Organizational cultures are filled with cultural products or communicative signs that point to something, or signify meaning, and symbols that represent a socially understood concept. It is these signs and symbols that add a rich complexity to our communication. One aspect of which is expressed through mythologies. The academic meaning of the term myth, as opposed to the meaning one might receive from the general public, is not a false story. In the field of linguistics or semiotics, myth is defined as a “system of communication” (Barthes, 1972, p. 109).
A culture’s myths originate from its collective memory and serve “to create a picture of the world, to establish identity between distant spheres” (Lotman, 1990, p. 152). In other words, our myths help us to make sense of the world, how it functions, and the individual’s significance or purpose within that world. The mythologies shared by an organization provide the culture’s worldview, ethical structures, and the reasoning beyond the norms within which the members operate. These shared mythologies are a cultural product of society created by its members. Yet, the members are also a product of society (Berger, 1990, p. 3). It might be said that the organization creates the mythologies that create them. Learning to recognize and interpret these mythologies provides one with the means to contextualize change strategies that may be more quickly adopted.