the current literature. In the “Discussion” section, suggestions are given to academicians and administrators.

The Relationship Among Organizational Symbols, Firm Absorptive Capacity, and Product Innovativeness

This paper leverages the current literature on the antecedents and consequences of firm absorptive capacity by investigating the relationships between covariant organizational verbal symbols, including stories, metaphors, and common language, covariant firm absorptive capacity variables (e.g., external knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and utilization), and firm product innovativeness. By studying 203 firms and interviewing their managers, this paper demonstrates that (a) using heuristic metaphors, (b) telling process-related stories, and (c) developing a common language positively relate to firms’ absorptive capacity. Remarkably, this paper also shows that telling relationship-based organizational stories is negatively associated with absorptive capacity in these firms. The discussion also shows that absorptive capacity has a positive relationship to a firm’s product development efforts and a mediating effect on the relationship between organizational symbols and product innovativeness.

Tidal Wave: A University’s Response to Transformational Learning Objectives

A textbook activity on symbols was intended as thought provoking but instead elicited a confrontational reaction by one student which left Dr. Jackson and the university searching for a response. When the topic spread through the channels within the university, matters got worse. This disguised case examines the lesson, conflict, and aftermath following a sensitive classroom activity intended to promote transformational learning around the concept of the strength of organizational symbols. Authors suggest organizational theory, power and politics, transformational learning, and cultural competence as possible lenses in which educational leaders can examine this case.

Mnemonic Institutions and Residential Clustering: Jewish Residential Patterns in Toronto.

In this paper, we envisage how the sociohistorical experiences of groups are related to their residential patterns. We posit that the residential clustering of a group can be strongly related to the group's mnemonic institutions, which are organizational symbols of collective identity that link the present to the past. We present the case of Jewish residential clustering patterns in Toronto to demonstrate our arguments. We employ 2001 Canadian Census tract-level data to show Jewish residential clustering patterns in relation to the presence of a synagogue or Jewish community center, the mnemonic institutions of Jews.

The impact of status-leveling symbols on employee attitudes: a moderated mediational analysis

Status-leveling symbols (defined as physical, verbal, and behavioral manifestations in an organization that are designed to downplay hierarchical systems within the organization) are considered central to high-involvement work systems, yet these practices have received little attention in the empirical literature. Using data collected from 147 working adults, this study examined the relationship between status-leveling symbols and work-related attitudes, as mediated by organizational culture. We also examined how individual power-distance orientation moderated this mediated relationship. We found that perceived low power-distance organizational culture mediated the relationship between status-leveling symbols and attitudes. Furthermore, individual power-distance orientation moderated the second path of the mediated relationship, yet in a direction opposite to our prediction. This study advances the theory related to organizational symbols and, more broadly, to high involvement work practices. Our findings also provide practical guidance relative to the role of perceived organizational culture as an important mechanism for managing employees’ reactions to status-leveling symbols.

Playing with Vincent-the-Duck in the work space: physical, playful artefacts as totems of organizational symbolism

Physical artifacts represented often in the form of animals, are used to symbolize and reinforce organizational culture. There is a difference between strong and successful organizations and the average ones, and we think the reason for this lies in how culture is expressed in visible daily routines in a unique and in playful way. Let us tell you a short story about Vincent-the-Duck. Vincent was born in an IT-Technology company almost ten years ago. Vincent’s job is to sit next to the computer table or a screen and to “be wise”. People use Vincent when they have a problem; he gives people an easy way to find a solution and to ask questions. We see walking and talking people in the meeting rooms with Vincent. They don´t need to bother any of their colleagues. Furthermore, Vincent has another role to function as a special symbol for the company; his picture is everywhere and he is celebrated in many ways. Until now. There are only few studies in organization theory regarding the physical artifacts. Images and visual artifacts are not just add-ons to verbal texts, mere transmitters of information, or means of communication: they have become an elementary mode for the construction, maintenance and transformation of meaning. Various scholars have taken up the challenge of including aspects related to visuality in their empirical research as well as in theory building. (Meyer et al. 2013, p. 490–491). We use the example of Vincent-the-Duck – an actual physical artefact symbolizing company X as a point of departure to examine how physical, playful artifacts may be used to reinforce organizational culture. Thus, we aim to find out how organizations can use tangible and physical objects to reinforce their culture and way of working? and What kind of stories are behind tangible objects, which are used to enhance organization identity? This study is based on aesthetics approach, which examines the artefact in its “beginning-in-use” in organizational settings, emphasizing material knowledge and practice in the study of organizations. Everyday organizational routine comprises artifacts that are beautiful to use, graceful to the eye or grotesque, kitsch or repellent and to which the language-in-use of organizational discursive practices attaches labels evocative of the aesthetic categories of beautiful, ugly, sublime, gracious and so on. There are artifacts that are desirable or repulsive, artifacts born from our desire for knowledge, and artifacts that spring from our desire to give form in that every human forms something. (Strati 2013, p. 25–26.) The data analysis is still on going and the results are tentative, but nevertheless, our analysis indicates that physical artefacts rare important in symbolizing and reinforcing organizational culture. Our study combines how organizational members use physical playful artifacts to construct an organizational phenomenon in the form of a totem.

