EXPLORING ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES THROUGH SYMBOLS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify underlying organizational values ​​through symbolic analysis in a wheat mill. The theoretical perspective of Thomas and Znaniecki, from the Chicago School, underlies the analysis along with Edgard Schein's theory of organizational culture. Therefore, values ​​can be announced in symbols, whether they are concrete or abstract objects, such as the organization's architectural environment, layout, employee clothing, visible behavior patterns, among others. From a methodological point of view, the research is classified as a qualitative case study, in which the researcher aims to understand the phenomenon from the perspective of the respondents. Data collection involved interview techniques, non-participant observation and document analysis. The results showed that values ​​of (i) hard work, honesty and savings; (ii) conservatism; (iii) social cohesion and (iv) humility stand out as criteria for guiding the behavior of individuals in the organization. For future work, we suggest that values ​​be observed at the level of deeper, basic assumptions, which is the main limitation identified in the article.