Myths are Both Helpful and... Disruptive to an Organization

Throughout this article, the role of myths as part of organizational culture is emphasized. Myths, similarly to cultures, diverge according to the type of organization. In the paper, opposing types of organizations are distinguished on the basis of their attitude to power and to environmental issues.

The objective of this article is to analyze the core myths exploited in organizations for motivational purposes in order to identify the conditions for their positive or negative impact on both organizational efficiency and employee wellbeing.

Managing the Mythical Mind

The aim of the article is to consider whether the mental mechanisms essential for the functioning of a myth, used effectively for many years in culture-creating activities (especially in the area of art and entertainment), can also be applied to the processes of cultural management. The hypothesis of such a possibility is based on the belief that the same properties of human cognitive architecture that account for the popularity of the form of myth are (or can be) used to shape specific attitudes and actions. In particular, this applies to such properties of myth as narrative communication, fiction, worldview referencing, concepts of agency, as well as counterintuitive imagery and primary metaphors. The article is a theoretical study based on a review of literature in the field of the theory of myth and cognitive science, discussing the perspective of the application of findings made at the intersection of these two domains in management theory and practice as well as potential empirical research in this area.

Myth Strategy in Social Media Film Marketing

Nowadays, many marketing activities involve the implementation of modern solutions. One of these may be the use of social media. Concomitantly, marketing can also use well-known techniques that have been working for years in many different areas – such as those that refer to the attributes of myth.

The aim of this paper is to present the results of research on the use of myth strategy in social media marketing in the Polish film market. In order to achieve this goal, a literature review has been conducted and research of the best film-related Facebook profiles has been carried out. The study identified multiple ways to implement the myth strategy using the strategies of monomyth, bricolage, and counter-intuitiveness.

The Relevance of Myth in the Personal Branding of a Hollywood Actor

A hundred years ago, Hollywood became the cradle of the American film industry. It soon began to dictate standards and canons, including the shaping of actors’ personal brands. Back in that time, their profession was the exclusive domain of a ‘selected’ few who were granted the status of goddesses and heroes, with the fans idolizing their cinematic and private image. With the passage of time and the concomitant social and legal changes, the brand strategy of screen celebrities has evolved. The moral revolution in the second half of the twentieth century brought the trend of displaying one’s sexuality, generating new myths of the sex bomb and the playboy. These, in turn, were refuted with an appeal to the archetype of professionalism by inscribing mastery of the craft in the core brand message and significantly reducing non-professional content.

The purpose of the article is to present the evolutionary direction of a Hollywood actor’s mythbased personal brand strategy. By demonstrating the process of altering the strategies of image creation, the paper draws conclusions regarding the identity change of Hollywood actors. It shows their path of gradually freeing themselves from the constraints imposed by their idealization and simultaneously emphasizing the work put into improving their vocational skills, which allows them to strengthen their professional position. 

The research carried out in the article is based on secondary sources (books, articles, films, thematic websites) dealing with the subject of American cinema and covering the biographies of Hollywood actors.

Mythologizing Busking: Discourse, Self-Narration, and Self-Creation

The article deals with the phenomenon of mythologizing the activity of buskers. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that street performers, despite their rich and varied history, both diachronically and synchronically, continue to be represented in a simplistic, stereotypical way. The intention of the authors was to show the real, more complex image and identity of buskers. The research problem concerns the mythologization of street performances in terms of discourse, self-narration, and self-creation. The article relates to three research questions: (1) How are the activity of buskers and the performers themselves being described? (2) How do buskers create and explain their own stories in terms of performing in the street? (3) How do they create and interpret their image? The article is the result of a joint analysis of the outcomes of ethnographic fieldworks conducted independently by two researchers in 2011–2019 in various cities, mainly in Poland but also abroad. The results show that the activity of buskers is subject to mythologization, which impacts the discourse on their activity as well as the formation of their identity and image. 

Ideal Organizations: Creating Myths of Enterprises through Monuments in Communist-Era Poland

Myths are messages that shape people’s imaginations, determine how they perceive the world, and shape their attitudes and behaviors. Monuments are an important source of myths. In communist-era Poland, they gave enterprises a special social status. The aim of this paper is to identify the myths hidden behind such monuments and to point to the ideas about workplaces which they fostered. Appropriate research has been carried out to achieve this goal, identifying monuments to enterprises erected in communist-era Poland, collecting stories related to them, and carrying out an analysis of the assembled data. Thanks to the analysis, it has been possible to distinguish five categories of myths: 1) greatness and perfection, 2) breaking down barriers, 3) heroism and tragedy, 4) inspiration and afflation, and 5) social mission. It has also been found that these myths created the image of an ideal socialist organization in people’s imaginations.