Perception of symbols as the exposed face of the organizational culture: A research on the olympic examples

The aim of the study is to examine the effects of symbols and cultural values on the olympic logos as the exposed face of the organizational culture. It is seen that the meaning of colors and symbols carries cultural and social messages about the countries in the olympic logos. This research Dumlupınar University of Physical Education and Sports School, Süleyman Demirel University and studying in the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Gazi University, participated in a total of 638 students selected by convenience sampling method. In addition to the demographic information form, 3 Likert-type survey forms consisting of 11 questions, which had been prepared by the researchers, were used in the research to determine the views of the participants about the logos. Logos: a turquoise colored eagle figure, a colorful olympic ring, a black olive branch, a turquoise colored Istanbul font are included in logo-1, where the turquoise color refers to the sky, eagle figure to freedom, olive branch to the first Greek Olympics award, black color to the symbol of courage and bravery and olympic ring to 5 continents in the world; a colorful olympic ring, a black colored Istanbul font, a man shooting a turquoise colored arrow, a turquoise colored olive branch are included in logo-2, where the turquoise color refers to the sky, the man shooting an arrow to a blessed weapon in the Turks, black color to the symbol of courage and bravery, the olive branch to the first Greek Olympics award and the olympic ring to 5 continents in the world; a colorful olympic ring, a turquoise colored eagle figure, a black colored Istanbul font are included in the logo-3, where the turquoise color refers to the sky, eagle figure to freedom, black color to courage and bravery and the olympic ring to 5 continents in the world. The SPSS 20 packaged software was used for the analysis of the data related to the meaning of the logos and the research. Beside the descriptive statistical methods such as percentage and frequency methods used to determine the distributions of the personal information of the participants, the chi-square test was applied to designate the responses of the participants about logos (p= 0 .05). As a result, it was discovered that the number of the participants who preferred Logo-1 was higher compared to Logo-2 and Logo-3 when the percentage and frequency distribution of the participants' "I agree" expression was reviewed for each logo. While no significant difference was found in any expression as per the gender variable of the participants in terms of Logo-1, a significant difference was observed only in the expression "The turquoise color is included as the representative of the sky" as per the age variable. No significant difference was detected in any expression as per the age and gender variables in terms of Logo-2 and Logo-3. As a result, the social meaning of Tengrism and the eagle figure from the Central Asian Period has had a different importance from past to present. Reflections from past to present are seen in symbols. It is possible to see the effect of the societies' organizational culture on the flags and pennants of the states. Introductory organization (Olympiad opening and closing ceremony) is held to remind all the groups and audience who come to the country of the Olympiad from abroad of the culture, customs and traditions of the country. Olympic logos have importance as a symbol of the country where the visual feast is attended. Keywords: Organizational Culture, Symbols, Olympiad