Introduction

OrganizationalCulture

OrganizationalSocialization

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 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 three 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, new groups of people

• Focuses employees on acquiring important values, attitudes, 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)—Psychological Contract

•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

Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)•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

Boundary TransitionsSocialization process is continuous

throughout a person's association with an organization•Most intense before and after

boundary transitionsBoundary transitions occur when a

new employee crosses the organization's boundary upon joining the organization

Boundary Transitions (Cont.)• Also occur as the person's

career unfolds and she crosses other boundaries within the same or different organization

• Employee is most susceptible to organizational influences just before and just after those transitions

Boundary Transitions (Cont.)• Dimensions

•Functional: emphasizes development and use of skills and abilities in doing a particular task

•Hierarchical: move upward in organization (promotion)

• Inclusionary: emphasizes acceptance of values, norms, and required behavior. Become part of the “inner circle.”

Individual and Organizational Perspectives on Socialization

OrganizationSocialization

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

Stages ofOrganizational Socialization (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

Stages ofOrganizational Socialization

Choice: Anticipatory socialization(“Getting in”)

Entry/encounter(“Breaking in”)

Change: Metamorphosis(“Settling in”)

Expectations

Reality

Taking on the role

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.)• 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

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (Cont.)• 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?

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (Cont.)• Lack realism and congruence

• Low satisfaction• High turnover• Low organizational commitment• Poor job performance

• Clear negative effects for both the individual and the organization

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (Cont.)•Ways people learn about an

organization•Advertising•Press accounts•Web pages•Present employees, especially alumni

•Internet searches

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (Cont.)• 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

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (Cont.)• Realistic job previews

• Balanced descriptions of 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 organization’s

boundary 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

•Organization’s intent•Focuses on pivotal and relevant role

behaviors•Degree of change varies among

organizations•Highlights the “tug of war” between

socialization and individualization

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)• Purposes

•Role clarification•Organization: immediate supervisor

•Immediate workgroup•Teach tasks, duties, and

responsibilities

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)• 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

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)• Conflicting behavioral

demands and new employee’s adjustment

• Work and nonwork roles• Stress during this early

adjustment period

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)• 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

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)• 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

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)•Socialization processes (cont.)

•Training programs•Develop skills important to the job

•Goes beyond what employee learned in an academic setting

•Conveys organization’s values and norms

Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)• 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 a 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

Individual Differences and Organizational Socialization• Reactions vary depending on

person’s characteristics• Skills and abilities: quickly learn

job if skills and abilities apply to it• Self–efficacy beliefs

•Low: custodial response•High: innovative responses

• Perceptual processes: alter information from role sender.

Individual Differences and Organizational Socialization (Cont.)• Reactions vary depending on person’s

characteristics (cont.)•Attribution processes: giving

meaning to information not intended by role sender

•Differences in needs•Strong social need: drawn to group

•High achievement need: quickly learns job duties