Final answer:
A myth is a narrative often associated with a company's history, stressed to highlight specific values and guide collective identity. Myths may become powerful symbols for a shared cultural narrative and do not require factual accuracy to serve their social purpose.
Step-by-step explanation:
A myth is a narrative about the company's history that is repeated by an organization's members to emphasize a particular value. Myths are a foundational component of societies that serve numerous functions, such as explaining where a society has come from, providing a sense of collective identity, and indicating a collective destination. They do not need to be factually true to be impactful and effective. An example of a myth is the story of the founding of a company that exemplifies the values and vision the organization wishes to embody and promote among its members.
Myths can also serve to unite a group by promoting a common cultural identity, explaining the group's place in the world, and establishing a shared history or origin story. Notable examples of myths can be seen in revolutions when old myths are eclipsed by new ones that better represent the values of the new social order, as with Lenin's promotion of socialist mythology in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.
Myths often carry an emotional charge, becoming powerful symbols capable of reaching people at an unconscious level and are grasped by intuition alone. They are inherently performative, bringing forth the values and lessons through ritual and retelling that conform to the cultural or organizational ethos they represent.