Organizational culture and the seven deadly sins: an proposition for to apprehend symbolic systems

Abstract The aim is to describe and analyze the symbolic systems present in the culture of organizations from the perspective of the seven deadly sins. The theme is interesting and relevant to the field because it is a metaphor that can be used in enriching way to understand the symbolic systems present and current meanings in different organizations in the Brazilian context. The theoretical course covers the theoretical metaphor review the Aristotelian classical view. To understand the symbolic systems, we use the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu, while organizational culture is interpreted from Jean-François Chanlat. Methodologically is an exploratory research, the research strategy is the case study, which includes analysis of a case in Rio Grande do Sul. The results show that the images produced by the capital sins direct a new look at the organizational culture in the symbolic universe Brazilian organizational, since Catholicism and other forms of Christianity are present significantly in the daily life of organizations.