Chapter 6
Organizational 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.)
Organizational culture and organizational socialization
Organizational
Culture
(Chapter 4)
Organizational
Socialization
(Chapter 6)
What a new
employee needs
to learn.
The process by which
a new employee
learns the culture.
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 the
values, 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 individualorganization 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
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
See text book Figure 6.1
Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)
• 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
Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)
• 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
Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)
• 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
Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)
• 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)
Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)
• Role Episodes (Cont.)
– Repeats with same role sender
– Ends when
• Compliance occurs
• Noncompliance accepted
• Termination or employee leaves the organization
Roles and Role Behavior (Cont.)
• 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
Person
Individualization
Socialization Versus Individualization
Stages of
Organizational 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 of
Organizational 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 of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
Choice: Anticipatory socialization
(“Getting in”)
Expectations
Entry/encounter
(“Breaking in”)
Reality
Change: Metamorphosis
(“Settling in”)
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
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
–
–
–
–
High turnover
Low satisfaction
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
Electronic databases
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 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
Entry/Encounter Stage (Cont.)
• Purposes
– Role clarification
• Organization: immediate supervisor
• Immediate workgroup
• Describe same role requirements?
– 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
• Also conveys values and norms of the organization’s
culture
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 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.)
– Typically choose people for based on successful
performance in domestic roles
– Assumption: success in domestic operations
means success abroad
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• Issues in expatriate adjustment (cont.)
– Expatriate socialization should include crosscultural training
– Cross-cultural training helps smooth expatriate
adjustment
– Only about 30 percent of expatriates get such
training
– Training usually offered is not comprehensive
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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
International Aspects of
Organizational Socialization
(Cont.)
• 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 in
Organizational 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?
Ethical Issues in
Organizational Socialization
(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
Ethical Issues in
Organizational Socialization
(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?
Ethical Issues in
Organizational Socialization
(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?