Chapter 6 Organizational Socialization. Learning Goals Explain organizational socialization as a...

Chapter 6Organizational Socialization

Learning Goals

• Explain organizational socialization as a process that develops and communicates an organization's culture

• Distinguish between roles and role behaviors

• Describe the stages of organizational socialization and how they repeat during a work career

Learning Goals (Cont.)

• Distinguish the socialization issues in expatriate and repatriate adjustment

• Discuss the ethical issues in organizational socialization

Chapter Overview

• Introduction• Roles and Role Behavior• Individual and Organizational Perspectives

on Socialization• Stages of Organizational Socialization• International Aspects of Organizational

Socialization• Ethical Issues in Organizational

Socialization

Introduction (Cont.)

OrganizationalCulture

(Chapter 4)

OrganizationalSocialization(Chapter 6)

What a newemployee needs

to learn.

The process by whicha new employee

learns the culture.

Organizational culture and organizational socialization

Introduction (Cont)

• Organizational socialization: process by which people learn the content of an organization's culture

• Powerful process that affects an individual's behavior

• Helps shape and maintain an organization's culture

The “process by which people learn thevalues, norms, and required behaviors

of an organization’s culture.”

Introduction (Cont)

• Organizations almost inevitably leave their imprint on individual members through the socialization process

• Usually the first behavioral process a person experiences after joining an organization

• Socialization process unfolds through several stages

Introduction (Cont)

• Perspectives– As an individual affected by the process– As a manager using the process

• Process by which people adjust to new organizations, new jobs, and new groups of people

• Focuses employees’ on acquiring important values, attitudes, and role behaviors

• Deals with the basic question of individual-organization fit

Roles and Role Behavior

• Role: activities, duties, responsibilities, required behaviors

• Contributions from the person in exchange for inducements from the organization (pay, fringe benefits)

• Must roughly balance for the person to accept the role

Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)

• Role behavior– Pivotal role behaviors: must accept them to

join and remain a member of an organization– Relevant role behaviors: considered desirable

and good by the organization but not essential to membership

– Peripheral role behaviors: neither necessary nor desirable but tolerated


See text book Figure 6.1

• Role episodes– Series of role episodes communicate pivotal

and relevant role behaviors– Start when an organization recruits an

individual– Continue during the early employment period


• Role Episodes (Cont.)– Role senders

• Before joining the organization: often a company's recruiter

• After joining

– The person who hired or will supervise the new employee

– Other managers

– Coworkers


• Role Episodes (Cont.)– Sent role

• Role sender defines a sent role's pivotal and relevant role behaviors

• Pivotal role behaviors: orally or in job descriptions, company policies, and employee handbook

• Relevant role behaviors: orally and less formally than pivotal


• Role Episodes (Cont.)– Focal person

• Receives the role behavior sent by the role sender

• Enacts the role behavior according to the way the person perceives it

• Focal person's perception forms the received role

• Complies with the role sender's request or resists it


• Role Episodes (Cont.)– Role sender assesses how closely behavior

matches the sender's perception of the role– Reacts to focal person’s behavior

• Pivotal and relevant role behavior

– Reinforcement if acceptable

– Sanctions if not complying

• Peripheral role behavior: nonreinforcement (ignoring)


• Role Episodes (Cont.)– Repeats with same role sender– Ends when

• Compliance occurs

• Noncompliance accepted

• Termination or employee leaves the organization


• Role Episodes (Cont.)– Can repeat with other managers or coworkers

as the role senders– Often receive conflicting role behaviors– Likely complies with role sender believed to

have the most control over the person’s future

Individual and Organizational Perspectives on Socialization

Organization

Socialization

PersonIndividualization

Socialization Versus Individualization

Stages ofOrganizational Socialization

• Three stages of socialization– Choice: Anticipatory Socialization--before

joining the organization

– Entry/Encounter--after entering the organization

– Change: Metamorphosis--late stage featuring a new self-image

• Result of one stage becomes input to next stage


(Cont.)• Individual perspective: experiences at each

stage

• Management perspective: each stage helps the socialization process achieve its goals

• When experienced?– First job– New position in same organization– New position in different organization


(Cont.)Choice: Anticipatory socialization

(“Getting in”)

Entry/encounter(“Breaking in”)

Change: Metamorphosis(“Settling in”)

Expectations

Reality

Taking on the role

Text book Figure 6.2

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (“Getting In”)

• Happens before joining an organization or taking a new job

• Prepares the person for organizational entry

• First glimpse of the organization’s culture

• Develops a person’s expectations or beliefs about the organization

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (Cont.)

