Chapter 5: Cultural Elements

As I was reading, I thought it was interesting to see that in organizational communication there is also a culture that emerges from all of this. In the reading it mentions, "these various symbolic expressions combine to create a "unique sense of place" that defines an organization's culture." Each cultural element was very interesting because everyone can relate to them one way or another. The one that I was able to relate to was artifacts. About three years ago I worked at a cosmetic department at Macy's, and the employees had to follow a certain dress code. The dress code was to wear all black, black shoes, black pants, black shirt, whatever one wore to work, had to be black. I did not mind at all because I liked to wear black, but I think it was interesting how we had to follow this dress code. I liked how this dress code set us apart from everyone else, because I think it really made all the employees look very professional. Artifacts was also important at this job because the work area also had a specific decor, and spatial arrangement. The layout of the make-up always had to be set-up a certain way, lipsticks, eye shadows, make-up brushes all had a specific area in which they had to be in.