The Collective Unconscious at the Organizational Level: The Manifestation of Organizational Symbols

Abstract In this research we articulate the concept of collective unconscious at the organizational level and propose a framework based on the organizational symbolism literature regarding the sources and manifestations of the collective unconscious construct. We first present the collective unconscious from the lens of analytical psychology and suggest a theoretical link with organization science in order to develop an understanding regarding “what does collective unconscious indicate” at the organizational context. Then we draw on the organizational symbols literature to explore the sources and manifestations of collective unconscious in the organization. Particularly this research generates an integrative framework between organization science and analytical psychology. It suggests that stories told regarding the processes and relationships of the organization, the metaphors generated to develop and enhance meaning and common language serving to communicate meaning throughout the organizations are the sources where collective unconscious is preserved and manifested through the usage of these symbols. This research is important for theory and practice in two aspect. First this research provides a basis to explain organizational phenomena which cannot be explained through the conventional positivist/functionalist school of thought. Second it encourages organizational scholars to not only focus on the visible but also invisible, hidden aspects of organizational life such as the unconsciousness at the organizational level which is critical in determining the behavior of organizations.

Modern Campuses, Local Connections and Unconventional Symbols: Promotional Practises in the Canadian Community College Sector

Canadian community colleges operate within a trying market environment. They compete against a diversified group of post-secondary institutions, ranging from small and relatively unknown for-profit vocational colleges to larger and more prestigious public universities. To date, there has been no effort to empirically examine how Canadian community colleges market their services within this contemporary environment. This study provides a first empirical look at how Canadian community colleges render themselves appealing through promotional materials. Using novel web-scraping techniques and a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis procedures, it finds that this institutional type primarily showcases their: (1) linkages to their local community, and (2) modern physical facilities to convey an attractive organizational image. Canadian community colleges are also found to (3) rely primarily on unconventional organizational symbols.

A Model of Organizational Symbolism: Understanding the Different Shades of Green

Despite growing institutional pressures for greater transparency, accountability and sustainability in socio-environmental terms, a number of organizations respond to stakeholder demands and expectations in a symbolic way. We develop a richer conceptual understanding of how, when, and why organizations pursue this strategy. Specifically, we characterize the behavioral antecedents and the resulting heterogeneity in organizational symbolism. We use the context of “greenwashing” - an often monolithically perceived, yet fundamentally strategic and complex organizational phenomenon. Drawing on the concepts of conformity and compliance, symbolic and substantive actions, our model considers this heterogeneity (i.e., the “different shades of green”) based on the materiality of the issue and organizational costs and benefits of resource mobilization (or acquisition) to respond to the issue. More specifically, we suggest a model whereby firms decide whether and in what way to decouple their response to a specific issue based on its materiality, and a calculus of the costs and benefits associated with the use of organizational resources and capabilities versus the costs of inaction. We extend the basic model by considering the moderating role of institutional pressures and organizational characteristics. We offer several propositions for future research to unpack organizational symbolism, its various degrees and antecedents.

Organizational identity challenges in a post-merger context: A case study of an information system implementation project

This study examines the effects of the differences in organizational identities that emerged during a post-merger project that aimed at unifying the laboratory services of a large healthcare center that resulted from the merging of three hospitals by supporting them with a unique information system. We draw on the concepts of organizational identity and sensemaking to analyze the laboratory information system implementation project. Organizational identity is conceptualized as the mental representation that organizational members have of themselves as a social group in terms of practices, norms, and values and how they understand themselves to be different from members of other organizations. Data analysis suggests that divergent organizational identities and team members’ alternative interpretations of others’ practices, norms and organizational symbols, coexist during the post-merger integration phase. These interpretations are reflected in the final functionality of the information system that was different from the planned one.

Vertical capitalism: Skyscrapers and organization

This paper employs the skyscraper to show how culture and economy are necessarily intertwined. I begin with the idea of the sublime, and then move on to consider representations of the tall building from the 1870s to the present day in order to illustrate what these artefacts are understood to ‘mean’. But skyscrapers are not merely symbols of modern organization, they are themselves forms of economic organizing and the second section of the paper notes the various ways in which the tall building, and the divisions of labour that enabled it, began by ‘making the land pay’ in cities with a burgeoning rental market for small firms. This shift involves partly displacing the architect and the corporation, and instead focussing on project organization and rental values. I conclude by suggesting that the term ‘organization’, because of its mutability, can provide a bridge between culturalist and economic representations.