• Two issues– Realism of self and organization– Congruence of self and organization

• Realism: responsibility of both the organization and the individual– Organization: present the positive and negative

sides of working for the company– Potential employee: present an accurate picture of

self


• Congruence of self and organization– Are your skills and abilities congruent with the

needs of the organization?– Can the organization satisfy your needs and

offer you a congruent set of values?


• Lack realism and congruence– High turnover– Low satisfaction– Low organizational commitment– Poor job performance

• Clear negative effects for both the individual and the organization


• Ways people learn about an organization– Advertising– Press accounts– Web pages– Present employees, especially alumni– Internet searches– Electronic databases


• Socialization processes– Recruitment advertising: presentation of the

organization– Company recruiters: campus interviews– Internships: experience the organization while

still a student– Screening and selection devices: written tests,

oral interviews, job simulations


• Realistic job previews– Balanced descriptions of the job and

organization• Recruiting brochures or videotapes• Interviews with present employees

– Creates realistic expectations• Increases job satisfaction• Reduces turnover

• Realistic employee previews: accurate, candid presentation of self

Entry/Encounter Stage (“Breaking In”)

• Crosses the boundary of the organization and enters this second stage of socialization

• Brings expectations from the anticipatory stage

• Compares expectations to the reality of the organization

• Often eager to “learn the ropes”

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)

• New self-image– The intent of the organization– Focuses on pivotal and relevant role behaviors– Highlights the “tug of war” between

socialization and individualization


• Purposes– Role clarification

• Organization: immediate supervisor

• Immediate workgroup

• Describe same role requirements?

– Teach tasks, duties, and responsibilities


• Purposes (cont.)– Teach immediate workgroup norms

• Social status

• Bases of power

• Informal leaders

• Performance norms; not always same as organization’s or individual’s values


• Conflicting behavioral demands and new employee’s adjustment

• Work and nonwork roles

• Stress during this early adjustment period


• Socialization processes– Purpose: give employee a new self-image– Process has three steps

• Unfreezing: discard old self-image

• Changing: move to new self-image

• Refreezing: puts the new self-image solidly in place

• Metaphor: melting ice cubes in a heart shaped mold and refreezing the mold


• Socialization processes (cont.)– Indoctrination programs

• Teach formal rules and procedures (pivotal role behavior)

• Uniform presentation to many new employees

– Apprenticeship or mentoring• Assign to a veteran employee• Teaches technical and social parts of job• Varied results because organization has less control

than in indoctrination programs


• Socialization processes (cont.)– Training programs

• Develop skills important to the job

• Goes beyond what employee learned in an academic setting

• Also conveys values and norms of the organization’s culture


• Socialization processes (cont.)– Debasement or upending experiences

• Quickly unfreezes new member from old self-image• Give new employee an extremely easy or extremely

hard task• Both task assignments have the same humiliating

effect• Questions his or her self-image, making the person

ready for change

Change: Metamorphosis (“Settling In”)

• Change in new employee as the entry/encounter stage flows into the metamorphosis stage

• Often clear separation from entry/encounter stage with rites and rituals (graduation)

• The word metamorphosis emphasizes the extraordinary changes that can happen

Change: Metamorphosis (Cont.)

• Successful resolution of multiple socialization demands– Comfortable in new role– Some mastery of job requirements– Acceptance of obvious values– Adjusted to group norms– Self-confidence up; anxiety down

Change: Metamorphosis (Cont.)

• Results– Rebellious response

• Rejects all aspects of role

• Socialization failure

– Custodial response: accepts existing role– Innovative response

• Content innovation: changes role

• Role innovation: redefines role; a form of accepting rebellion

International Aspects of Organizational Socialization

• Experience an international role transition each time a person moves to and from an international assignment

• As in domestic job changes, the person experiences the socialization stages

• International context creates some special issues for socialization processes

International Aspects of Organizational Socialization (Cont.)

