Learner outcome: Conduct a cultural analysis at an organization to understand communicative practices and the implications on change leadership and organizational effectiveness. 

Course: INMGT 616 People Process Culture | 3 cr. | Fall 2025

Artifact: 

In Fall 2025, I took the course People, Process, Culture, which focused on understanding organizational culture concepts through real-world analysis. The course covered high-performing people, applied psychology, and organization behavior, providing tools to examine the cultural values that shape a workplace. The main project's purpose was to capture the unique qualities of an organization—such as stories, history, rituals, and values—to understand how communicative practices shape the culture and impact change leadership and organizational effectiveness. The artifact is a PowerPoint, which is a small portion of a detailed cultural analysis project of a selected area of an organization.

Work sample: 

Cultural Analysis at Company XYZ.pptx

Self-Reflection:

What did you learn?

I gained a deep understanding of organizational culture, and the impact on both individual and group behavior within a company. A key learning was how to define organizational culture by looking at the values, history, and communicative practices that make an organization unique. This led me to understand the value of cultural analysis, which provides a deep look at the shared values and behaviors that drive a company, which is essential for improving performance and managing change. I learned to apply theories on the key elements of a people-centered approach to culture. This involved learning to assess how individual and organizational core values influence employee engagement, productivity, and profitability. Furthermore, I can now articulate the important role of leadership in building and sustaining high-performance people-centered organizational cultures. I can now evaluate emerging trends on people-centered cultures and develop a personal philosophy that fits well with this approach.

How did you learn this?

I learned these concepts through a comprehensive cultural analysis project, using a model called Organizational Culture in Action (OCA) as a guide. This began by defining “What is Organizational Culture?” and learning about the value of Cultural Analysis for improving performance, managing change, and supporting areas like hiring and employee engagement. The goal was to understand a culture by capturing elements like rituals, stories, history, and heroes. The project was guided by three core questions: “What kind of culture is being co-created?”, “What kind of culture do we want to co-create?”, and “What forms of communication will co-create the culture we want?” I collected data through three methods: Observation, Interviews, and Text analysis, which required designing specific questions, informed consent forms, and permission letters. A key part of the analysis involved using semantic content analysis to process the gathered information. This method allowed me to identify the top themes by looking for patterns in keywords, phrases, and meaning, and by focusing on the frequency of the cultural elements found. To determine findings, I summarized data by enacted elements (like stories, humor, and rules), interpret the thematic action (the "culture in action" using paradox, root metaphor, and master rule), and determine the overall characterization. This analysis provided insights for possible applications in change leadership and organizational effectiveness.

What were some challenges that you overcame?

A few challenges arose when conducting this analysis. A primary concern was managing potential researcher bias due to my long tenure at the organization. To reduce this, I used "bracketing," a technique where I documented and set aside initial impressions and personal assumptions to avoid drawing premature conclusions. Another significant challenge was the sheer volume of artifacts gathered from text analysis, which made it time consuming to verify all elements and group them into themes without overlap. I learned that future analysis projects would be more manageable by reducing the scope and discarding any large sections of irrelevant content. A third challenge was protecting anonymity for the small number of interviewees. This required me to remove all names and department identifiers and use pseudonyms to ensure an insider could not trace information back to specific individuals.

How will you apply this information in the future?

The knowledge gained from studying people, process, and culture is essential for my current role, where service delivery is highly dependent on communication and shared values. I can apply the information learned in this course to my current workplace, which I focus on People Analytics. I am now better able to support the organization in understanding whether our organizational practices truly support our core values, especially regarding employee engagement and productivity. The principles of a people-centered approach to culture will directly inform how I contribute to HR or change initiatives. I am better equipped to identify and address cultural factors that might resist change by understanding elements like stories and rituals. Most importantly, I can use the framework of the guiding questions to provide meaningful input to leaders on diversity, ethics, and symbolic leadership, contributing to a more resilient and effective organization.

Return to list of learner outcomes