organizational culture

Organizational culture is derived from the way that people give symbolic value in their workplace to create a "unique sense of place." for my example, I have chosen to talk about the Student Managers Organization at Notre Dame. After making "the cut" after sophomore year, where only 21 people made it on to manage for junior and senior year, the 21 people I have been working with very closely since August 1st, 2007, have created our own organizational culture.

When we first came to South Bend for football camp this fall, we had a meeting held sort of briefing us all on how we were to act as students, as managers and as people around the organization as well as in the general public. We would, and have come into contact with confidential information in this past semester that we could only talk about with the managing "family." This metaphor sort of helped bring us together in our own culture because we were the only people that we could talk to each other about these topics. It came to "construct and experience our organization in relation to this metaphor" (128).

During a 40 to 50 hour work week, there came to be certain rituals that we would do as a group, or if needed, by ourselves. Every week was very similar. On Monday we would buff, tape, and paint football helmets, Tuesday we would untape and put them back together, then go work practice. Wednesday and Thursday we had practice, but after practice on Thursday we would load up the truck to take the equipment to the stadium, or send it to the teams destination. Friday there was a walk through, and Saturday there would be a game. We also have evaluated each other throughout this whole process. These rituals have helped reinforce the organizations values, and pull us together because we were all in the same boat.

Artifacts are important indicators of an organization in telling the world what is going on. Being that dress codes are considered an artifact, I believe that as a manager we most definitely had artifacts. As a group we would wear matching mesh shorts and a shirt, and every day we would rotate our color scheme so that one day we would wear a grey shirt and one day we would wear a navy shirt. In the fall/winter months, we would wear matching grey on grey sweats and when we traveled casually, we would have matching athletic navy travel suits. It helped bring us together because we would blend together as a unit.

The Student Managers Organization has contributed to people's sense of membership because we all go through so much on a daily basis. We are all so busy with school, friends and family on top of our daily duties, that the culture we create only helps us be stronger as individuals as well as a group.