Meaning and Power in Organizational Symbols: Employees’ Reactions to their Organizations’ Logos

Organizational symbols, specifically logos, have been previously examined for their potential influence on external audiences, especially customers. The present study, however, examined responses of internal audiences, members of the organization, to the organizational logo. A pilot qualitative study done in India was conducted in which six themes regarding the relationship of employees with their organizations’ logos were developed inductively. Based on the results of the pilot study and drawing on mere exposure, response-competition, and social categorization theories, the main study, a quantitative study in U.S., was conducted. The frequency and duration of employees’ exposure to their organization’s logo predicted their affective organizational commitment and organizational self-concept, especially when in an out-group context, thus contributing to employee positive attitudes and collective identity. In addition, exposure to the logo was more strongly related to employees’ reactions to the organizatio...

The Dramatistic Genre in Leadership Studies: Implications for Research and Practice

Since the late 1980s, leadership theorists and researchers have appreciated the significance of leaders as makers of meaning. While this understanding has stimulated a greater need to link leadership to organizational symbolism and organizational sense-making issues, the focus on these issues has resulted in not insignificant dissatisfaction with conventional approaches to the study of leadership. In response, this article proposes a complementary alternative focus for research and practice in the leadership area. It advances the use of the symbolic and relational aspects of leadership as highlighted in the three subgenres of dramatism namely: Kenneth Burke’s dramatism (life is drama ), Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy (life is like drama ) and Victor Turner’s social drama (life and drama are interdependent ). There-after the article explores the key distinctions between the three sub-genres so as to identify their analytical as well as explanatory focus. Implications for leadership research and practice using the three subgenres are presented. The article closes with a discussion on the opportunities an integrated dramatistic approach might offer the general field of leadership.

Social Justice Through Health Care Financing: The Birth and Signaling of a New Nonprofit Field

This research note explores patterns in the ways that nonprofits use their Web sites to signal their membership in new organizational fields. Over the past 15 years, the Volunteers in Medicine movement has created a new organizational model for providing health care to the underserved, to specifically address some of the most unjust gaps in the U.S. health care fabric. Analyzing regional and time-of-founding variations in the content of organizational Web sites of this population of nonprofit organizations, this study helps to answer questions about the use and spread of organizational signals and symbols of field membership and boundaries.

Understanding school culture via analyzing organizational stories

Schools have different cultures specific to themselves. School culture represents dominant values, norms, assumptions, beliefs, stories, ceremonies and symbols shared by the members of a school. The objective in interpreting school culture is to understand the stories and symbols created by the members of this culture. Organizational story is a tool to analyze school culture. This article aims to highlight the relationship between organizational stories and school culture. This discussion has been formed with respect to social constructivism, interpretive organizational symbolism and critical theory. Social constructivism, interpretive organizational symbolism and critical theory constitute a multi-disciplinary perspective for organizational story studies. In present research, qualitative research method has been applied. The attempt has been to analyze total 200 stories obtained from ten primary schools. It has been detected that collected stories mostly reflected negative school culture. Key words: School culture, organizational stories, organizational learning, analysis organizational stories.

About One Striped Rectangle: Jean Widmer and the Centre Pompidou Logo

Memento Mori Recently, it came very close to being admitted to the pantheon of defunct logos: the emblem of the Centre Pompidou, conceived in 1977 by Jean Widmer, was almost included in a funerary homage imagined by Declan and Garech Stone (the Stone Twins), whose book Logo R.I.P. commemorates 48 visual identities of the twentieth century that have fallen into disuse.1 Like the BP shield, the Pan Am globe, and the Nazi swastika, Widmer’s stripy design—a silhouette of the Centre (built by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers)—might have been given a detailed obituary and a proper “burial.” In addition to brief historical accounts, the book features photographs of tombstones, on which each logo appears as having been engraved—thanks to photo retouching software that allows such verisimilitude. These logos, condemned by the movement of history, economic exigencies, or marketing strategies, have thus been given immortality. Logo R.I.P. highlights the paradox of signs, which are conceived as lasting symbols of an organization or a brand and generally designed to make a strong impression on public consciousness, but are nonetheless fragile, and liable to fade into total oblivion as quickly as they appear. Moreover, this virtual—and anachronistic—cemetery is more than just a happy artifice by which the apt-named Stone Twins offer an unhoped-for immortalization to each fallen logo. The fiction of these carved tombstones effectively places the signs in question into an historical perspective: it attaches them, most unusually, to the epigraphical tradition, the official inscriptions of which have, over the centuries, found a privileged sphere of expression precisely in funerary art.2 The heritage of the modern logo is at once vast and heterogeneous, a mixture of heraldry and identifying marks or signatures of all sorts used in diverse contexts throughout the centuries. The problem of strictly defining and categorizing them remains unresolved. The French word “logotype” was a typographical coinage that designated a set of letters cast in a single block of moveable type. Taking account of this original meaning, hesitation persists today in using the term in specialized literature when referring to signs that don’t employ typography.3 The abbreviated