• Expatriate: moves from home country to another country

• Repatriate: returns to home country from another country

• Culture shock for both but for different reasons

• Home country could have changed in unknown ways

• On return, expatriate enters a culture with many new features


• Cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates and repatriates– New job and work environment– Interacting with local nationals– Culture of the country

• Organization's socialization process can help adjustment along these dimensions


• Issues in expatriate adjustment– Cross-cultural training can smooth international

role transitions– Expatriate adjustment failures

• Between 16 and 40 percent of U.S. employees return before their international assignment ends

• Estimated cost of expatriate failures for U.S. multinationals: over $2 billion a year

• Does not include unmeasured costs such as lost business and loss of employee self-esteem


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.)– Difficulties during early part of socialization to

new assignment• Lack of knowledge about local norms and rules of

behavior• Dramatic changes and contrasts depending on

degree of difference between expatriate's home culture and other country's culture

• Argue for more preparation for international job transitions


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.) – Typically choose people for based on

successful performance in domestic roles– Assumption: success in domestic operations

means success abroad


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.)– Recommended selection criteria:

• Experience from an earlier international assignment

• Openness to differences among people

• Willingness to learn about another culture

• Recommend the same criteria in assessing the adjustment potential of spouse and other family members


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.) – Expatriate socialization should include cross-

cultural training– Cross-cultural training helps smooth expatriate

adjustment– Only about 30 percent of expatriates get such

training– Training usually offered is not comprehensive


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.) – Typically includes an orientation to the other

country's culture and its physical environment– Spouses often not included in such training– Their adaptation plays a key role in successful

expatriate adjustment


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.) – Some countries are harder to adjust to than

others– Greater the differences between the other

country's culture and home culture, the harder the adjustment

– Countries difficult for U.S. employees: India, Liberia, and some Southeast Asian countries


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.) – Women face a special issue in cultures with

male-dominated norms and values– Female expatriates and wives of male

expatriates: difficult to adjust to such cultures


• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.) – Career development programs can smooth

expatriate transitions– Show the career connections between

• Expatriate assignment• Repatriate assignment• Long-term career

– Assign at-home mentors to help guide the expatriate


• Issues in repatriate adjustment– Repatriate may not have an accurate image of

home culture before return– Anticipatory stage before leaving international

assignment: inaccurate expectations of life back home


• Issues in repatriate adjustment (cont.)– Maintaining accurate expectations

• Home leave or required visits to the home office

• Required interactions with people in home office: increase information flow

• Communication media: telephone, facsimile, international teleconference, E-mail, and direct computer connection


• Issues in repatriate adjustment (cont.) – Role of home office mentor

• Keep person informed of major policy and strategic changes back home

• Maintain flow of accurate information about changes in the home organization and culture

• Goal: give the repatriate accurate expectations about his or her return


• Issues in repatriate adjustment (cont.) – Successful repatriation

• Degree of adaptation to other country's culture can affect adaptation to home culture

• Requires unlearning much of what made the person successful abroad

• Many perquisites that go with an international assignment are dysfunctional to adjustment

• Predeparture training: prepare to return home. Almost no multinational offers such training

Ethical Issues inOrganizational Socialization

• Several ethical issues center on informed consent– Should the organization tell potential new

employees that it will try to change some values and behavior?

– Should present employees be told that each time they change positions, their values and behavior will also change?

– Should an organization reveal the socialization and training goals of its training programs before employees enter the programs?


(Cont.)• Debasement experiences

– Most organizations use mild forms of debasement

– Sororities, fraternities, basic military training, military academies use strong forms of debasement

– Can create feelings of fear and intimidation– Debasement experiences pose a clear ethical

dilemma for organizations and managers


(Cont.)• Anticipatory socialization

– Importance of having accurate expectations about working for a particular organization

– Withholding negative information from potential employees: an ethical issue

– At what point does an organization behave unethically by not giving a balanced view of itself?


(Cont.)• Anticipatory socialization (cont.)

– Potential employee knowingly withholds information about self

– Could affect performance or retention by an organization

– At what point do people behave unethically by not giving a balanced view of self?

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