Second Organic Act

When is an individual most likely to have the greatest effect on organization?

When is the individual most likely to have the greatest effect on the organization? (Are there honeymoon periods? Do lame ducks have any influence?) How might your answer depend on the individual into the group or organization? This paper aims to answer these questions.

The process by which outsiders become organizational insiders is known as organizational socialization. The outcome of that process is to create the best fit possible between the person hired and the organization in which he or she now works. While early research on socialization focused on indicators of adjustment such as job satisfaction and performance, recent research has emphasized the links between organizational socialization and work stress. Socialization acts as a moderator of job stress

            Entering a new organization is an inherently stressful experience. Newcomers encounter a myriad of stressors, including role ambiguity, role conflict, work and home conflicts, politics, time pressure and work overload. These stressors can lead to distress symptoms. Studies in the 1980s, however, suggest that a properly managed socialization process has the potential for moderating the stressor-strain connection.

            Two particular themes have emerged in the contemporary research on socialization:

1. The acquisition of information during socialization,

2. Supervisory support during socialization.

            Information acquired by newcomers during socialization helps alleviate the considerable uncertainty in their efforts to master their new tasks, roles and interpersonal relationships. Often, this information is provided via formal orientation-cum-socialization programs. In the absence of formal programs, or (where they exist) in addition to them, socialization occurs informally. Newcomers who proactively seek out information adjust more effectively (Morrison l993). In addition, newcomers who underestimate the stressors in their new job report higher distress symptoms (Nelson and Sutton l99l).

            Supervisory support during the socialization process is of special value. Newcomers who receive support from their supervisors report less stress from unmet expectations (Fisher l985) and fewer psychological symptoms of distress (Nelson and Quick l99l). Supervisory support can help newcomers cope with stressors in at least three ways. First, supervisors may provide instrumental support (such as flexible work hours) that helps alleviate a particular stressor. Secondly, they may provide emotional support that leads a newcomer to feel more efficacies in coping with a stressor. Thirdly, supervisors play an important role in helping newcomers make sense of their new environment (Louis l980). For example, they can frame situations for newcomers in a way that helps them appraise situations as threatening or none threatening. Socialization efforts that provide necessary information to newcomers and support from supervisors can prevent the stressful experience from becoming distressful.

            The organizational socialization process is dynamic, interactive and communicative, and it unfolds over time. In this complexity lies the challenge of evaluating socialization efforts. Two broad approaches to measuring socialization have been proposed. One approach consists of the stage models of socialization (Feldman l976; Nelson l987). These models portray socialization as a multistage transition process with key variables at each of the stages. Another approach highlights the various socialization tactics that organizations use to help newcomers become insiders (Van Maanen and Schein l979).

            With both approaches, it is contended that there are certain outcomes that mark successful socialization. These outcomes include performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement and intent to remain with the organization. If socialization is a stress moderator, then distress symptoms (specifically, low levels of distress symptoms) should be included as an indicator of successful socialization.

            Further, the socialization process is linked to distress symptoms. Newcomers who found interactions with their supervisors and other newcomers helpful reported lower levels of psychological distress symptoms such as depression and inability to concentrate. Newcomers with more accurate expectations of the stressors in their new jobs reported lower levels of both psychological symptoms (e.g., irritability) and physiological symptoms (e.g., nausea and headaches).

            Socialization is a stressful process that, if not managed well, can lead to distress symptoms and other health problems. Organizations can adopt various tactics to ease the transition by way of intervening to ensure positive outcomes from socialization. First, organizations should encourage realistic expectations among newcomers of the stressors inherent in the new job. One way of accomplishing this is to provide a realistic job preview that details the most commonly experienced stressors and effective ways of coping (Wanous l992). Newcomers who have an accurate view of what they will encounter can preplan coping strategies and will experience less reality shock from those stressors about which they have been forewarned.

            Secondly, organizations should make numerous sources of accurate information available to newcomers in the form of booklets, welcome packs, induction sessions, interactive information systems or hotlines (or all of these). The uncertainty of the transition into a new organization can be overwhelming, and multiple sources of informational support can aid newcomers in coping with the uncertainty of their new jobs. In addition, newcomers should be encouraged to seek out information during their socialization experiences.

