The Organizational Culture of UA and Organizational Identity

On Wednesday, our class finished discussing organizational culture and began our discussion of organizational identity. We began Monday by talking about social networking and its relationship with organizational culture. The advantages of social networking with organizational culture were that people involved had a constant and quick outlet of communication with each other. Through Twitter and Facebook, members of the group can speak without opening their mouths or being together at all.
The disadvantages of social media communication were a lack of privacy and formal communication. A couple of students said that they didn’t feel like talking through this outlet was down to earth or they felt that it was too much. A few students felt that social networking was good for organizational communication because of it being constant and open.
After the discussion of communication through social media, we began to talk about the organizational culture of UA. We discussed our culture through the “Six Communicative Practices Prepared by Shiv Ganesh.” The first practice listed on the sheet is facts. The class came up with facts we knew about UA, like the university was founded in 1831 and the football team holds 13 national titles. The next practice listed on the handout is practices. The class discussed UA student practices like studying at Gorgas and tailgating on the quadrangle. Vocabularies was the 3rd communicative practice that we spoke about in regard to UA organizational culture. We of course said that Roll Tide was the common vocabulary or speech used among students at the university. Although metaphors are the next communicative practice talked about on the handout, we didn’t really touch on this. The class talked about the communicative practice of stories and we mentioned the story of how the football team became the Crimson Tide and we talked about the integration. The 6th communication practice we discussed was rites and rituals. The class agreed that a common ritual for UA students was taking pictures in front of Denny Chimes or your college after graduation.
When we came to the conclusion of the six communicative practices, we began our discussion of organizational identity. The discussion began with talking about what our ideas of identity were. A few students related identity back to their COM 340 classes and we discussed the common misconception that people have completely different identities than each other. The identity of companies and organizations such as Wal-Mart and Target were then discussed. A few students said that they wouldn’t shop at Wal-Mart because of their reputation for poor business practices and dirtiness. The identity of Wal-Mart had been tarnished by documentaries and law suits. Target’s identity was well received because of their cleanliness, lack of poor feedback and media coverage, and because we knew people who worked for Target that said positive things. Although the business and missions of Target are similar, Target had a better identity for the students of our class. Professor Murray asked at the end of our session for us to think about an organization or company that had a completely unique identity and mission/goals. The class seemed to be stumped. Are there any thriving or successful companies or organizations with a unique identity? Are there any organizations that you support because of their unique goals/missions and organizational identity?

-Ricky Norris