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.

Organizational Symbolism

This chapter discusses the issue of organizational symbolism, which is frequently encountered in business life, and its meaning in the tourism industry. Symbols are the most apparent and observable aspects of organizational life; simultaneously, symbolic elements are the most subtle and comprehensive. Due to the nature of the hospitality sector, the workflow takes place instantaneously. Therefore, employees, managers, and tourists search for some of the generally accepted symbols used in the organisation during this rapid workflow. If symbols are removed from this relationship, communication suffers and as a result harms the overall functioning of the organization. This chapter proposes that it is important to look at the origins of the organizational symbolism and to comprehend the role of symbols in the tourism industry. In this sense, this chapter should be seen primarily as an effort to review and systematize the overall understanding of organizational symbols in the tourism industry.

Antropología de la Comunicación y Cultura Empresarial: El Caso Cascades

El presente artículo intenta establecer, sobre la base de una investigación empírica realizada en la empresa Cascades que las "culturas organizacionales" que realmente llegan a forjarse e instalarse no se logran como resultado de una acción deliberada y artificial de "ingeniería". Estas culturas sólo pueden construirse mediante un compartir ante todo cosas concretas. Los elementos claves en este proceso son: el compartir al máximo aspectos de la vida de la organización, como las utilidades, la información, las decisiones, los locales, los materiales, etc. y la aplicación en los hechos de un discurso y una filosofía empresarial que deliberadamente rompa con las tradiciones administrativas más cimentadas, mediante el privilegio absoluto de lo oral, la apertura y la transparencia, la confianza y la autonomía generalizadas, el respeto y la valoración del empleado, la ausencia de puestos de supervisión y control, la cercanía y disponibilidad de los directivos, etc.* Omar Aktouf y Michel Chrétien. L 'A nthropologieie la communicationet la culture d'entreprise: le cas Cascades. Ponencia en lnternational Conference on Organizational Symbolism, Universidad del Québec. Montreal, junio de 1986.

Defeating the Minotaur: The Construction of CEO Charisma on the US Stock Market

This paper illustrates the construction of CEO charisma within the US stock market. By metaphorically employing the myth of the Minotaur, we discuss three forces underlying the rise of heroic CEO images in the USA: Ariadne, or charismatic leadership theory and its formulation of charisma; Theseus, or the CEOs struggling to obtain power over stock market actors; and the Minotaur, or the stock market itself and the securities analyst profession. Building on the literature on organizational symbolism, we present a qualitative study of two CEO successions, focusing on the form and content of the persona and the vision projected by CEOs and elaborated by securities analysts. The results suggest that jointly constructing charisma through discourse, CEOs and analysts enact a form of power that does not lie in top-down coercion, but rather on the emergent, active involvement and contribution of its very subjects.