Cultural Analysis: Women's Basketball Team

Ethnography is the systematic study of people and cultures, it is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study. It is the best qualitative method for collecting data often used in the social and behavioral sciences. Data are collected through observations and interviews, which are then used to draw conclusions about how societies and individuals function

Being six foot four means I get a lot of stares and attention when I walk down the street. Most people will look at me in astonishment and say things like “wow you’re tall!” or “how tall are you?” when they see me. But the question I get asked the most from random strangers is “Do you play basketball?” Depending on what kind of mood I’m in, I answer in one of two ways. In both ways I tell the person asking “no,” but my attitude while doing so differs. Most of the time I find this question rather annoying. Just because I’m tall doesn’t mean that I play basketball, nor have I ever. It’s a question that I’ve gotten practically my whole life, but anymore I tend to spend more time thinking about the bigger picture behind it.

The Women’s National Basketball Association, more commonly known as the WNBA, is a professional basketball league consisting of 12 teams spanning across the United States. The league was founded in 1996 but didn’t officially kick off until 1997. While it’s not the first major women’s professional basketball league in the United States, the WNBA is the only league that has received full backing from the National Basketball Association, more commonly, the NBA. Now in its 20th season under the direction of league president Lisa Borders, the regular season is played from June to September with the playoffs spanning through the remainder of September into the middle of October. Although they have the full backing from the NBA, there are still a few discrepancies between the two leagues. Even though WNBA games are not as exciting as NBA games, the players of the WNBA deserve equal pay because the team mindset makes the game more challenging, players continue to show their hard work in the offseason by playing overseas, and they inspire young girls by providing for charities as a result of their work.

You’re can’t play, you’re just a girl. That’s what they told me when I decided I wanted to play basketball. I didn’t listen. Despite the naysayers I’m going continue doing what something I like and enjoy doing. I would like to attend The Wolfpack Woman’s Basketball camp to better my shooting skills, build my confidence and be a part of a team.

It can be described as a part of an organization or as the organization itself. The first perspective describes the culture as leading the organization to the most positive effectiveness through a good management. On the other hand the second point of view describes the culture as the social interactions of people in an organization (Meek 1988, cited in Knight & Willmott 2007).

The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,

When a person of a specific gender enters a non-traditional sport for their gender/sex, many social and moral issues will arise challenging that person involved in that particular sport. The intentions of the individual will be questioned as well as their personal interest in the sport. Before any of these questions are asked, there must be a redefinition of gender roles, femininity, and masculinity. In order for a person to enter a non-traditional sport for their gender/sex without being criticize about gender morality, society must set flexible definitions for femininity and masculinity.

Although men and women’s basketball are closer to being equal than softball and baseball, the leagues are still separate. America has a women’s league and a men’s league and never the two shall meet. A woman is not allowed in the NBA since she has the WNBA. The separation is strong, obvious, and seemingly permanent. Like basketball, they created softball to play indoors during the winter. The game earned the name softball and due to its easier properties was often “regarded as baseball’s stepchild” (Ring, p. 60). They passed the game down to women, as it seemed safe enough to limit the risk of injury. And so the separation began.

Organization culture is the matter that holds a company intact. This is what makes each

Organization culture is the matter that holds a company intact. This is what makes each

An organization’s culture governs day to day behavior. This type of power may be seen as a control mechanism, which businesses use to manipulate internal and external perception. Every organization has a set of assumed understandings that must be adopted and implemented by new employees in order for them to be accepted. Conformity to the culture becomes the primary basis for reward by the organization. “The role of culture in influencing employee behavior appears to be increasingly important in today’s workplace, as organizations have widened spans of control, flattened structures, introduced teams, reduced

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the culture, the internal, and the external factors in an organization. Our job is to examine the entirety of the organization. That would include the structural and environmental elements that effect the operation of the business. We will also take an in depth look at the perspectives of employees, managers, owners, and clientele.

Study in organizational culture began in the early 1980s. Organizational culture is “work group culture” and involves organization’s personality. Organizational culture includes shared philosophies, ideologies, beliefs, feelings, assumptions, expectations, attitudes, norms and values (Fred Lunenburg, Allan Ornstein, 2012, p. 55). Most organizational cultures include observed behavioral regularities, norms, dominant values, philosophy, rules, and feelings. Organizational cultures includes certain input such as the energy imported by organizations from the environment in the form of information, people, and materials (Fred Lunenburg, Allan Ornstein, 2012, p. 55). This input energy must guide organizational behavior toward shared goals and process. Organizations produce an output because of the input into the

Organizational culture describes how things get done in an organization – in terms of the values, behaviors and assumptions which dictate the way people approach their work. Organizational culture is deeply embedded and is distinct from climate. Culture affects performance, profit and even survival. We use the Human Synergistic Organizational Culture Inventory, which incorporates the Circumflex model, to measure organizational culture.

Internal and external perception of organizations develops from leaders creating and managing culture, the behavioral norms within particular industries, and influential subcultures. Organizational culture contributes to the approach and method used to train and develop employees of organizations. Sidestepping organizational culture and cultural diversity while developing and administering training programs inhibits the effectiveness of the training by not addressing company culture and individual perspectives of employees.