Os reflexos da morte do fundador sob os elementos culturais: uma análise em duas organizações familiares sob a perspectiva simbólica

Abstract

This study aims to identify, under the symbolic perspective, the impact of the death of founder on the organizational culture in two Family organizations. So, was accomplished a qualitative research in two organizations from family profile, whose founders had died in less than two years. The research enabled the development of categories that seek to explain the consequences of the death of founder under the cultural elements and the organizations were defined as: a break with the old order, the resistance as a way of maintaining the remembrance, the heroes; the myth of the founder and its symbols. The theoretical basis used in organizational culture focused on the symbolic approach and their inter-relationships with the death of the founder. The results showed that the deaths of the founders exerted a strong influence on the culture of these organizations, and the myth of the founder figured out as a reference for organizational members. Moreover, the deaths of those founders still represent a content of short-term needs, so that new empirical immersions through a longitudinal research may portray the permanence or otherwise of the founding myth.