Symbolic behavior is “a person’s capacity to respond to or use a system of significant symbols” (Faules & Alexander, 1978, p. 5). The symbolic behavior perspective argues that the reality of an organization is socially constructed through communication (Cheney & Christensen, 2000; Putnam, Phillips, & Chapman, 1996). Symbolic messages are used by individuals to understand their environment and create a social reality (Faules & Alexander, 1978; Mills, 2002). When faced with uncertainty, individuals continually organize themselves within their group based reality and respond within that reality (Weick, 1995).
Read more about Symbolic Behavior: History, Symbolic Behavior Perspective Viewpoints, Symbolic Behavior Perspective Propositions, Tools of Symbolic Behavior, Limitations of Symbolic Behavior, Performances Involved in Symbolic Behavior, Types of Rituals, Related Theories
Famous quotes containing the words symbolic and/or behavior:
“I find it profoundly symbolic that I am appearing before a committee of fifteen men who will report to a legislative body of one hundred men because of a decision handed down by a court comprised of nine men—on an issue that affects millions of women.... I have the feeling that if men could get pregnant, we wouldn’t be struggling for this legislation. If men could get pregnant, maternity benefits would be as sacrosanct as the G.I. Bill.”
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“Children can’t make their own rules and no child is happy without them. The great need of the young is for authority that protects them against the consequences of their own primitive passions and their lack of experience, that provides with guides for everyday behavior and that builds some solid ground they can stand on for the future.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)