            Thirdly, emotional support should be explicitly planned for in designing socialization programs. The supervisor is a key player in the provision of such support and may be most helpful by being emotionally and psychologically available to newcomers. Other avenues for emotional support include mentoring, activities with more senior and experienced co-workers, and contact with other newcomers.

            One study called Cable and Parsons indicates that compatibility between people and the organization in which they work is a key to a flexible and committed workforce in a competitive business environment. They examine how a firm’s socialization tactics help establishes person-organization fit. The authors found two types of socialization tactics associated with newcomers’ perceptions of how they fit into their new organization. The first involved content elements of the socialization process. The author’s data indicated that newcomers were more likely to report positive person-organization fit perceptions when they experienced sequential and fixed socialization vs. variable and random socialization activities. Sequential and fixed socialization tactics involve giving recruits explicit information about the sequence of activities they will go through in their new environment, including a precise timetable for completing each stage of that process.

            The second tactic involved social aspects of socialization. The authors concluded that newcomers were more likely to report positive person-organization fit perceptions when they experienced serial and investiture-oriented socialization tactics as opposed to disjunctive and divestiture tactics. Serial and investiture tactics involve organizational members acting as role models for new recruits and newcomers receiving positive social support.

            Not only did the newcomers report a better fit, results of this study also suggest that firms’ socialization tactics influenced the newcomers’ values: New employees’ values became more consistent with what they believed were their organizations’ values as they became involved the content and social aspects of the socialization process.

A firm’s investment in socialization tactics is significant because the greater the degree and new employee believes he or she fits into the values of the new firm:

1. The less likely is the person to leave (i.e., lower turnover);

2. The more committed the individual will be to the organization; and,

3. The greater the continuity of a firm’s central values and norms.

            It can be said that there is a learning curve (a honeymoon period) for every individual new comer. The most important lesson is that organizations cannot take socialization for granted. Without a plan, individuals will receive whatever learning is available form informal and sometimes destructive sources, particularly where the organization’s culture is at variance with the mission and formal policies of the organization. It would be important to create an orientation plan for all new employees, a set of activities that would begin during the probationary period and continue well beyond.

Reference

Daniel M. Cable & Charles K. Parsons (2001) Socialization Tactics and Person-Organizational Fit, Personnel Psychology: A Journal of Applied Research,  Volume 54, Number 1, Spring 2001, pp.1-23.

Wagner, john A (2005) Organizational Behavior: Securing Competitive Advantage, 5th edition, Prentice Hall.

Medical school questions! Please Help!?

Okay, so I am a Junior in High School and after changing ideas on what career I want to pursue, I have decided that my calling is to be an ER (emergency room) Doctor.
I have two ways to achieve this goal. I can go to an expensive 4 year poly-tech college and take the classes for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Organic Chemistry that my desired Medical School requires or my mom says I can go to my local community college and take a two year course to become an RN (registered nurse) and then go to Medical school. My question is can I do that? Become a nurse then go to Medical school? Or do I have to go to the 4 year college?

You cannot get into medical school by becoming a nurse first. You must meet the requirements of the school you are applying to. Some schools do require that you complete an undergraduate degree, but some schools only require you meet the minimum standards as established by the accrediting authority (the LCME) and those are 90 semesters hours that include the prereq courses and the MCAT exam.

You can go to a community college for two years and transfer to a university. Just be sure that any course you take at a community college will satisfy a degree requirement at the university or you’ll be wasting time and money. Never take the community college’s word for it, either. You’ll hear people claim that medical schools don’t like or won’t accept credits from community colleges. That’s not true at all. The problem is that people frequently take courses at a community college without verifying that they will satisfy a Major degree requirement at the university and then blame the community college for their own stupidity. A medical school doesn’t care if you go to a community college. Besides, most states are now using the state university system, meaning any credits taken at any public school are transferrable to the university. But again, beware, as even universities offer non-major courses.

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