Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

EdD

College

College of Applied Human Sciences

Department

Not Listed

Committee Chair

Nathan Sorber

Committee Co-Chair

Erin Mchenry-Sorber

Committee Member

Melissa Sherfinski

Committee Member

John Campbell

Abstract

Changes in the higher education landscape continue to bring new regulations which enforce standardization and similarities in organizational behavior. Because of these pressures, institutional identities and differentiations are more dependent on the unique way students experience an institution rather than the structure of the organization. Through focus groups and interviews, this phenomenological study seeks to understand the ways in which the traditional undergraduate experience impacts the transmission of organizational saga at West Virginia University. To do so, it examines stories told by students through thematic analysis to connect student experiences with symbols of the university. Focusing on these connections and the ways in which students derive meaning from symbols and embed their own meanings into symbols of the university, can bring greater clarity to the elements of student experience which are significant and transmittable within organizational saga.

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