Chapter 5
Orientation and Organizational
Culture
Learning objectives
• Explain the importance of orientation in sport
organizations
• Describe the stages of organizational
socialization
• Describe a variety of orientation strategies and
practices
• Understand the importance and process of
orienting sport volunteers
• Describe organizational culture and its role in
newcomer orientation
Orientation
• the final stage of the recruitment and
selection process
• Introduces newcomers to the work that is
expected of them and the organization
• assists new staff and volunteers adjust to
their job, workgroup, and workplace
A model of newcomers’ organizational adjustment.
Antecedents of
Adjustment
Pre-entry knowledge
Pro-active personality
Socialization efforts
Organizational
Leaders
Work group
Proximal Outcomes
of Adjustment
Task mastery
Role clarity
Work group
integration
Political knowledge
Distal Outcomes
of Adjustment
Commitment
Satisfaction
Work withdrawal
Turnover
Organizational socialization
• ‘the process by which a person learns the
values, norms and required behaviours
which permit him to participate as a
member of the organization’ (Van Maanen,
1976, p. 67)
Aspects of the organization
• Formal work-related aspects of the organization
• Formal personnel-related policies and
procedures
• Role and assigned tasks, including the skills
required, and specific reporting requirements
• Workgroup, including supervisor(s)
• Physical layout of the workplace.
• Culture of the organization
Types of newcomers
(1)those who are new to the organization and the
workplace in general,
(2) those who are veterans of the workplace but
new to the organization, and
(3)those who are veterans of the organization but
new to a different part of the organization.
• Not all newcomers have the same experience
and this should be considered it their orientation
process
Stages of socialization
Anticipatory
Socialization
Encounter
Socialization
Time with the
organization
Role
Management
The psychological contract
• social exchange or transaction where
member effort and loyalty is given in return
for fair rewards
• comprises an employee’s or volunteer’s
beliefs about what they can expect to
receive from the organization in return for
their work effort, performance, and
commitment
Person-organization fit
• the compatibility between people and the
organizations in which they work
• certain orientation or socialization
strategies are associated with personorganization fit: sequential, fixed, serial
and investiture approaches
6 strategies
• Collective vs. individual
• Formal vs. informal
• Sequential vs. random
• Fixed vs. variable
• Serial vs. disjunctive
• Investiture vs. divestiture
Van Maanen and Schein (1979)
2 patterns of socialization
• institutionalized socialization - collective,
formal, sequential, fixed, serial, and
investiture strategies.
• individualized socialization - individual,
informal, random, variable, disjunctive,
and divestiture strategies
Orientation practices
• job preview - used to give candidates a
greater sense of the job and the
organization
• mentoring –provides the opportunity to
directly observe, interact with, and learn
from another member of the organization
• also organizational literature and
document review, formal orientation
sessions, and job shadowing
Sport volunteers
• the same stages of socialization, adjustment and
orientation strategies and practices apply to paid
staff and volunteers
• new volunteers - provided with the names and
contact information of volunteers/staff,
familiarized with the responsibilities of their new
role and how it relates to others in the
organization, and familiarized with any facilities,
equipment or resources that are used by the
organization on a regular basis
Sport event volunteers orientation
• Develop a common understanding of the
vision, mission and planned legacies of
the event
• Outline the management structure and
venue management plans, and available
positions and responsibilities
• Used to create a good atmosphere and to
develop ownership in the volunteers with
respect to the event
Organizational culture
• A pattern of basic assumptions – invented,
discovered, or developed by a given group
as it learns to cope with its problems of
external adaptation and internal integration
– that has worked well enough to be
considered valid and . . . to be taught to
new members are the correct way to
perceive, think, and feel in relation to
those problems (Schein 1985 p. 9)
Types of culture
• ‘strong culture’ - values, beliefs and
assumptions about the organization are
widely understood and strongly accepted
across the organization.
• ‘weak culture’ - values, beliefs and
assumptions about the organization are
not widely known or not strongly accepted
subcultures
• unique sets of values, beliefs and assumptions
that develop over time within an organizational
group or unit
• Can be among individuals who work in the same
functional area (e.g., marketing, sales, coaching,
administration), at the same hierarchical level
(e.g., management, staff), or in the same
geographical areas (e.g., fitness clubs within a
larger parent organization).
• among staff or volunteers who have similar
sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., women,
former athletes) are analogous to ‘cliques’
Values representing an
organization’s culture’
•
•
•
•
•
Member identity - organization or
their field of expertise.
Group emphasis - individuals or
groups
People focus - consider the impact
on the task or on people
Unit integration - operate more
independently or interdependent
Control –the management is quite
loose or is based on rules,
regulations and direct supervision
•
Risk tolerance –restrained or are
encouraged to be creative,
innovative, and to take risks.
• Reward criteria –rewards are
based more on performance or on
some other criteria
• Conflict tolerance –conflict is
negative and to be avoided or is
valued and encouraged.
• Means-ends orientation –methods
and processes to achieve
outcomes or on the outcomes
themselves are important
• Open-system focus –focus on
internal processes of the
organization or focuses outward
on the environment and
responding to changes there.
(Robbins 1997 p. 602)
Learning organizational culture
• Newcomers learn about organizational culture
through symbols, including such things as office
furnishings and layout and employee dress
• through stories that ‘anchor the present in the
past and provide explanations and legitimacy for
current practices’
• Through company rituals and ceremonies
• Observing behaviour of others, seeing what is
rewarded (and not) and what is tolerated (or not)
Summary
• Orientation is the socialization of
newcomers to the organization
• 3 stages of socialization: anticipatory,
encounter, and role management
• outcomes of orientation and socialization:
task mastery, role clarity, work group
integration and political knowledge