It Was Just Always Like That: Staff Perspectives on Trauma-Embedded Organizational Culture

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Abstract

This qualitative study explores how residence life professionals experience and interpret organizational trauma within college and university settings. Focusing on institutions marked by high levels of dysfunction and instability, the study examines how chronic crises, poor leadership, and emotional overextension shape staff perceptions of institutional harm. Eight full-time professionals from diverse institutions participated in in-depth interviews, and thematic analysis revealed patterns of organizational fragility, eroded trust, empathy fatigue, and leadership-as-repair. Rather than viewing burnout or disengagement as individual failings, the study reframes these responses as indicators of systemic trauma. Findings offer a new lens for understanding how harm is embedded in organizational culture and highlight implications for leadership, supervision, and structural healing across higher education.

Author

• R. Jason Lynch, Appalachian State University