The purpose of the study was to address a problem of practice of the public affairs mission through the perceptions of faculty and staff members at Missouri State University of the University's organizational culture. The design included a phenomenological study with a set of organizational culture procedural questions related to the perceptions and behavior of the faculty and staff members at MSU. This study took the three pillars (community engagement, cultural competence, and ethical leadership) of the public affairs mission at MSU and examined how faculty and staff members' perceptions of MSU leaders compared with the embedding mechanisms (Schein, 2010) that influence organizational culture. Schein's (2010) six primary embedding mechanisms: (a) What Leaders Pay Attention to, Measure, and Control, (b) Reaction to Organizational Crises, (c) Role Modeling, (d) How Resources are Allocated, (e) Allocation of Rewards, and (f) Recruitment, Selection and Dismissal shaped questions for the participants. The methods for the research included both interviews of leaders within the organization and focus groups with Missouri State University faculty (tenured and no-nix tenured) and staff members from two of the main areas of the university. The intent was to have the faculty and staff members describe their points of view of the organizational culture at the university (Mertens, 2005). The findings for the first pillar, community engagement did not reflect a significant connection to any of the embedding mechanisms. Faculty and staff could give specific examples of how it was implemented across campus when asked directly about community engagement though. The cultural competence component of the public affairs mission, had limited connections. The answers in general to the specific questions regarding the six embedding mechanisms rarely directly connected with the pillar cultural competence, except for (f) Recruitment, Selection and Dismissal. The Diversity Hiring Process was mentioned in 40% of the leader interviews. The embedding mechanism (a) What Leaders Pay Attention to, Measure, and Control demonstrated the most common themes of being a role model for ethical leadership (40%) and demonstrating transparency (40%) were noted most important for how our leaders should demonstrate it in their behavior. Demonstrating transparency was also mentioned (b) Reaction to Organizational Crises in regards to the sharing information in both the University Administrators Resigning and the Financial Uncertainty. Implications for practice can provide insight for further work on how to integrate the public affairs mission more effectively into the organization. Given the importance the university has placed on the public affairs mission, how are the embedding mechanisms in MSU's culture reflective of the mission should be a question the MSU leaders ask themselves. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]